Audubon House & Tropical Gardens

The three-story timber house on Whitehead Street wears a crisp white coat and dark green shutters, a classic example of nineteenth-century island architecture elevated on brick piers. It was built in eighteen thirty for Francis Watlington, a sea captain who salvaged wrecked ships off the treacherous Florida reefs. John James Audubon stayed here for several weeks in eighteen thirty-two, sketching the local birds and plants. The property holds the records of his time here, documenting the intersection of maritime salvage and natural history.