The Key West Cooking School’s home is as much a part of the island’s rich heritage as the fabled “conch cuisine” the school showcases.
Authorized by the United States Congress in 1852, it was constructed between 1856 and 1861 — and, upon completion, was named “Number 1 Building” because it was the first permanent brick structure the U.S. Navy built on the island city.
Today, a revered landmark, the building began its life as a coaling depot and storehouse for supplies. Built to last, it featured a gabled roof, stuccoed walls painted yellowish tan, arched window recesses, a cupola, and a lookout.
From the sprawling first level, workers supplied coal to the Navy vessels anchored at the port of Key West. The second level — with its soaring wood-beamed ceilings and wide, expansive columns — was a Navy sailmakers’ loft, where sails were crafted and repaired, laid out and meticulously finished so they would catch the ever-present subtropical breezes and hasten ships’ way on their designated duties.
Many of the building’s architectural details remain today...
…lovingly renovated and enhanced to provide a fitting backdrop for explorations into the island’s iconic cuisine. Among them are the original wood floors, rediscovered beneath two layers of more modern flooring, now polished to a subtle sheen after a complex restoration process. Installed in 1856, the floorboards were likely hewn from trees dating back to the early 1700s.
Before the Number 1 Building became home to the Key West Cooking School™, it served a variety of functions for the Navy. And the Navy itself served many functions in Key West — providing protection from marauding pirates after the island’s settlement in the 1820s, and playing a pivotal role in the blockade of Confederate shipping during the American Civil War. The Atlantic Fleet was stationed in Key West during the Spanish-American War, and the island was home to a U.S. Navy submarine base during World War I.
Number One Building was the Naval Administration headquarters for decades after its construction and was turned over to the 7th Lighthouse District in 1932. Tasked with overseeing U.S. lighthouses, lightships, and channel markers, the Lighthouse Service became part of the United States Coast Guard in 1939 — and the building took on a new “duty” as the Coast Guard’s Key West Station headquarters.
In 1973, in recognition of its heritage and notable role in American military history, the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Standing tall and stalwart, overlooking the Key West Harbor, the venerable landmark remains a symbol of the island’s two-century heritage as a seafaring center and busy port.
Yet, like Key West itself, the building has evolved with time. When it was transferred from military to private ownership, it became a lively and bustling marketplace. In 2018, Historic Tours of America®, founders of the Key West Cooking School™, purchased it with the goal of preserving its rich heritage and architectural integrity.
Today, upon entering the cooking school on the property’s vast second floor...
…most people sense the rich, spicy aromas of the Cuban- and Bahamian-influenced dishes prepared and savored there.
But for those who open their minds and imaginations, there’s also something more: the echo of Number 1 Building’s vibrant and colorful past, blending with its vivid new incarnation to create a space where the flavors — and the spirit — of Key West can be experienced, embraced and celebrated.
Touchstones and reminders of the island’s culture and heritage can be seen virtually everywhere within the school’s huge high-ceilinged rooms. The façade of a cigarmaker’s cottage recalls the industry that helped fuel Key West’s 19th-century commerce, and the tobacco workers who brought their craft and cuisine 90 miles across the water from Cuba. A distinctive mural depicts the Convent of Mary Immaculate, an architectural gem constructed more than 120 years ago that was sadly lost to the ravages of time.
In the bar area, themed to salute the many legendary writers who made Key West their home, life-size sculptures of author Ernest Hemingway and singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett — both former residents whose work helped define the island’s mystique — appear to be deep in conversation with Captain Tony Tarracino, an eccentric long-ago mayor and saloonkeeper.
Models of Hemingway’s beloved fishing boat Pilar and the USS Bear, known as the most famous Coast Guard ship of all time, take pride of places in niches near the bar — a bar whose well-polished surface was made from planks salvaged from the building’s original floor.
So too are the tabletops in the bar and in the “school room” itself, whose 1950s kitchen suggests retro-style comfort and the essence of Old Key West is further evoked. An 1884 map of the island covers much of one wall; a huge arched window frames an artist’s vista of century-old ships sailing into port, and streets lined with traditional “conch” homes.
Guests of the Key West Cooking School™ who sit at the polished tables, observing intently as a storyteller/chef prepares recipes passed down for generations, are transported on a journey back in time … perhaps to their grandmother’s kitchen, with its memories and mouthwatering aromas, or perhaps even farther back — to an era when seafarers roamed the docks and Number 1 Building, newly constructed, stood sentinel over the waterfront.
