History of Knowles House Bed and Breakfast located in Key West Florida.
ARCHITECTURE
What is now known as the Knowles House Bed and Breakfast, is a classic old Bahamian settler's house exemplifying the sturdy, honest architecture of the island's early pioneer settlers. Built in the 1860's, when Key West was still a young settlement, the Knowles House is typical of the modest middle-class houses built by the intrepid Bahamian's who left their native islands for the greater economic opportunities available in what was, at the time, the boomtown of the Caribbean. Employing the traditional architectural styles familiar to them from their native Bahamas, these enterprising pioneers utilized the abundant wood available in Florida to build the familiar frame "Conch" houses now ubiquitous in Key West, but largely unknown in the rest of the world. The Knowles House, with its wooden walls, ceilings and floors is a classic example.
The house, as it now stands, illustrates the evolution of a family homestead over time as generations of the Knowles family and subsequent owners modified and enlarged it to accommodate changing needs and fashions. Originally built as a 2-room-plus-loft cottage, Knowles House existed for its first 70 years, as a one-story cottage with a pitched roof, looking much like its present neighbor at 1006 Eaton Street. The low-ceilinged main floor contained the family living room, a narrow stair hall and the master bedroom. The eat-in kitchen and rear porch, where much of the life of the house took place, were contained in a one-story rear addition, called a "saw tooth". This is where the present kitchen is located. The narrow staircase lead to the second floor where the children's sleeping areas were located under the sloping roof. Hatches on the roof, called scuttles, could be propped open to provide light and air.
In 1935, the house was drastically altered by its owner, Rupert Knowles, to bring it more up to date architecturally and to provide more room for his family. He had the entire house raised to a full two stories under a low hip roof. Retaining the exterior of the first floor, including the windows, in its original form, he squared off the second floor, extending it out over the original front porch and over the rear kitchen saw tooth to create new space for 4 bedrooms and a full bath. Windows with larger panes of glass were used on the new second floor, rather than the older small-paned windows found on the first floor, and the present fully-glazed front door was installed to replace the original solid wooden one. At the same time, on the interior, the original wall separating the parlor from the stair hall was removed and replaced with the present wide archway, giving the main floor a more open and airy look. A new kitchen was installed in place of the old one and the original open rear porch was enclosed to form a family dining room with lots of casement windows that could be opened to bring in plenty of light and fresh air. Electricity and modern plumbing were installed. One of the most important innovations was the construction of a large concrete cistern under the new dining room to provide the family with an abundant supply of water in the days before the present aqueduct was built to bring water to perennially water-starved Key West from the mainland. All of the roofs drain precious rainwater into this cistern, which is still usable today.
After the house passed out of the Knowles family in the mid-1980's, subsequent owners remodeled the kitchen to its present appearance and added the rear porch. The rear yard, which had contained a vegetable garden, fruit trees and a frame garage for the Knowles family car, was completely reconfigured to accommodate a swimming pool and ornamental landscaping.
In 1997, the current owners enlarged Knowles House by adding a wing to the rear, completing the evolution of this pioneer homestead to its present role as a Key West bed and breakfast inn, while preserving its original character.
