{{Short description|American businessman}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = David William Wolkowsky | image = | birth_name = David William Wolkowsky | birth_date = {{birth date|1919|08|25}} | birth_place = Key West, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|09|23|1919|08|25}} | death_place = Key West, U.S. | resting_place = | education = University of Pennsylvania (1943) | occupation = {{hlist|Real estate developer}} | relatives = Ruth W. Greenfield, sister<BR>Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, nephew }} '''David William Wolkowsky''' (August 25, 1919 – September 23, 2018) was a real estate developer from Key West, Florida. He is credited with transforming the city from a navy town to a tourist destination.<ref name=wpobit>{{Cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/david-wolkowsky-developer-who-transformed-sleepy-key-west-into-a-tourist-haven-dies-at-99/2018/09/28/a6b923f6-c341-11e8-b338-a3289f6cb742_story.html | title=David Wolkowsky, developer who transformed sleepy Key West into a tourist haven, dies at 99 | first=Antonia Noori | last=Farzan | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=September 28, 2018 | url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name=nytobit>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/obituaries/david-wolkowsky-dead.html | title=David Wolkowsky, Developer Hailed as Mr. Key West, Dies at 99 | last=Roberts | first=Sam | newspaper=The New York Times | date=September 26, 2018 | url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name=wsjobit>{{Cite news | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/david-wolkowsky-rehabbed-key-west-fla-and-helped-keep-it-weird-1539354601 | title=David Wolkowsky Rehabbed Key West, Fla., and Helped Keep It Weird | first=James | last=Haggerty | work=The Wall Street Journal | date=October 12, 2018 | url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==Biography== ===Early life and family=== thumb|right|Key West David Wolkowsky's grandfather, Abraham Wolkowsky, was a Russian Jewish immigrant who moved to Key West in 1886, where he initially worked as a peddler and eventually operated businesses including clothing stores, furniture stores, and saloons.<ref name=wpobit/><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVnrswEACAAJ | first=Arlo | last=Haskell | title=The Jews of Key West: Smugglers, Cigar Makers, and Revolutionaries (1823-1969) | location=Key West| publisher=Sand Paper Press | date=2017| isbn=978-0-9843312-7-7 }}</ref> He had two sisters: Edna Wolkowsky (died 2006) and Ruth W. Greenfield (1923-2023), a musician and social activist in Miami.<ref name=advocate>{{cite news | url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article277722378.html | title=Miami musician, civil rights advocate Ruth Greenfield | first=NATALIE LA ROCHE | last=PIETRI | work=Miami Herald | date=July 29, 2023}}</ref> Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, a photographer and filmmaker, is his nephew.<ref name=advocate/><ref name=nytobit/> He has another nephew, Miami based attorney Joseph Lipsky, and a niece, Kim Lipsky, a congressional staffer.
Wolkowsky grew up in Key West and Miami. Originally studying pre-med at the University of Pennsylvania, he decided against medicine as a career and switched to architecture.<ref name=nytobit/> After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1943, he joined the merchant marine and moved to New York, where worked as a floor walker for Lord & Taylor, making $25/week.<ref name=nytobit/>
===Career=== Wolkowsky returned to Philadelphia to restore buildings in the inner city.<ref name=nytobit/> Under the name David Williams, to avoid anti-Semitism, he began the rejuvenation of Society Hill and Rittenhouse Square; his projects received accolades from ''Town & Country'' magazine in 1955.<ref name=nytobit/>
Wolkowsky returned to Key West in late 1962, after the death of his father, Isaac Wolkowsky, to deal with the properties that he inherited from his father.<ref name=wsjobit/> Unable to retire, he rescued a condemned bar on family land on Greene Street, which was the original home of "Sloppy Joe's" of Ernest Hemingway fame. From there, he developed property on lower Duval and Front Streets including "Pirate's Alley" and the "Original Cigar Factory". In 1963, Wolkowsky acquired the old Cuban Ferry Dock, choice waterfront property near Mallory Square,<ref name=nytobit/><ref name=island/> for $106,000.
Wolkowsky lifted the 1890 Porter Steamship office off of its foundation and moved it {{convert|300|ft|m}} out, setting it on pilings in {{convert|40|ft|m}} of water. He transformed the Steamship office into "Tony's Fish Market", a restaurant and cocktail lounge where guests could watch shrimp boats in the channel on their way into port.<ref name=nytobit/>
====Pier House==== In 1967, Wolkowsky hired architect Yiannis B. Antonidis to help design a motel around the restaurant, with 50 unique rooms, to which 50 more rooms that faced the ocean were quickly added. The completed structure was named "Pier House Resort Motel".<ref name=nytobit/><ref name=island/>
The Pier House became a destination for celebrities and media types, mostly because of Wolkowsky's unique personality and laissez-faire attitude, as well as his acute public relations; he invited celebrities as well as photographers to get press coverage.<ref name=wpobit/>
In the late 1970s, Mr. Wolkowsky sold the hotel for $4.6 million.<ref name=wpobit/>
====Ballast Key==== thumb|right|Ballast Key While building the Pier House, in 1974, Wolkowsky bought Ballast Key, an uninhabited, private island, {{convert|8|mi|km}} off Key West. He built a large house and guest house on the island and entertained many of his writer friends there, including Tennessee Williams and Capote. He is known for serving hot dogs, white wine and potato chips to guests including British Prime Minister Edward Heath, various Rockefellers, Mellons and Vanderbilts. During construction of the island, Wolkowsky sent his private barge out to the island loaded with building supplies as well as with chocolate pudding and souffles, from The Pier House kitchens, for his laborers. He donated the island to The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<ref name=refuge>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/key-west-refuge-last-island/ | title=Key to the Refuge | first=Jenny | last=Rogers | work=The Nature Conservancy | date=September 19, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article216792800.html | title=Keys legend could have island named after him | first=Gwen | last=Filosa | work=Miami Herald | date=August 17, 2018 | url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=donated>{{Cite news | url=https://journalrecord.com/2019/04/18/mr-key-west-quietly-donated-his-private-island/ | title='Mr. Key West' quietly donated his private island | agency=Associated Press | work=The Journal Record | date=April 18, 2019}}</ref>
==Philanthropy== In 2000, Wolkowsky created a Teacher Merit Awards fund, which gives $5,000 to each of nine Key West teachers as well as a $25,000 award to a single teacher each year; the fund continues after his death.<ref name=island>{{Cite news | url=https://bittersoutherner.com/this-man-is-an-island-david-wolkowsky-key-west | title=This Man Is an Island | first=Michael | last=Adno | work=The Bitter Southerner}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.keysnews.com/business/bottom_line/foundation-awards-66k-to-key-west-teachers/article_c79eb738-e5a8-11ec-b6eb-936302f2e1ee.html | title=Foundation awards $66K to Key West teachers | work=Key West Citizen | date=June 11, 2022 | url-access=limited}}</ref>
Wolkowsky's collection of Tennessee Williams paintings were exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/arts/design/tennessee-williams-paintings-key-west.html | title=Tennessee Williams Made Paintings. They Were About Love and Loss, Too | last=Adno | first=Michael | work=The New York Times | date=September 21, 2018 | url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/tennessee-williams-playwright-painter-jewish-museum-florida-fiu-miami-beach-10942/ | title='Tennessee Williams: Playwright and Painter' at Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, Miami Beach | work=ARTnews | date=September 7, 2018}}</ref> His art collection was gifted to the Key West Historical Society upon his death.<ref name=donated/><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article224690585.html | title='Mr. Key West' bequeaths Tennessee Williams' paintings, including his portrait, to museum | first=Gwen | last=Filosa | work=Miami Herald | date=January 20, 2019 | url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==Personal life== He enjoyed driving a 1926 Rolls-Royce.<ref name=nytobit/>
Due to his friendship with Tennessee Williams, whom he first met in Philadelphia, Wolkowsky was a pallbearer at his funeral.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/tennessee-williams-writer-poet-painter/2015/04/09/dc93fe00-c7fb-11e4-aa1a-86135599fb0f_story.html | title=A New Orleans exhibit shows a side of Tennessee Williams few knew: Painter | first=Mark | last=Guarino | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=April 10, 2015 | url-access=limited}}</ref>
Wolkowsky rented his bamboo-covered waterfront trailer to Truman Capote, who wanted to spend the winter in Key West. Capote's ''Answered Prayers'' was written there. Discarded handwritten pages were often given to Wolkowsky by Capote. Years later, the papers were reportedly stolen from Wolkowsky's penthouse apartment, high atop Key West's former S. H. Kress & Co. five and dime. Wolkowsky had restored the building, renting out the ground floor to department store "Fast Buck Freddies" and the upper floors to the Key West Parole Department.<ref name=nytobit/>
In April 1993, a street adjoining the Key West Historical Society was named "David Wolkowsky Street" in his honor.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://newspaperarchive.com/key-west-citizen-apr-11-1993-p-1/ | title=Key West Citizen Newspaper Archives, Apr 11, 1993, p. 1 | work=Key West Citizen | via=Newspapers.com | date=April 11, 1993 | url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolkowsky, David}} Category:1919 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American businesspeople in the real estate industry Category:People from Key West, Florida Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni