The Living End

Eugene Burr on a visit to Knoxville last spring

When architect Eugene Burr first visited the Florida Keys in 1990, it was to scuba dive off Key Largo. Eight months later, he returned to the exotic string of islands for a longer stay. He was hired as an historic preservation planner for the city of Key West.

Part of Key West's Historic District as seen from the lighthouse

Burr (Knoxville '71) is no stranger to the field of historic preservation. Among his professional accomplishments is the restoration of South College on the Hill at UTK, the oldest building (1872) on any UT campus. He also directed the restoration and reconstruction of a number of structures in the 1880s village of Historic Rugby, Tennessee.

Burr, who had an architectural practice in Knoxville and taught courses at UTK, little expected that his credentials would land him in Key West. But when he saw the position advertised, his interest was piqued.

"The job offered an opportunity to combine my background in preservation and community planning," he says. "My architectural practice didn't allow me to do that to the same extent."

The chance to get back to the ocean was another powerful inducement, Burr acknowledges.

"I grew up on the Carolina coast. I wanted to get back to salt water." Key West's Historic District numbers over 3,000 structures within its confines. The buildings, ranging from lattice and gingerbread Queen Anne style houses to the shotgun cottages once owned by cigar factory workers, are located in what Burr describes as a 'very urban environment."

"Most houses are only six to ten feet apart," he says. "This is a climate that is not kind to wood buildings; restoration runs at a high level."

Burr's office processes more than 100 applications each month from owners who want to make improvements to their properties or to build new structures.

"Anything from painting to building on a vacant site has to get approval from the historic commission," he says.

The Historic District contains one-third of the housing on the island. But unlike Williamsburg or other restorations, it's a "living community," Burr says.

The 200-block area includes Key West's thriving central business district. Restaurants, shops, and other tourist meccas are subject to the same regulations as other historic buildings.

The southernmost house in the U.S., built about 1900

"We walk a tight rope," Burr says. "We try to contain the vending activities, but the island spirit is very independent and opposes unnecessary regulation. "I tell people if we lived 15 miles apart, we wouldn't worry. We live on a compact island, and everyone has to follow the same rules when it comes to preservation. It's a constant educational challenge."

Key West's architecture reflects its checkered past. Wrecking and marine salvage, the principal industries of the early 19th century, brought New England sailors to the island. Those who prospered built Classical Greek Revival style houses with double hung windows, columns, and pediments. Settlers from the Bahamas brought other influences: louvered shutters, overhanging eaves. The three-room shotgun houses proliferated as lots were subdivided to accommodate cigar factory workers in the latter 19th century. By 1876, 166 cigar factories employed 6,000 workers on Key West.

A historic home in the classic revival style with a maritime theme

Despite hurricanes, fires, and the ravages of time, the island has more original 19th and early 20th century buildings intact than most American cities. Economic setbacks like the eventual loss of the cigar and sponging industries and the Depression discouraged renovation and new construction. While vintage buildings survived, there was no system in place for preserving them until the mid-1960s. And even then, there was no professional staff to support preservation efforts.

"I was the first preservation planner the city hired," Burr says. "There was a lot on the table when I got here."

Burr defines the mission of preservation planning as "taking the best from the past, documenting it, and preserving it for future generations."

It's a definition that covers a wide range of activities. Burr works directly with property owners who want to improve their buildings, advising them on the historically correct solutions to structural problems.

Guidelines for everything from shutters to skylights are detailed in a booklet published by the Historic Architectural Review Commission of Key West. The text emphasizes the basics of preservation: fidelity to period style, scale, and a commitment to maintaining as much of the original structure as possible.

A typical streetscape in the Historic District

"Key West is a wonderful 'laboratory' of houses built in the late 1800s and adapted to modern living," Burr says. "Preservation doesn't preclude renovation." A meticulously restored 19th century house may open onto a lush garden patio in the rear, he notes. 'The houses fuse with the landscape; the result is very livable."

Close to 75 percent of the buildings in the Historic District are "contributing," which means they retain their original character and contribute to the historic atmosphere of the district, Burr says.

In addition to the principal 200-block downtown area, Key West boasts a second Historic District: the Naval Station. It's the site of one of Burr's most challenging projects to date.

Built in the 1820s as a headquarters for the Navy's Anti-Piracy Squadron, the station was enlarged during the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. Twenty three buildings were made part of a second National Register District in 1984.

One of these buildings, the old Naval Base machine shop, has been converted to condominiums. Burr urged the developer to adapt the structure in a way that maintained much of its original character.

"It still has its brick exterior and steeply pitched metal roof," Burr says. "The essence of the building is still there, but now there are balconies and dormers that were not part of the original construction. This kind of adaptive use requires more liberal interpretation than literally preserving the building as it was."

The Cuban Heritage Trail, highlighting landmarks of Cuban-American heritage in Key West, was a recent project underwritten in part by the State Bureau of Historical Preservation.

"It's a tour of all the buildings and sites that relate to Cuban-Hispanic heritage," Burr says. "Key West's Cuban population is over 20 percent. The tour includes the cemetery for sailors killed on the Maine during the Spanish-American War, as well as monuments and sites connected to Jose Marti, father of the Cuban Revolution in the 19th century."

Burr lives in the Historic District--"philosophically, it's important that I live here," he says--on the second floor of a Classic Revival house, circa 1900. His route to work takes him through an 1840s cemetery and down block after block of vintage buildings. It's a sort of daily affirmation that what he's doing makes a difference.

"History books are important," he says. "The real thing is more important--being able to experience, at the end of the 20th century, a community that was in place in the 1820s."