Located on a half-acre lot at 411 Sabal Palm Lane in John’s island, conveniently close to the south A1A gate, the stately Georgian home of Elizabeth and Kenneth King was built to exacting standards. Elisabeth designed the house with the assistance of an architect who drew up plans according to her specifications.
Treasure Coast Sotheby’s International Realtor David Ashcroft listed the 4-bedroom, 5.5-bath, 4,460-square-foot waterfront home for $4 million. He says the house, which was completed in 1995, was ahead of its time with features like split garages and Crestron whole-house lighting controls.
“You can pull into the garage on the right if you have groceries to put away in the kitchen, or into the garage on the left if you are going to the master bedroom,” Ashcroft says.
The Kings’ home is laid out in an H-pattern, with the two garages, which flank the brick-trimmed concrete motor court, protruding in front. In the back, the bedroom of the master suite and a breakfast area behind the kitchen maintain the home’s classical symmetry by extending from the main body of the house.
In between the back extensions is a roomy solarium where the Kings spend most of their time, enjoying peaceful views of John’s Island Sound, which ends in a pretty cove behind their house that is a favorite haunt of manatees.
“Take a look out those windows,” Kenneth King says, when asked what feature of the house he has enjoyed most in the 19 years he and his wife have lived here. “That river is the best tranquilizer in all the land. When things are not what you think they should be, looking out there changes your whole perspective.”
Between the sunny solarium and the inlet is a lovely pool with a stone deck and a large whirlpool with a waterfall. Beyond the pool is a seawall with a dock below. Ashcroft says the water in the cove is deep, so a large boat could be kept at the dock, ready to cruise a short distance out to the Intracoastal Waterway, which connects via the Sebastian Inlet with the Atlantic Ocean.
The house has pretty, well-maintained landscaping in back around the pool and in front, where hedges frame the motor court and flank the garage doors.
The handsome front façade includes matching bay windows with copper roofs and an unostentatious portico supported by four columns that shelters a mahogany door with an elegant fanlight above.
Going in through the front door, a visitor enters a traditional foyer. Beyond it is a transverse gallery that connects the two wings of the house. Beyond the gallery is the finely proportioned living room with a marble clad fireplace flanked with shelved niches with scalloped tops.
Two large, formal rooms flank the living room, maintaining the home’s sense of balance and symmetry. On the left is a library with built-in shelves; on the right, a graceful dining room. Both rooms are the same size – 16’ 8” by 17’ 10” – and both have deeply-coffered ceilings with triple crown molding. The degree of detail in the white-painted woodwork is typical of that found throughout the home, which is rich in dentil molding, wainscoting and other time-honored architectural embellishments.
Beyond the dining room is the kitchen. Some of its features are a large, U-shaped breakfast bar, gas cooktop, walk-in pantry and wine cooler.
In front of the kitchen is a utility room and hallway that leads to an en-suite guest bedroom, multiple storage areas and the garage that opens on the right side of the motor court. Behind the kitchen, overlooking the water, is a spacious 12-foot by 17-foot breakfast area that opens onto the patio on one side and into the solarium on another.
The solarium is huge, more than 50 feet in length and 12 feet deep, except in a bumped out center area where the ceiling soars into a gable and the room gains two feet of depth.
At the far end, the solarium opens into the 17-foot by 17-foot bedroom of the master suite. The rest of the suite, which is down a hallway that leads toward the front of the house, consists of two walk-in closets and his and her baths with some beautiful blue tile work and a connecting shower that opens into both bathroom.
The front section of the master bedroom wing includes two en-suite guest bedrooms and a gallery that leads to the second garage.
This is a large, very well thought-out traditional John’s Island home in a wonderful location that will have great appeal to families with children, retirees and seasonal residents – especially if they happen to be boaters or fishermen.
The Kings, northeasterners who moved to Florida in 1978 and lived in Sea Watch for 19 years before building their John’s Island home, have been married for 68 years and whoever lives here after them will be heir in some sense to happiness they have shared in this house.
