You can’t live any closer to Cuba than this. The literal southernmost house of the continental United States of America is now on the market in the Florida Keys.
Located at 400 South St., in Key West, the home was built in 1958 and sits right next door to the famous Southernmost Point Buoy tourist attraction, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Gulf of Mexico and also where cable TV meteorologists like to pose during hurricane season.
The 4,008-square-foot waterfront home comes with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, as well as wooden cathedral ceilings, coral stone flooring, Viking and Sub-Zero appliances, a pool and dock, and more, says the listing.
According to property records, the home belongs to the late artist John Seward Johnson II and his wife Joyce, who purchased the property in 1994 for $1,550,000.
An heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, Seward passed away in 2020 at the age of 89 due to cancer, and is probably best known for his sculptures like the “Unconditional Surrender” piece in Sarasota, and “Allow Me” in Portland, Oregon, to name a few.
It should be noted that the Johnson home wasn’t always the “southernmost” house in the country. For years, a rural island home owned by Key West developer David W. Wolkowsky on Ballast Key, roughly 10 miles south, claimed that title.
The Wolkowsky home, and its beachside guest house, were a regular stop for celebrities like Jimmy Buffett, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Judy Blume and others. It even made a cameo in Timothy Dalton’s 1989 Bond film “Licence to Kill.” However, in 2019, Ballast Key and the house were donated to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as a nature preserve.
The Johnson house is current asking $18.5 million, and the listing agent is Ellen Gvili of Ocean Sotheby’s International Realty.
Every house has a story, and our mission is to tell Tampa Bay’s story through the lens of our community’s historic and colorful homes. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s real estate features are not ads, and are strictly operated through our editorial department. But we love public input. Do you know of a unique Florida home that we should highlight? Let us know, and email cwolf@cltampa.com.
