Southernmost Point Buoy Painted

It was in the newspaper recently that the Southernmost Point Buoy is going to get repainted. I was kind of curious if they had two and switched them out. I thought I saw one over in the welding yard on Amelia and Simonton St. a while back. It turns out that was probably the temporary buoy that was made during the time the street and side walk where the buoy sits had been cordoned off to be redone. A temporary one was erected several feet away for photo opportunities. What happened to the life size Seward Johnson sculpture of the tourist family taking pictures that used to be at the Southernmost Point? I think I saw them in that same Amelia St. welding yard. Both are gone now.
Any way the buoy that is there is never moved. I am told that the buoy is solid concrete and the only way that it will be moved will be after it is broken up with a sledge hammer and shoveled away. This is probably a good thing. The buoy was erected in 1983 to replace the signs that were constantly being stolen. It costs $4,000 to paint the buoy and it was last done in December 2008. Do you know that as I went around the corner recently there was actually a long line of people waiting to take their pictures in front of the monument? Don't tell them it is not really the southernmost point. The back yards of the homes directly to the East and the Navy base to the west are both further south. Both Fort Zachary Taylor State Park and Ballast Key, a private island are also further south.


Don't they put a Christmas tree up there at Christmas? I cannot remember. I was told that they never decorate it. I happen to know that is wrong. It was once the Easter Bunny. In about 1996 they were re-painting at this time of year. The buoy had been sanded and primed and it became the Easter Bunny before it was a buoy again. And what is wrong with that? If you can believe in the Easter Bunny you can believe that the buoy is the southernmost point. It's all fun.

Bank Becomes T Shirt Shop

The Wachovia Bank building is an architecturally beautiful land mark sitting majestically at the corner of Duval and Front St. Built in 1891 it has weathered hurricanes and dodged fires that periodically engulf other historic Key West buildings. Originally and for years it was Florida First National Bank. Wachovia bought the building in 1992 for $2,520,000. Wachovia closed that branch about the same time it merged with Wells Fargo in 2008 and consolidated its operations on Northside Dr. It took me a while to realize Wachovia had closed it's down town branch (I am not a Wachovia customer) and don't frequent Front and Duval too often, the ground central for cruise ship visitors.

Was I surprised when I did walk past that corner? It is a T shirt shop now! Wow, do things change. It is a decent enough shop and they carry more then just T shirts. There are men's, woman's and children's clothes. Why is it that all the shops on lower Duval carry clothes that look exactly the same, like the gauzy women's dresses and short shorts that say "Key West" across the butt? This must be what sells. When these shoppers get back on board are they all wearing the same dresses, shirts and beach cover ups?

I walked past the mannequin of a woman standing in the door. There were a lot of customers in there; the sales people were busy. I found that the clothing section was divided off from the knick knack section by what was once the teller's counter. In the glassed in office in the back where the bank manager sat now sits the store manager. In the knick knack section behind the shot glasses and key chains is still the bank vault. I wonder what's in it.

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