The Southernmost House – Photo By: @NikaStroblePhotography
At the end of Duval Street, where the Atlantic begins, stands the Southernmost House in Key West, one of the island’s most photographed historic landmarks and one of its most fascinating architectural stories. – By Allison Findlay, Realtor® | Brenda Donnelly Real Estate
At the corner of Duval and South Street, where the island runs out of road and the Atlantic takes over, stands one of the most recognizable homes in Key West. Towering palms. Sweeping verandas. A silhouette so distinctive that visitors photograph it before they even know what it’s called.
This is the Southernmost House, a Queen Anne Victorian mansion turned boutique hotel — and behind its oceanfront elegance lies one of the most charming stories in Key West history. A story about a husband, a wife, a stack of bricks, and a hundred years of hurricanes.
A House Built on Ambition
The mansion was built in 1897 by Judge Jeptha Vining Harris at a cost of $250,000 — an extraordinary sum for the era, equivalent to many millions today. His wife, Florida Curry Harris, was the youngest daughter of William Curry, widely recognized as Florida’s first millionaire and one of the most influential figures of Key West’s cigar and shipping boom.
The home was extraordinary from the start. Queen Anne Victorian in style. Three stories. Two-story balconies positioned to catch the trade winds. Large stained glass windows. Open ocean views from nearly every room. And — famously — only one bedroom, with a separate guest house built next door for the steady stream of visitors the Harrises were known to host.
It was also the first home in Key West with electricity. The Harrises were close enough to Thomas Edison that he personally oversaw the electrical installation. According to local accounts, Edison left behind one of his earliest patented phonographs as a parting gift to the family — it still sits in the mansion’s lobby today.
The couple were also early investors in Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad, and Flagler himself was a frequent guest during the railroad’s construction in the early 1900s. The mansion has always been a place where Key West’s history was made, not just witnessed.
The Story That Won’t Die
But the detail that has lived longest in Key West memory has nothing to do with presidents, railroads, or inventors.
It has to do with the brick.
As the story is told — and it has been told and retold for generations — the mansion was originally completed using dark red brick. When Florida Harris returned from a trip and saw the finished home, she reportedly disliked the appearance so intensely that Judge Harris had the entire mansion re-bricked using lighter cream-colored bricks imported from New Orleans.
And then, according to some versions of the tale, it happened again.
Whether every retelling matches the historical record matters less than what the story has become. In a town that runs on stories, this one stuck. Locals will tell you, with varying degrees of seriousness, that the Southernmost House survived because one woman refused to settle for anything less than exactly what she pictured.
“What I love about this story is that it’s so completely Key West. It’s romantic, a little stubborn, a little absurd, and entirely human. And it gets told at dinner parties on this island the same way New Orleans tells ghost stories. Whether the bricks are the literal reason the house is still standing, I’ll leave to the historians. But the spirit of the story — that someone here once cared that much about getting something exactly right — that part feels true to who this island has always been.” — Allison Findlay, Brenda Donnelly Real Estate
A Century of Storms, and Still StandingWhat Historic Key West Homes Teach Us About Building to Last
“When clients are looking at historic Key West properties, especially in Old Town or near the Casa Marina district, I always tell them to look closely at the homes that have survived. The Southernmost House is the most famous example, but it’s not the only one. The original builders here were working with the climate in ways modern construction often forgets. Coral rock foundations. Tin roofs. Cross-ventilation. Elevation. Materials chosen for the salt air, not against it. A historic Key West home, properly cared for, isn’t a liability. It’s a piece of architectural intelligence.” — Allison Findlay, Brenda Donnelly Real Estate
That’s the part I find most fascinating about properties like this one. The romantic stories — the bricks, the wife, the husband who said yes three times — they capture our attention. But underneath the legend is a real and practical truth: Key West homes that have lasted have lasted because they were built with care.
Visiting the Southernmost House
The Southernmost House sits at 1400 Duval Street, at the corner of South Street, on the southernmost stretch of Old Town. It operates today as a boutique hotel, but the grounds, gardens, and lobby — including that original Edison phonograph — are accessible to visitors and well worth a stop.
If you’re walking Duval from north to south, end your evening here. The light over the Atlantic from the property’s seawall is some of the best on the island.
A House That Meant to Stay
The mansion has outlasted nearly everything around it. The houses, the hurricanes, the people who built it, the people who told the story the first time. And it’s still here, still cream-colored, still photographed a hundred times a day by people who don’t know any of the history.
That’s the part I love. You don’t have to know the story for the house to do its job. But once you know it, you can’t really look at the place the same way again.
For anyone exploring historic homes in Key West, the Southernmost House offers more than a beautiful photograph. It reminds us that the island’s most enduring properties were built with craftsmanship, adapted to their environment, and designed to last. That’s part of what continues to make historic Key West real estate so special today.