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Homes

Front porch: 'Labyrinth' art adds to Hyde Park

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published March 18, 2005

Lyla Haggard bought her little patch of paradise with its sparkling sideways view of Tampa Bay in 1997 for the blue-chip location.

Not the house.

"I rented three places before I bought on purpose," recalls Haggard, a retired vice president of marketing who traded life in Philadelphia for the Florida sunshine.

But Haggard wanted more than just balmy weather and the carefree existence of a permanent tourist. She wanted grit and brick and the energy a real city brings. She also wanted beauty.

"I liked being in a warm climate, around water and near downtown," she says. "And this area offered all that."

Though charming, her house just off Bayshore Boulevard on DeSoto Avenue isn't typical fare for the graceful old neighborhood.

It's one of nine homes - and by far the newest - included on the third annual Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association house tour on Saturday. Haggard agreed to let hundreds of visitors traipse through her cozy, book-and-art-filled rooms for a reason: "People need to see that Hyde Park offers something other than bungalows," she explains.

Built in 1946 by Harry Bayah Jr. - whose father moved the original mansion on the property to Bayshore - this modest cottage invites a lingering look because of its mansard roof, red front door and black shutters. It features a screened pool and a maze of rooms that connect a little bit like Scrabble letters or a crossword puzzle, once inspiring a friend to christen the place: "Lyla's Labyrinth."

Tour literature notes that the zany, architectural melange could be "lovingly described as fantasy French Revival," though it truly defies categorization.

Renters occupied the little house for years, and when Haggard first peeked inside, she shuddered: "I didn't want to touch anything - you really had to have an imagination to picture what it could become," she recalls.

She paid $175,000 for the place - and plunked another $75,000 into fixing it up. It stands as an homage to what can be done "with a limited budget and lots of creativity," says Haggard, a painter and sculptor, who converted a poolside apartment into her art studio.

By opening up tight spaces, sticking with a neutral palette, and not overspending on materials (in the kitchen, for example, she opted for monochromatic colors and Formica counter tops), she created a modern, gallerylike environment for displaying art. The walls are filled with paintings by artist friends, as well as her own work, including Haggard's luminous still-lifes and landscapes of Greece.

Her whimsical sculpture displayed throughout the studio confront the sometimes thorny physical issues of aging and beauty. Gray haired and slightly sagging, her figures open up like candy Easter eggs to reveal more youthful selves in bikinis or boxer shorts.

"Cheaper than a psychiatrist," quips Haggard, who is 60 years old.

When she took early retirement a few years ago, Haggard visited friends all over the country to try to determine where to hang out for the second act of her life.

"I'm very lucky, I have lots of good friends who live in different places - so I took mooching to a high art form," she explains.

She ruled out a lot of A-list cities in favor of Tampa. She also ruled out a lot of neighborhoods, choosing Historic Hyde Park as her nesting place of choice.

"I surprised myself buying a traditional, slightly older home because I've always loved contemporary," she says.

"But I really bought for the location. This is my retirement home - a place I made into something I wanted to live in rather than resell. I don't see myself moving any time soon."

[Last modified March 17, 2005, 08:40:12]