| Audubon House & Tropical Gardens | |
|---|---|
| Location | 205 Whitehead Street Key West, Florida |
| Type | History |
| Website | Official site |
The Audubon House & Tropical Gardens is located at 205 Whitehead Street, Key West, Florida.
Brick-pathed gardens offer a lush 1-acre (4,000 m2) view of orchids, bromeliads and other tropical foliage, an herb garden and 1840-style nursery.
The house has many antique furnishings purchased from estate sales and auctions in Europe.
The house contains 28 first edition works of the famous ornithologist John James Audubon. Audubon visited the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas in 1832 and left Key West having sighted and drawn 18 new birds for his "Birds of America" folio. It is believed that many of those drawings were conceived in the Audubon House garden. Also, Audubon's painting of the white-crowned pigeon features the Geiger tree found in the front yard of the house.
The Audubon House Gallery, separate from the main house features a unique collection of 19th century original Audubon art and a comprehensive selection of John James Audubon's images.
The house was slated for demolition in 1958, but was saved by the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation, a nonprofit educational institution. This was the first restoration project in Key West.[1]
The Audubon House Museum & Tropical Gardens was established in 1960 by Key West native, Colonel Mitchell Wolfson, and his lovely wife Frances. They restored the elegant three level Captain's home, which was built in the American Classic Revival architectural style of the mid 1800's. The home was originally built by Captain John Huling Geiger, who was Key West's first harbor pilot. Captain Geiger raised many children in the house, and planted beautiful tropical vegetation on the property. It was the beautiful plants which drew Audubon to it during his visit in 1832. Audubon took cuttings from the plants growing on the property, and used them as backgrounds in many works, including the White crowned Pigeon, which has the "Geiger tree" in the background.
This was the first restoration project in Key West and is still considered the gem of the island's restoration movement. Antique enthusiasts who tour the house appreciate the unique quality of the furnishings, which were typically found in a prosperous Key West home in the 1800's.