April 10

Wreckage of Key West's First Baptist Church, 524 Eaton Street, after the fire April 2, 1956.

1862 – A correspondent writing from Fort Jefferson at Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas noted that about 40 enslaved workers, all of them owned by Key Westers, were engaged in the construction of the fort.

1924 – The State of Florida’s Internal Improvement Fund advertised Wisteria Island (Christmas Tree Island) for sale. The island which was created when marl from the harbor was thrown upon the shoal. The island was about 400 by 300 feet.

1958 – Billy Watkins Moody, serving a sentence in Monroe County Jail for larceny, admitted to having started multiple fires in Key West, including at the First Baptist Church in 1956, the Poinciana Laundry, the A&B Storage Company, and the Jockey Club. Moody claimed he had set 44 fires around the country.

1963 – Two reporters from the Key West Citizen visited No Name Key to investigate reports that anti-Castro Revolutionaries were using the island for training. They found a secret camp with nine young Cubans conducting exercises on the remote island.

1985 – In a referendum for a special tax levy for a new fire truck for the special taxing district that included Conch, Duck and Grassy keys, the vote ended in a 60 to 60 tie. In accordance with Florida law a lot was drawn to decide the election, and the “no” was pulled, defeating the measure.

1990 – Per a requirement by the Environmental Protection Agency, the City Electric System was testing more than 3,000 of its older transformers throughout the Lower Keys for the presence of toxic PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls).

Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Wreckage of Key West's First Baptist Church, 524 Eaton Street, after the fire April 2, 1956. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.