1858 - Sombrero Key Lighthouse was first lighted under the charge of lightkeeper Joseph Bethel.
1916 – The Key West Rotary Club was organized.
1927 – Key Westers were responding almost unanimously to a drive to stamp out diphtheria in the area. At the high school, only three students had not agreed to take the test to determine if they needed inoculation: One for religious reasons, one for fear, and one for indifference.
1941 – Grant Wood, noted American artist, gave a lecture at the Key West High School Auditorium titled “Contemporary American Painting.” The lecture was a benefit for the Key West Art Center and the Woman’s Club Library Building Fund.
1947 – Pauline Hemingway purchased the two-story home at 525 Caroline Street in Key West for use as a drapery and upholstery business, which she would operate in partnership with her friend Lorine Thompson.
2010 – The board of the financially troubled Bahama Conch Community Land Trust voted to dissolve the organization and deed its 41 housing units and four vacant properties to the Key West Housing Authority.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Sombrero Key Lighthouse. Photo by Charles H. Anderson from the Wright Langley collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.