Eaton Street

Posted: 12.27.2024 | Updated: 12.27.2024

Key West has a long and storied history dating back to the 16th-century exploits of Ponce de Leon. Throughout this time, Eaton Street, best known today for the fresh fare of the Eaton Street Seafood Market, has accumulated several links to the afterlife. While there are many tales to tell in this coastal retreat, this one street boasts several stories. 

Stretching across the northwestern tip of Key West, ties to the otherworldly await on this otherwise unassuming road. A devilish doll with a sinister past, a former doctor’s humble abode, and children’s charred remains still walk Eaton Street.

Book your Key West Ghost Tour for a chance to hear the history of the island’s most active haunts.

Why Is Eaton Street Haunted?

Not one defining location can explain how or why Eaton Street is haunted. Rather, it’s a series of individual spots culminating in a mini spiritual superhighway. 

You may feel the energy of the mischievous and possessed Robert the Doll. Ever since he arrived, an inescapable unease has been added to Eaton Street. 

The ghost of Dr. William Richard Warren, who once practiced medicine in his Eaton Street home, appears often. Spectral children in the graveyard just outside St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will surely bring you goosebumps. 

A Brief Early History of Key West and Eaton Street

Eaton Street doesn’t have a miraculously long history to explain its many haunts. Rather, Key West is a city that’s been in development since the early 19th century. 

Though the grounds have welcomed travelers like Ponce de Leon long before the U.S. purchase of Florida in 1819, the Keys are a product of more than 200 years of progress. 

Early settlers commonly arrived from the Bahamas, hoping to take advantage of the coastal opportunities the Keys offered. 

John Henry Eaton, Florida, and the Petticoat Affair

Some of the city’s streets were named for its founders during the early years. Later, civil engineer and surveyor William Adee Whitehead chose others. 

Whitehead chose John Henry Eaton, President Andrew Jackson’s secretary of war, for the road that later became Eaton Street. Why Eaton was given the honor remains a bit of a mystery, especially considering his rocky political career. 

While acting as the Governor of Florida, Eaton and his wife, Peggy, became wrapped up in controversy. The scandal, known as the Petticoat affair, resulted in the resignation of Jackson’s entire cabinet. 

From 1829 to 1831, Eaton and Peggy were accused of being in a relationship while the latter was married to John B. Timberlake. Just nine months after Timberlake’s death in 1828, John Eaton and Peggy were wed, sparking ridicule.

By 1836, Eaton left Florida to aid Jackson as the U.S. Minister to Spain during the Second Seminole War.

Eaton Street’s Haunted Doll 

The history behind the name may not be strange or mystical origins, but that doesn’t mean the street is ordinary. 

On the contrary, it’s home to one of the nation’s most chilling legends. It starts with the Artist House, long before the colorful building was converted into an inn.

Built sometime during the 1890s, the Artist House originally belonged to the Otto family. Young Eugene “Gene” Robert Otto lived alone with his parents at 534 Eaton Street. 

That is, until a servant gifted Gene a cloth doll. Gene lent the doll his middle name and developed what seemed like a close but appropriate bond. That changed drastically one night when Robert the Doll showed his true colors.

When he was ten, Gene awoke to find the typically inanimate Robert sitting at the foot of his bed. Gene startled his mother awake with his screams. Begging for help, he whimpered, “Robert did it,” as his mom gasped at the furniture scattered across the room. 

Though easy to pass off as the wild imagination of a child, things changed in the Otto household. No longer were Robert’s antics reserved for Gene. Often, the boy’s parents would hear him talking to the doll. 

To their shock, an entirely different voice responded. Robert could be heard giggling or seen running upstairs, and the Ottos even reportedly watched as his expression changed. 

Despite all of this, Gene held onto his friend, even well into adulthood. 

Robert the Doll Haunts Eaton Street

After his parent’s death, Gene moved back home with his wife, Anne. 

It was like he had never left. While Robert didn’t continue with his antics, he did give Anne a feeling of unease. 

Gene started storing the doll in the attic by choosing his spouse over his sinister lifelong friend. In his seclusion, Robert allegedly reanimated. 

Small footsteps echoed overhead, and the faint giggling of a child rang throughout the home. 

To Gene’s shock, he started to hear neighborhood children spotting Robert in the upstairs window. 

The problem was: the window wasn’t to the attic. It was to a bedroom that Robert claimed as his own. Regardless of how many times Gene locked the doll away, Robert returned to mock passersby.

Gene eventually passed away in 1974, and the horrors of Robert the Doll transferred to a new family that moved into the Eaton Street home. 

Robert’s reign of terror didn’t last long. He was eventually moved to the East Martello Museum, where he remains today. 

It’s said if you try to snag a photo of the doll or disrespect him, something awful will happen to you.

Do you dare test Robert The Doll?

The Doctor Is in on Eaton Street

The haunted doll may be Eaton Street’s most horrifying true tale, but the Old Town Manor’s apparitions and noisy ghosts are chilling. The Old Town Manor was once the home of Dr. William Richard Warren and his wife, Genevieve. 

The couple purchased the house in 1913. Shortly after, Dr. Warren converted a portion of it into his medical practice. 

While Dr. Warren tended to his patients, Genevieve worked in the home’s garden. Today, the caretakers try to match the grounds as they once looked under her care. 

The familiarity may be why someone continues to pace the halls of the delightful home. Some say it’s the ghost of Dr. Warren. 

The spirit may also be Genevieve, forever tied to a place she loved and put hard work into. Legend has it that the faint sound of typing can be heard. 

According to Dr. Warren’s great-grandson, the physician was known for using a typewriter. Guests who are really lucky may even spot the two walking hand in hand through the gardens. 

The Air Hangs Heavy at These Eaton Street Locations

An ornate structure sits on the corner of Eaton and Duval streets in the heart of Old Town Key West. Its tall white peaks reach toward the heavens as if to help guide lost souls to a peaceful rest. 

The mid-19th century St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is not without its tales of the unknown. The building itself isn’t the church’s only legacy. 

Behind it resides a small graveyard thought to house several spirits. The most infamous of them is the unnamed sea captain. Mischief personified, the captain is said to love scaring visitors.

While harmless, the captain is joined by a more brutish figure. This angered spirit was thought to have once fought against pirates threatening Key West’s sanctity. 

He continues to serve the Keys by protecting the spectral children living within St. Paul’s graveyard. These seventeen children burned alive after a pastor caught his wife with a deacon and took his vengeance out on the church and whoever was trapped inside.

The Fire That Ties Two Legacies

Just steps from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is another Eaton Street haunt: the Key West Theater. 

Before its stage hosted live entertainment, the building that houses the theater had quite an eclectic past. From the 1st Baptist Church of Key West to the Club Chameleon, Key West Theater was a diverse identity. 

Most infamously, the 1st Baptist Church is said to be the very same church that the pastor burned down, killing those 17 children.  

While some may say the children haunt the graveyard, others have claimed to hear their screaming and smell a faint hint of smoke in the theater.

Even many decades later, the emotional energy of that ill-fated event still weighs on guests. However, the children may have been the cause of some light-hearted pranks in the former church, like shoelaces getting tired together.

Haunted Key West

Eaton Street has a reputation for being a gold mine for encounters with the other side. 

While other parts of Key West boast their own haunting tales, Eaton Street’s concentration of ethereal figures fascinates many who come to this Floridian paradise. 

You’ll hear all about Eaton Street’s infamous specters through a historical walking ghost tour. You’ll get acquainted with Robert and be treated to the sheer variety of ghostly lore embedded in Eaton Street’s past. 

Book your Key West ghost tour today, and be sure to keep up with Key West’s haunts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and our blog.

Sources:

Old Town Key West

https://islandmapstore.com/2021/06/early-settlers-in-the-florida-keys/

The Municipality – from Key West The Old and The New

https://museumoffloridahistory.com/explore/collections/governors-portraits/john-henry-eaton

KEY WEST’S LEGENDARY HAUNTED HOUSE – HOME & GARDEN MAGAZINE

Is Key West Haunted? | Spirits at Old Town Manor

https://www.ourhauntedtravels.com/post/sea-captain-frightens-visitors-st-pauls-episcopal-church-and-cemetery-key-west

Showtime