Eduardo H. Gato House, Mission Revival architecture house in Key West, Florida, US

The Eduardo H. Gato House is a wooden residential building on Virginia Street that combines Mission Revival design with a Cuban-style inner courtyard and wide verandas. The structure was built to provide both indoor and outdoor living spaces suited to the warm climate.

The house was built in 1890 during the height of Key West's cigar manufacturing boom. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, recognizing its importance to the town's architectural heritage.

The house is also remembered as the Mercedes Hospital, a name it carried in later use. Its Cuban-style courtyard and wide verandas, recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey, are the features a passer-by can still pick out from the street. A historical marker on the site recounts this past.

The property is now a private residential complex that can be viewed from the street, with an educational historical marker at the front. Visitors can observe the exterior design and learn about its past through the informational plaque.

The owner Eduardo H. Gato was a Cuban immigrant who became a successful cigar merchant and part of Key West's wealthy tobacco trade community. His choice of location and design reflects how businessmen in this industry expressed their prosperity through their homes.