The Houses of Key West

Key West was an industrial town and many of its houses were for workers who had little to spend on housing. The shotgun houses are simple, undecorated houses, many of them built by cigar-makers for their workers. Then, of course, there are the great houses―the Heritage House, the Cosgrove House, the Hemingway House, and the Southernmost House―large and famous houses with unique and proud histories. Then there are the eyebrow houses, shotgun houses, and "Conch Victorians"―many of Key West’s houses were built by ship’s carpenters, who built strong, tight, shiplike hoses, most working without plans other than memories of vessels and seaport homes from their own past. Widow's walks were borrowed from New England, overhanging eaves (eyebrows) from the West Indies. Builders added details from architectural fads of the time―from Greek Revival columns to Creole trellises.

The final architectural mix, what we see now in Key West’s Old Town, can only be called, like the natives themselves, Conch.