“It was a tough decision to put the house on the market,” says Loretta Long, who with her husband, Christopher, owns the beautifully-maintained Mediterranean-style home at 129 Springline Drive in the Anchor subdivision in the Moorings. “But our two daughters are off at college and our son will be heading off soon, so we realized it is time to downsize.”
Long’s reluctance to leave the 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath, 4,600-square-foot home is understandable. Built in 2004 by CAL Builders, it is rock solid and superbly designed with everything up to code and a wealth of fine design details.
The location is hard to beat, too. The house sits on a nicely landscaped lot on a protected, deep-water cove that is only a couple of minutes cruise from the Intracoastal Waterway. It is a short bike or boat ride from The Moorings Country Club and St. Edward’s School and ocean beaches are less than a mile away, just across A1A. Less than a block away is the Anchor’s private neighborhood park with tennis and basketball courts and lots of grassy lawn for children to play on.
“You cannot beat The Moorings for the whole ocean, river, country club lifestyle,” Long says. “It is great community and this is a wonderful location. Our son used to take his boat to school each morning when he was at St. Ed’s.”
The home, listed by The Moorings Realty Sales Company for $1,950,000, has great curb appeal with a pavered drive leading to a motor court flanked by a two-car garage on one side and one-car garage and breezeway on the other.
The front porch features three arches echoed by three magnificent arched wooden doors with plantation shutters, one leading into a classic foyer, and two opening into the dining room next to the foyer.
The living room is straight ahead from the foyer. It is highlighted by a marble-clad gas fireplace and a wide bow window with seamless glass that lets in a stunning view encompassing the infinity swimming pool framed by palm trees and the cove beyond, which is picturesque with boats and a haunt of dolphins and manatees.
To the left of the foyer is a short hallway that leads to a powder room and an exercise room that, with a closet and the proximity of the hall bath, could be a fifth bedroom, in addition to the master bedroom and three en-suite guest or children’s rooms.
“I think this house works equally well for a family with kids enrolled at St. Ed’s or a couple that has live-in help,” says Erika Ross, who listed the property. “This extra room has a separate entrance to the breezeway and would be good for maid’s quarters.”
To the right of the foyer is the formal dining room with a wine grotto. Beyond the dining room is what Ross calls “a dream butler’s pantry,” with a refrigerator, ice maker, sink and extensive cabinets and counter space.
Behind the dining room is an elegant, well-equipped kitchen with a prep island, built-in refrigerator, Thermador gas cooktop, double oven and lots of granite counter space and custom cabinets.
The kitchen is open to the 21-foot by 15-foot family room with vaulted ceiling and separate breakfast nook. Both rooms have wide open views of the pool area and cove.
The rest of the right side of the home is occupied by three spacious en suite bedrooms and the laundry room.
The owners’ suite occupies most of the opposite wing, on the other side of the living room. It features a 19-foot by 16-foot bedroom with French doors that open into an arbor by the pool and two walk-in closets. The master bath is large and luxurious with a jetted tub, glassed-in shower, marble countertops with two vanities and an enclosed water closet.
The home is filled with the kind of architectural touches that characterize luxury houses, including travertine marble flooring, high vaulted and coffered ceilings, arched doorways, rounded drywall corners that mimic the look of a plaster finish, and lavish use of crown molding and high baseboards.
“The millwork in this house is very tastefully done,” says Ross.
Nice as the interior is, the home’s outdoor living space is in some ways even nicer. The infinity pool is graced by curved coping, fountains and a spa. There is a large covered seating area with a summer kitchen and gas fireplace and an even larger outdoor dining area that is open to the blue sky and within a few feet of waves lapping at the edge of the cove.
There is also an arbor area and another open area for lounging and sunbathing. The paved pool area is fringed by green lawn and there is an up-to date dock with a 16,000-pound boat lift and room for a large boat.
“You really know you are living by the water in this house,” Ross says.
“The Moorings has more than 600 docks and eight miles of seawall,” says Marsha Sherry, broker at the Moorings Realty Sales Company. “Our deep-water anchorage and access is one of the things that sets us apart.”
The Moorings roots go back to 1957 when sugar plantation owner Julio Lobo bought 538 acres on the barrier island as a way of getting part of his $100 million fortune out of Cuba as revolution brewed.
Most of the land was mangrove swamp, unusable in its natural state, but dredging was still relatively unrestricted at that time and over the next decade Lobo was able to convert the mosquito-infested tangle to a series of winding peninsulas. Muck dredged to make deep channels was piled up and enclosed in concrete seawalls to make lots for waterfront homes.
One of those lots that was offered for $20,500 in the 1970s sold last year for $1.7 million, according to Sherry.
Lobo’s son-in-law Jorge Gonzalez Diez and daughter Leonor Lobo de Gonzalez moved to Indian River County in 1971 to oversee the project. They and their son, Boris Gonzalez Lobo, successfully managed the early phases of development before selling to a local investor group headed by Donald C. Proctor. Proctor and partners continued to build new sections until 1994 when management was turned over to the property owners association.
The final neighborhood, Sea Mist Court, was completed in 2002.
One of the changes Loretta Long has witnessed during her family’s 10 years of residence in The Moorings is more young families moving in, bringing new energy to this classic island club.
“We see a lot more kids now than when we first moved in,” she says. “It is a very family-friendly community with lots of things for young children and teenagers to do.”
“We are definitely seeing more families, along with an increase in fulltime residents,” Sherry said last year. “We are also seeing the generations come back. We just had a sale in the Anchor to a family … [the wife’s] grandfather came here many years ago and then her parents came here. She and her husband were living in Chicago but they wanted to come back to this area and just bought a home and joined the club. If you look at their 4-year-old, that is the fourth generation of the family to live in the Moorings. They are thrilled to be back here.”