Longboat Legacy
Astonishingly, many of the old houses remain. True, they have been gussied up and enlarged over the years, and they are no longer cheap, but as a collection of Old Florida architecture, the Village is unique. And one of its landmarks is currently on the market, the big old house at 6526 Bayou Hammock. I can’t think of anything else quite like it in the area. Built in 1940, it’s a long rambling wood frame home of the type found in such Northern resorts as Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. You almost expect to see Katherine Hepburn waving at you from the front porch, or more likely, shooing you off her property. There’s a sign at the end of the road that says “no sightseeing.”
The house has only had two owners and has never been updated. And I mean never. It has no central air. It has the original kitchen and baths. There are ancient electric heaters in the baseboards. The interior has cypress and/or pine paneling in every room, and it has many porches and breezeways. It sits on over an acre and half of bayfront, with views of Sister Key and the oddly named Jewfish Key. There is a dock, of course.
The master bedroom
What’s going to happen to this place is anybody’s guess. Priced at $2,500,000, it’s being sold for the value of the land. An imaginative buyer could turn it into something spectacular, but he’s going to have to very determined, as there are government restrictions as to how much remodeling you can do on such properties. (Hmmm – maybe we do have too much government.) A more likely scenario would be a tear down and replacement with a McMansion. I sure hope not.
For more information call Bobbie Banan at 941-356-2659.