This lovely Greek Revival is located in the tony, peacock-filled Miami neighborhood of Coconut Grove. So the story goes, it was built in 1910 for John T. Peacock, a member of the affluent nabe’s founding family. The estate is just over an acre, a notably large plot for the area, and the 7,000-square-foot house is set back 100 yards from the street, which makes for a long, elegant drive that loops around a reflecting pool with fountains.
Asking a hearty $12.9 million, the property is listed with Lourdes Alatriste at Douglas Elliman. Just three years ago, It had been listed for an even heartier $15.8 million; but in 2019, the current owners, attorney Isaac Kodsi and wife Teresita, paid just $6.6 million for the place at auction, a stunning $9 million discount off the asking price.
The house was thoroughly renovated circa 2016, with the additions of an outdoor wet bar, gym and a temperature-controlled wine cellar with room for 1,500 bottles, along with a steam bath with integrated aromatherapy, and, important features in hurricane country, high impact windows trimmed in Honduran mahogany and a 60KW diesel generator. Fortunately, the house retains its original Florida cherrywood floors and mahogany doors.
There are 4 bedrooms and 5.5 baths in the main house, plus two more independent guest suites with private baths. Covered loggias, the last word in indoor/outdoor living a hundred years ago, overlook the L-shaped pool, which is followed by a rambling backyard and a lighted tennis and basketball court.
So who was John T. Peacock? Known as Jolly Jack, the English immigrant fell in love with the Grove in the 1870s, built a waterfront home, and bragged about life in the tropics to his brother back in London. Intrigued, his brother Charles and wife Isabella left London, moved to the Grove and built the Peacock Inn. Credited with being the first establishment that attracted tourists to South Florida, it was the Peacock Inn that spurred Henry Flagler, builder of the Florida East Coast Railway, to extend the railroad to the tip of southern Florida. Today the site of the former Peacock Inn is Peacock Park, where peacocks roam freely, as they do all over the Grove, although no one is sure where they originally came from.
There’s just one little problem. This house was built in 1910, three years after Jolly Jack’s death. Did he have a son with the same name? Does it matter? Whatever the case, the mansion’s up-to-date amenities combined with early Florida charm will make any new owner proud as a Peacock.