1901 Georgian Revival home of Florida's first millionaire, whose fortune came from salvaging wrecks
511 Caroline St, Key West, FL 33040
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Room rates vary by type; 29 guest rooms across three structures.
Access
Limited Access
Historic mansion with multiple floors and Victorian architectural features
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1901 · William Curry — Florida's First Millionaire · Key West Wrecking Trade · Birthplace of Key Lime Pie (attributed) · Victorian/Georgian Revival Architecture
William Curry came to Key West from the Bahamas in the mid-19th century and entered the wrecking trade — the legal salvage of cargo from ships grounded on the Florida reef. The business made him the wealthiest man in Florida; he became the state's first millionaire. The sources of that wealth were entangled with the very real hardship of maritime disaster: wreckers profited when ships failed, and their practices were subject to ongoing scrutiny from both competitors and courts.
The original Curry residence was constructed on the Caroline Street lot in 1869. William Curry died in 1896, leaving his estate to his family. His son Milton, then a partner in the William Curry and Sons Company, purchased the property from the other heirs and demolished almost everything except the original stone cookhouse. In 1901, he commissioned the elaborate Georgian Revival mansion that occupies the site today — a 22-room structure built with Dade County pine and featuring a widow's walk.
The cookhouse is the structure most associated with the mansion's most prominent ghost story: Aunt Sally, the Curry family's housekeeper, is credited in Key West culinary tradition with originating Key lime pie in that kitchen. More recent research has tentatively identified her as Sarah Jane Lowe, wife of William Curry's eldest son Charles.
The property was purchased in 1973 by Edith Amsterdam, who undertook a major restoration. Curry Mansion Inn opened as a bed and breakfast in 1988 and has operated as one continuously since. The property is now managed by Brightwild.
Sources
The Curry Mansion's paranormal activity is associated primarily with its domestic spaces — the kitchen, the staircase, the second-floor guest rooms — rather than with any violent event. That pattern is consistent with the property's history, which involves wealth and loss rather than murder or accident.
Aunt Sally is the most-cited figure. Accounts describe her presence throughout the kitchen and adjacent rooms, with some visitors reporting a scent consistent with baking in the original cookhouse area. A psychic brought in to assess the property reportedly made contact with a spirit near the kitchen hearth who identified herself as Sarah — supporting the identification of Aunt Sally as Sarah Jane Lowe, wife of Charles Curry, though no documentary evidence conclusively confirms this.
Second-floor guests have reported waking to the sight of a female figure in period-appropriate dress standing at the foot of their beds, apparently occupied with folding or arranging linens. The figure disappears when directly observed. Several accounts collected by ghost tour operators describe the experience as startling but not threatening.
Unexplained sounds of coins dropping have been documented in the common areas — one interpretation ties this to a spirit of a maid said to have been killed when the original 1869 structure was demolished or during a storm. The widow's walk at the top of the mansion is a focal point for visual reports: guests have described rotating lights on the walk on still nights when no mechanical source is present.
Notable Entities
Twenty-nine guest rooms spread across three historic structures, including the original 1901 Georgian Revival mansion. The heated pool and period-furnished common areas are set within the grounds of what was once the most extravagant private home in Key West.
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Key West, FL
The house at 534 Eaton Street was built between 1890 and 1898 by Thomas Otto as a Queen Anne-style residence. His son Robert Eugene Otto — a painter who studied in New York and Paris — inherited the home and lived there with his wife Anne from 1930 until his death in 1974. The doll known as Robert lived in the home with Gene Otto throughout this period, occupying the turret room in its later years. Following the deaths of Gene and Anne Otto, the property was converted into a guest house in 1978.
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.