Today in Keys History – January 12
1847 – A Key West correspondent wrote, “The light ship has been put on her station in the vicinity of Sand Key. She is schooner-rigged, with a lantern placed amidships, about twenty-five feet high.” The vessel was a temporary replacement for the Sand Key lighthouse blown down in the 1846 hurricane.
1891 – The Key West City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the killing or trapping of any songbird.
1911 – Residents of Cape Sable requested that Monroe County build a road to connect their community with the highways of Dade County. The benefit, they felt, was that a section of rich land at the extreme southern end of mainland Florida would be opened to greater use.
1927 – The Army announced that the post cemetery of the Key West Army Barracks would be moved to Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola.
1971 – John Dedek purchased the neglected Fogarty House property at 227 Duval Street in Key West. He later restored the building and opened Dedek’s Restaurant and Cafe.
2000 – Jon P. Johnson became Marathon’s first-ever city councilman by default after no one opposed him in the Seat Five race.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Dedek’s Restaurant at 227 Duval Street, Key West, ca. 1970. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.