HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
Queen Anne Victorian where Gene Otto lived with Robert the Doll — now a B&B where guests report a woman on the stairs
534 Eaton St, Key West, FL 33040
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Room rates from approximately $136/night; seven rooms including the Turret Suite.
Access
Limited Access
Victorian house with exterior staircases and verandas wrapping the structure; multiple stories
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1898 · Former Home of Robert the Doll · Gene Otto — Key West Painter · Queen Anne Victorian Architecture · Key West Historic District
Thomas Otto built the house at 534 Eaton Street between 1890 and 1898, constructing a Colonial Queen Anne-style mansion with an octagonal turret spanning two stories above the roofline, exterior stairways connecting the verandas, and detailed woodwork that made it one of the more elaborate private residences in Old Town. The house has been continuously occupied since construction.
Robert Eugene Otto — known as Gene — was an artist who studied at the Art Students League of New York and later in Paris, where he met and married pianist Anne Parker in May 1930. The couple returned to Key West and settled in the family home on Eaton Street, where they lived for the next four decades. Gene Otto had a local reputation as an eccentric and a capable painter; he died in the house in 1974, and Anne moved to Boston, where she died in 1976.
Gene Otto had possessed the doll called Robert since childhood. Sources conflict on when and how he received it — some say from a grandfather via the Steiff Company, others through a different family connection — but the doll was in the Eaton Street house throughout Gene's adult life. In the years before Gene's death, the doll occupied a dedicated room in the turret, furnished with miniature furniture and clothing. Neighborhood children reported seeing the doll move in the turret window. Anne Otto described witnessing the doll's expression change. After Gene's death, the doll passed through several owners before being donated to the East Martello Museum in Key West around 1994.
The property was converted to a guest house in 1978, two years after Anne's death. It has operated continuously since and is listed as one of the oldest continuously operating guest houses in Key West.
Sources
The paranormal reports at the Artist House separate cleanly from the Robert the Doll narrative: the doll left the house by the late 1970s, but the accounts from guests began after the property converted to a guest house and have continued since.
The most frequently described apparition is a woman in a wedding dress on the main staircase, appearing in the early morning hours and descending toward the lower floor before disappearing. Most accounts attribute this figure to Anne Otto, who was married in Paris in 1930 and lived in the house until Gene's death. Whether Anne experienced the house positively or negatively during her four decades there is not well documented.
Guests in multiple rooms have described shadowy female figures standing at the foot of their beds during the night — present long enough to be seen clearly, then gone when the observer focuses. The accounts describe the figure as female and in period-appropriate dress, but no consistent identification has emerged beyond the general attribution to Anne.
Doors on the second floor open and close without mechanical cause, and lights on the property flicker in patterns that electricians have not attributed to wiring issues. The turret room — specifically the space where Robert the Doll occupied miniature furniture during Gene's final years — generates reports of unease from guests who have not been briefed on its history, as well as from those who have.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Seven guest rooms in the 1890s Queen Anne Victorian, including the octagonal Turret Suite where Robert the Doll was stored. The house has operated as a guest house continuously since 1978 and is one of the most photographed buildings in Key West.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Key West, FL
William Curry arrived in Key West from the Bahamas and built his fortune through the salvage trade, working wrecks off the Florida reef and reportedly purchasing salvaged goods at distressed prices. His son Milton demolished the original 1869 house in 1901 to build the Georgian Revival mansion that stands today. It has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1988.
Key West, FL
Francisco Marrero, a cigar maker who built his business through connections to Key West's Cuban tobacco trade, constructed this Victorian mansion in 1890 for Enriquetta, with whom he had eight children. When Marrero died during a trip to Cuba, his first wife — still legally married to him there — claimed all assets. Enriquetta and her children were evicted with no legal recourse.
Key West, FL
Samuel Otis Johnson built the structure in 1886 as a grocery and butcher shop with an adjacent outbuilding. Dr. William Richard Warren, trained at the University of Pennsylvania, purchased the property in 1913 and converted it into a medical practice and residence. His wife Genevieve Allen Warren cultivated the gardens that define the property today. The building was extensively remodeled in 1937 by architect Jack Long and is listed in the Key West Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.