A Very Special House

black mamba

This home is located right in the heart of historic St. Augustine, FL. It belonged to a famous author and friend....Jack Hunter. You literary buffs will recognize Jack as the author of the best-selling book " The Blue Max ", which was made into the hit movie of the same name. In all, Jack penned 17 novels, many of which reached the best-seller list.

Jack had another great talent of which he was equally proud, but far less known for....that of an aviation artist. I first met Jack through his wife, Tommy. She owned and operated an antique shop in St. Augustine named....what else...." The Blue Max ". I was browsing her shop one day and I noticed a couple of really well done paintings of WWI planes. I was admiring them when Tommy walked up to ask if she could help me. I asked if the artist was local. She laughed and said " I guess you might say that, he's my husband, Jack Hunter".

Tommy arranged for me to meet Jack at her shop and talk with him about his paintings. I brought along my older brother, who's as big an aviation buff as I am. One thing led to another and we bought the three paintings that were on display as well as two others yet put up for sale. That how my friendship with Jack began. My brother and I eventually bought 32 of Jack's paintings. Jack's forte was painting WWI planes. As a special favor to me, he agreed to paint 4 WWII planes for my collection....a P-51, a P-47, a P-38, and an F4U-4 Corsair. These are some of my favorites and really prized as he painted very few planes of the WWII era.

I got to know Jack pretty well in his last years. He was a fascinating man. Sadly, he died in early 2009. Tommy died several years earlier. The house you see was their last home. It's a pretty famous house in it's own right.
There are two main structures....divided by an enclosed courtyard. It was built in 1988 but the part of the home closest to you was built as an EXACT duplicate of the oldest house in Florida.....which is also located in St. Augustine. That house is known as the Gonzalez-Alvarez house and dates to the very early 1700's. Jack's estate has this house on the market at 1.4 million.

NeilL

A lot of rich associations there! And I'm sure the character of that house would be palpable when you were in it. Sometimes you have to wonder if some houses mold their occupants, the other way round than is usually thought the case. When I was a kid I loved WW2 jets. I remember going to see a colour movie in which they were the stars, which is amazing considering how many chances that memory has had to be swamped by a couple scores of memorable movies since! I also used to make up Revell plastic kits of these fighter jets.

Thanks, Tom.

Neil