They had the nicest little historic homes tour in Gillespie Park on Sunday, and the best thing about it was that you actually got to go inside the boat and lighthouse on Osprey and Sixth. Like most of us I’ve driven by it a million times and always wondered what it could possibly be like.
Boat house exterior.
(All photographs by Ed Lederman.)
It’s very well done. The ground floor of the boat has a kitchen/living/dining area, a bath, and a room that could be a bedroom or an office. Upstairs, via a spiral staircase so tricky that you actually had to sign a waiver before they let you climb it, was a nice master with bath and dressing room and two open deck areas. The lighthouse has a kitchen/living area on the bottom level, a bedroom, dressing area, and bath on the second, and a study on the third.
The interior finishes and furniture are sort “Pottery Barn" in style and coloring. It’s not dark like you might think, and what you can’t see from the street is that on the port side, French doors open out onto a pretty garden. It is so unique and important to Sarasota house nuts that I feel I’ve accomplished one of my life goals by finally going inside it. I can now die easy.
The boat house’s living room and second-floor deck.