Home of the Month: Classic on the Key

Authentic old cottages on Siesta Key are getting harder and harder to find. Most disappeared years ago, replaced by bigger, newer — but not necessarily better — homes. Still, a few remain, tucked away here and there, living proof of the days when Siesta was a hideaway for moneyed Northerners looking for discrete seclusion in a tropical setting.

This month’s home, located at 4632 Ocean Blvd., may well be the best remaining example of all. 

Though its provenance has not been thoroughly researched, its current owner — the husband and wife team of Belinda Foxworth and Eric Reimer — bought it in 2006 from the heirs to a family who had owned it for decades. It is believed to originally date back to the 1930s, and indeed, most of its rooms still have the old-fashioned feeling of the nostalgic family life of days gone by.

The home has been updated, of course, but not in the style of a gut renovation. 

“We tried to maintain the character of the home,” Foxworth explains. 

The original thick, plaster walls are still there, along with the well-preserved wooden floors, white-painted wainscoting and beamed ceilings. The result is a slice of classic Americana.

The exterior of the home is pure shingle style: a rambling layout covered with wooden shingles that only look better with age. This is a look that has never gone out of style. Today, it’s called “coastal” and is featured in the home magazines as the latest thing. It’s this happy merging of past and present that gives the house a timeless appeal.

Present are all the hallmarks of the style: the dormer windows, the two wood-burning fireplaces, and most important, an expansive porch. The owners enclosed it with glass, allowing them to enjoy the spectacular view year-round. 

The master bedroom is located on the first floor, with three additional bedrooms upstairs, each with its own bath. A guesthouse looks out over the pool. It was built later, probably in the 1970s, but it adds a great deal of flexibility to the property.

Realtor Joel Schemmel has produced a promotional video about the residence — worth tracking down online — in which the property is portrayed as the sort of home Hemingway would choose. There’s even a well-stocked bar and an old-fashioned typewriter, plus a would-be novelist overcoming his writer’s block. It’s a little tongue in cheek, but it does bring up an important point: This is the perfect house to work in.

“It’s fabulous,” says Foxworth, who is in the energy business and works at home when she is not traveling. “No matter where you are, you can see the Gulf.” 

She originally had a dedicated office in the ample ground floor master bedroom but has since switched to the time-honored solution of spreading things out on the dining room table.

The pines of South Lido are visible across the churning currents of Big Pass, and to the left is the limitless expanse of the Gulf. The pleasure boats passing by and the leaping dolphins provide plenty to admire. It’s a timeless setting for a timeless home.

Priced at $2,995,000. For more information, call Joel Schemmel, of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, at 587-4894.