For 20 years, David Varga and Judy DeWalt have loved their historic, Spanish-style house at 5128 Brywill Circle in Sarasota’s Museum District.
But now they are all out of love. Or, at least, energy and patience.
“We are downsizing into a place half the size — and . . . new,” DeWalt said during a recent tour of the Sapphire Shores house, which is being listed by Thomas Arbuckle of Coldwell Banker at $1.1 million.
“I am not divorcing the house,” DeWalt said when that concept was suggested to her. “I am passing it on to the next caretaker. I am 68 years old and don’t want to keep doing this over and over again. I have given it all of my love. It is time for someone else to love it now.”
This is the thing of which almost every owner of a 1920s house is all too familiar: a series of renovations, repairs and updates.
She ticks off the projects they have undertaken in their two decades of ownership like a mother who recites a child’s tally of soccer trophies.
“The first thing we did — all the trim in the house was painted battleship gray,” DeWalt said. “We repainted the whole inside. We weren’t here a lot, so I hired people. The outside had barn-red trim. We painted the exterior, twice. You get to know your painters up close and personal because they are here for two months. We changed the awnings, twice. We re-roofed.
“My husband was a former building inspector for the City of Jacksonville, so he is really freaky about all the stuff I hate — like sewer lines and electrical service. All that stuff had to be done.
The finial atop the staircase's newel post. The home, on Brywill Circle in Sarasota's Museum District, was built in 1925 and once was owned by Charles Ringling's lawyer. It is listed for sale at $1.1 million through Thomas Arbuckle of Coldwell Banker. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 5-4-2015.
“After five or six years, we put in the pool. . . . The fireplace was dinky, with tiles that had a Don Quixote theme; we had that redone. The living room beams had been very dark, so a neighbor who is an artist came over and whitewashed them a bit, because they were so dark. It lightened up the room a little.
“My husband put in the fountain. Just in the past year, we did the upstairs, which had been three bedrooms and one bath. Now it is one bedroom and one bath. I don’t know how they lived in those dinky rooms.”
Lots of history
They managed somehow, but those were different times.
The house is believed by some Sapphire Shores residents to be one of eight in the neighborhood allegedly built for employees of brothers John and Charles Ringling during the 1920s real estate boom, although historian Jeff LaHurd is not able to confirm that. The house was sold in a sheriff’s sale in 1931 before Harry Kellim bought it later that year.
He sold it in 1932 to Henry Williford; the signing of the deed was witnessed by James E. Kirk (remember that name). Williford was John Ringling’s attorney as he developed real estate in the 1920s and continued in his service until the Circus King’s death in 1936. Williford’s billable hours went through the roof after that, as creditors were about to knock on Mister John’s door when he passed away on Dec. 2. In his will, Ringling left his house, art museum and 66 acres of bayfront paradise to the citizens of the State of Florida, and 10 years of litigation followed.
The living room of a home on Brywill Circle in Sarasota's Museum District, also known as Indian Beach. Built in 1925 and once owned by Charles Ringling's lawyer, it is listed for sale at $1.1 million through Thomas Arbuckle of Coldwell Banker. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 5-4-2015.
Williford, who had hired the younger Kirk in the 1920s, was right in the middle of it. But he did not live to see the state take over the property in 1946. In April 1942, Williford died of a heart attack, and his widow, Marjorie, a descendant of author Victor Hugo (“Les Miserables,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”), married Kirk, senior partner of the prominent Kirk Pinkerton law firm, which has handled many important real estate transactions over the decades, including Arvida's purchase of the Ringling Estate's 2,200-acre waterfront holdings in 1959.
The Kirks lived in the house until 1952, when Marjorie died at age 49. James Kirk is shown in the 1959 City Directory as still living there, but by 1964, the house was occupied by attorney Henry L. Williford, son of Henry and Marjorie. Kirk was living on Sun Circle when he died at age 80 in 1983.
Christian and Helen Bentele, who bought the house in 1986, sold it to Varga and DeWalt in 1995.
Falling in love
The house has romantic architecture and the ambience of a different time, which is why DeWalt and Varga fell in love with it — to a point.
“It had beautiful floors, archways and the barrel roof. It had all that,” DeWalt said.
“This is the longest I have ever lived anywhere in my life,” she added. “At the time we bought it, we were living in Orlando. We traveled, we were on the road, so we could live anywhere. We were clothing reps, and I have been a clothing designer, as well.”
They closed the deal by FedExing the documents and were all set to spend “a romantic weekend here, and the woman who lived here had not left. It was a crazy thing.”
After Varga succeeded in convincing her to leave, “the neighbors really liked us right off the bat because they didn’t like her so much,” DeWalt said. “There were cats everywhere.”
DeWalt has two cats, but they have their own spaces and the visitor has no sense that they are in residence until one is discovered luxuriating on the bed in a guest chamber.
Several changes had been made to the house, including some additions, but DeWalt and Varga felt compelled to make some more.
“We liked 1926, but we didn’t want to live in 1926. And they had a 1926 stove here; it was crazy.”
They replaced the stove when they updated the kitchen, although the original upper cabinets are still in place. The countertops are wood.
Porches have been enclosed, and the carriage house is now a guest house, but one room remains unchanged, except for its use. Just off the front door is a secret room that is now a garage for two bicycles. But in the 1920s, when Prohibition was the law of the land, it was a private speakeasy — a common feature in the finer houses of the time.
The house is built with the strong terra cotta hollow block that was commonly used in the 1920s. The thermal mass keeps the interior cool on summer mornings; not so cool on summer evenings.
The secluded landscape has an enormous mango tree and a sausage tree. DeWalt has had “no luck” figuring out what to do with the sausages.
“The best part of the house is the outdoor shower,” DeWalt said. “We spent all kinds of money on that.
“Everybody wants to come out here and take a shower. It is beautiful on most days.”
