OIRF Oldest House/Wreckers Museum

the Oldest House

Oldest House Museum Photograph The Oldest House in South Florida, located at 322 Duval St. in Key West, was built about 1829 and incorporates the influences of colonial architecture found in the Caribbean and New England. For decades, it was the home of Capt. Francis Watlington, his wife, and seven daughters. Watlington was a Customs Inspector, Lightship Captain, harbor pilot, and “wrecker” – one of the Key West salvagers who raced to ships run aground on the reefs, rescued their crew, and benefited from the cargo aboard. Watlington operated the schooners Blackhawk and Caroline as a salvager, and later ran the supply line to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

The building is now operated by the Old Island Restoration Foundation as a nonprofit museum featuring many original furnishings, ship models, maritime artifacts, documents relating to the activities of wreckers, and items recovered from Keys waters. Visitors will see many fine pieces of furniture and carpets, old paintings with nautical themes.

In the rear of the house is a spacious, peaceful garden, where benches invite visitors to sit and reflect. There, they can see the only surviving Cook House in South Florida.

Descendents of the Watlingtons lived here until the 1970s. Mrs. Rosemary Austin, a neighbor and friend of the last residents, gave this extraordinary property to the State of Florida. The house has been maintained by OIRF as a historic home museum since 1976. It is overseen by the Historic Florida Keys Foundation.

The museum is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. For further information, call (305) 294-9501.

The Wreckers

According to Birse Shephard in The Lore of the Wreckers, “The wrecker of the Florida Keys was a competent navigator and pilot with a fast, well-equipped vessel and a crew of skilled divers and salvage men who put to sea voluntarily in all weather to snatch survivors and merchandise from a foundering vessel, pull a stranded ship off into deep water or dive for sunken cargo. . . . These men scorned safety ashore and put to sea in any weather without benefit of charts or light (houses) . . . .”

“Professional wrecking reached its highest development in the wreckers’ city of Key West. There it grew into an exciting, profitable and legally regulated industry . . . . “
“The fee was fixed by one of three methods: direct agreement with the master of the distressed vessel, friendly arbitration, or action of the admiralty court. It was this fee that brought down the wrath of ship captains on the wrecking business . . . .”

“A correspondent wrote in The New York Enquirer in 1927, ‘I was taught to believe that this class of men was an unprincipled set of beings who foraged on the misfortunes of others by plunder and depredation. But, on the contrary, I find them to be decent men of good common sense.’”