Duval Street, a downtown commercial zoned street in Key West, runs north and south from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean and stretches just over 1.25 miles. Named for William Pope Duval, the first territorial governor of Florida, this is a corridor that earned a “Great Street” designation in 2012 from the American Planning Association. Walk with me in imagination and time: the beautiful Bahamian and Spanish influenced Victorian mansions you see were saved through local preservation efforts starting in the 1960s.
Toward the Atlantic end you’ll find a mix of early Key West Victorian mansions and bungalows, and along the way wide sidewalks are lined with art galleries, boutiques, inns and bodegas. That end feels more residential and less filled with tourists, yet the sidewalks still bustle. One block west of Duval’s southern terminus sits the buoy marker for the southernmost point in the United States, near the Southernmost House, a Victorian mansion built in 1896, a favorite of Harry S. Truman and Ernest Hemingway and restored with a $3 million renovation in 1996.
Picture the wide sidewalks lined with galleries, boutiques, inns and bodegas.