JESSIE PORTER KIRKE NEWTON: KEY WEST'S RESTORATION POWERHOUSE
* The following article appeared in the March 21-April 14, 2002 edition of Celebrate! and is used with the permission of the publisher. Her daughter Jeane Porter continued the family tradition. Her life and work were celebrated in a Palm Beach Post article written by Jan Tuckwood.

"Heroes and heroines are the bright lights on our horizon by which we navigate the night." 
- Jessie Porter

KEY WEST - Jessie Porter Kirke Newton was a heroine. The fact that historic Old Town even exists is due in large part to her efforts during the 1950s and 60s. "Miss Jessie," as she affectionately was known, was a larger-than-life person with enormous energies. Her daughter Jeane Porter, also a major player in preserving Key West's history, explains "she had at least three auxiliary motors - one would kick in when the last gave out."

Miss Jessie was a fifth generation Key Wester, who could count among her forbearers many of the Island's notables: Joe Lowe, the master wrecker, Captain Thomas Mann Randolph, Commander of the first Coast Guard, William Curry, ships' chandler and Florida's first millionaire, and Dr. Joseph Yates Porter, the man credited with eradicating yellow fever. Her father was William Randolph Porter, owner of the bank that sustained Key West's faltering economy through the Great Depression. With these ancestral sinews embedded in her psyche, Miss Jessie recognized early that Key West's historic structures were unique - and very vulnerable.

In the 1930s she acquired 410 Caroline Street (now Heritage House). It was in terrible shape; but she took hammer in hand and lovingly restored much of it herself with the assistance of a talented carpenter, Joe Hannibal. She filled it with authentic pieces gathered by the wreckers to re-create her home as a living museum to Key West's past. During this same period, the 1930s, Miss Jessie is also credited with collecting funds that were matched by the WPA to build the Aquarium, starting the Flower Show, and launching the Old Island Trading Post.

Over time Heritage House and its gardens became the epicenter of Key West society. Miss Jessie's gatherings of the famous and infamous were legendary. She brought together currents of creativity from all over the world. As Porter puts it, "As a young woman I became best friends with many of the notables of the day. Drew Pearson was particularly fond of me and gave me free passage to Washington on his airplane when I needed it."
The poet Robert Frost was an old friend of Miss Jessie and spent many winters staying in her garden cottage. Their mutual friends, philosopher John Dewey, poets Wallace Stevens and Archibald MacLeish, and writer Thornton Wilder among others, enjoyed relaxing in the confines of her exotic garden. Her forte was putting people together to weave a tapestry of ideas and action. Fast forward to the late 1950s. The Caroline Lowe house had been lost. The Navy had razed several blocks of "decrepit" housing to make way for concrete block housing. Developers were beginning to talk about ways to "renew" Key West. And several important homes were in imminent danger of being destroyed. Miss Jessie knew she had to use her ability to bring people together to save the town's historic homes. 
"Until there was a formal organization," say Porter of her mother, "She saved houses by collecting them herself until they could restored. In one case she even moved a house to save it from the bulldozer."

Finally one afternoon in March 1960 about twenty women and a few men came together at Miss Jessie's home to sort out the plans to celebrate a success - saving the old Captain Geiger house as the Audubon Museum. Realizing that they could use this success as a model, a month later the Old Island Restoration Foundation was incorporated. 

Under Miss Jessie's leadership, the OIRF immediately created a steering committee to see what could be done about saving other structures in Key West. The president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation came to the island and, at public meetings, explained how restoring the homes could benefit the island economically. Teams were sent out to canvas and sign up Conchs for membership and support. Within months the membership drive had netted 450 members, the largest number of any such organization in the country. And the rest is history. 

Jeane Porter's fascinating accounts of the history and people of Key West can be read in Key West: Conch Smiles available at the Key West Heritage House Museum, 410 Caroline Street.