1823 – At Key West a battery was erected with eight guns, under the command of Capt. Grayson, U.S. Marine Corps. A national salute was fired, and the town named Allenton. Commodore David Porter also “proclaimed some wholesome regulations, for the present government of the place.”
1829 – The citizens of Indian Key, joined by various seamen, raised a flag staff on the island, to the encouraging shouts of the attendees. It was said, “A remarkable occurrence took place – persons who had climbed to the top of the staff, say to the height of 40 feet – after drinking several toasts, threw the glasses to the ground, which fell without breaking or fracturing any one of them.”
1845 – Army engineers were surveying in Key West, prompting a reporter to predict, “It is not anticipating too much to say, that a battery or fortresses, will in a few years present their iron teeth from this Key, which shall throw the command of the Gulf under its guns.”
1905 – The 216-acre plantation owned by Cephas Pinder at Matecumbe Key was sold to developers Jose Piodela and Joaquin Leon. The men had architects drawing up plans for a new city there consisting of 1,172 lots intersected by 11 avenues and eight streets.
1972 – Florida Keys Enterprises revealed plans for a $25 million, 1,120-unit housing complex planned for a 52-acre site on South Roosevelt Boulevard.
1984 – The University of Miami requested that Monroe County Commissioners allow them to sub-lease Pigeon Key to Walt Disney Enterprises. Disney’s Epcot Center wanted to create marine holding pens around the island for captured Keys marine life before shipment to their “Living Seas” aquarium in Orlando.
1994 – Filming of skydiving sequences for the movie “Drop Zone,” starring actors Wesley Snipes and Gary Busey, took place at the Sugarloaf Key airport.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A print of Fort Taylor under construction from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper of August 9, 1856. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.