1928 – Famed Florida writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas, accompanied by politician Ruth Bryan Owen, arrived at Key West via the Oversea Highway. Douglas said of the new road, “Impressive as the highway is to me, it is much less [so] than the courage and foresight Monroe County displayed in building it.”
1934 – Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankees first baseman, was spending a few days fishing with his wife Eleanor at the Long Key Fishing Camp.
1939 – A Works Progress Administration sewer line project employing 442 Key West men had, to date, laid 20 miles of sewer pipe in the city.
1948 – The County Home on Stock Island was opened, and the 18 occupants of the old home, on Poorhouse Lane, were moved to the new facility.
1964 – Former President Harry Truman and wife Bess arrived at Indies House on Duck Key to start a three-week vacation.
1993 – The 147-foot freighter Miss Beholding was aground on Western Sambo Reef. The captain, fearing the ship was sinking during the winter storm March 13, had it run aground for safety.
2010 – Snook’s Bayside Restaurant at MM 99.9 in Key Largo was destroyed in an intense overnight blaze. The owner of the popular eatery vowed to rebuild.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Installing sewer lines in Key West, 1930s. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.