Ballast Key
Encyclopedia
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
in Monroe County
Monroe County, Florida
Monroe County is a county located in the state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 79,589. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county was 74,737....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is the southernmost point of land in the contiguous United States
Contiguous United States
The contiguous United States are the 48 U.S. states on the continent of North America that are south of Canada and north of Mexico, plus the District of Columbia....
. It is also the only privately owned land within the boundaries of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge
Key West National Wildlife Refuge
The Key West National Wildlife Refuge is a 189,497 acre National Wildlife Refuge located in Monroe County, Florida, between Key West, Florida and the Dry Tortugas . Only 2,019 acres of land are above sea level, on several keys within the refuge. These keys are unpopulated and are also designated...
.
Located in the Outlying Islands of the Florida Keys, it is one of the Mule Keys
Mule Keys
The Mule Keys is a group of scattered islets in the Florida Keys in Monroe County, Florida, United States. They are between 3 and 12 miles west of Key West, separated from it by the Northwest Channel. On the west, they are separated from the Marquesas Keys by 6 mile wide Boca Grande Channel....
that are 9 miles (15 km) west of Key West
Key West, Florida
Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
. The island's 26 acres (105,218.4 m²) are privately owned by Key West's eccentric developer David W. Wolkowsky
David W. Wolkowsky
David Wolkowsky, developer, eccentric, and local aristocrat born in Key West, Florida.He is largely responsible for the preservation of Key West and the prevention of high-rise buildings on the island paradise. His grandfather, Abraham Wolkowsky, moved to Key West in the late 1880s and established...
through the David W Wolkowsky Trust. The island is nicknamed Wolkow's Key.
Ballast Key had a cameo appearance in the Bond movie Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
and it and Mr. Wolkowsky made the pages of the novel as well. "David, it's James, James Bond...I've broken into your island. I hope you don't mind", reads a passage in the book. Over the years, Wolkowsky has hosted numerous artists, writers and celebrities on Ballast Key, including Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
, Nancy Friday
Nancy Friday
Nancy Colbert Friday is an author who has written on the topics of female sexuality and liberation.'Nancy Friday's successful fantasy revelations ' have seen her placed among 'the feminist erotic pioneers'...
, Judy Bloom, John Hersey
John Hersey
John Richard Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling devices of the novel are fused with non-fiction reportage...
, John Malcolm Brinnin
John Malcolm Brinnin
John Malcolm Brinnin was an American poet and literary critic. Brinnin was born in Halifax Nova Scotia to two United States citizens....
, Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
, Robert Stone, British Prime Minister Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
, Prince Michael of Greece, Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is an American portrait photographer known for his strikingly intimate portraits of world leaders and major cultural figures. The majority of his work is shot in large format, 11x14 inch black-and-white film and 8x10 color film...
, The Bee Gees, Gloria Estefan
Gloria Estefan
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan; known professionally as Gloria Estefan is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those...
, Natica Waterbury, Lucius Bebe, Lady Caroline Blackwood, and an occasional Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt
-People:*Vanderbilt *The Vanderbilt family**Cornelius Vanderbilt**William H. Vanderbilt-Places:In the United States:*Vanderbilt, California, a former gold-mining town*Vanderbilt, Michigan, a village*Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania, a borough...
, Rockefeller, Mellon
Mellon
- People :* Ailsa Mellon Bruce , daughter of Andrew William Mellon, philanthropist* Alfred Mellon , British composer and conductor* Andrew W. Mellon , one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries in history...
, and Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
. For many years, the island was patrolled by "Camila", Wolkowsky's pet Rottweiler.
Tennessee Williams often painted canvases while visiting David Wolkowsky on Ballast Key in the late 70's and early 80's.
Ballast Key features a main house with four bedrooms and a master suite and a fully equipped three bedroom guesthouse overlooking a palm tree-lined sand beach. Water is supplied to the homes by desalination
Desalination
Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...
.
