1929 – A post office opened at Perky on Sugarloaf Key. There had been a post office at an earlier settlement there called Chase, but it had closed 12 years before.
1939 – President Franklin Roosevelt arrived in Key West at 3 p.m. after driving the Overseas Highway from Miami. He was met at West Summerland Key by Key West Mayor Willard Albury who rode to the city with him. The President inspected the inactive Naval Station facilities and then boarded the USS Houston, which then sailed for the Caribbean to take part in war games in progress.
1975 – Federal judge Wm. O. Mehrtens ordered the developer of the Orchid Park subdivision on Sugarloaf Key to fill two canals that had been dredged and illegally connected to the navigable water of the United States. It was the eighth such court-ordered environmental restoration in the Keys over recent months.
1984 – Ground was broken for a new gym at Horace O’Bryant Middle School. The gym was named for the late Enoch “Johnny” Walker, the former chairman of the Monroe County School Board.
1999 – Howard S. England died at the age of 85. He spent many years of work first as a volunteer and later as a Florida State Park Ranger at Fort Taylor. Howard’s many years of work was instrumental in saving of Fort Taylor and creation of the Fort Taylor State Park.
1999 – Key West City Clerk Josephine Parker died unexpectedly after collapsing at the dais just before the start of a City Commission meeting at Old City Hall. The highly respected and much beloved Parker had been clerk for 20 years and an employee of the city for much longer.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Mayor Richard Heyman being given the oath of office by Key West City Clerk Josephine Parker. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.