1900 – The Mayor of Key West was George L. Bartlum. The members of the Key West Board Aldermen were: Charles R. Pierce, Joshua Curry, C.J. Hullsenkamp, George M. Bryson, Charles Shavers, T.A. Thompson, John Scheurer, J.W. Johnson and Willis Bethel. The other officials were: W. Hunt Harris, police justice; H.G. Fulford, city engineer; Thomas E. Saunders, assessor; William Weatherford, collector of revenue; C.F. Albury, chief of police; George B. Phillips, city clerk; William H. Williams, treasurer; Edward Page, sexton; Dr. J.W.V.R. Plummer, health officer; H.F. Urie, sanitary inspector; Joseph Bennett, jailor; Alfred Lowe custodian public records and R.T. Hick, meat inspector.
1923 – The American Legion, Key West Athletic Club, and U.S. Naval Station all signaled their intention to form a new baseball league at Key West.
1926 – At the request of the Tropical Florida Development Corporation, Monroe County Engineer W.G. Blanchard went to inspect the progress of the road linking the townsite of Poinciana on mainland Monroe with the Tamiami Trail.
1933 – M.R. Gates, prison inspector with the Florida Department of Agriculture, visited the Monroe County jail and reported it fully met all state requirements and “was 100 percent in every way.”
1937 – The opening session of the Community Drama Institute, under the direction of Nell Jewel Howze and Daniel Fager of the Works Progress Administration, was being held at the Key West High School Auditorium. The same course would be opened later for Black students at the Douglass School.
1945 – Ellis and Josephine Giddens bought 456 acres on Lower Matecumbe Key for $56,250. They had already arranged for bulldozers to clear and level the land, after which they planned to build wharves and bulkheads and plant 1,000 coconut trees.
1966 – Ground was broken on Stock Island to begin construction on the largest seawater conversion plant. The plant designed by Westinghouse would produce 2.62 million gallons of fresh water per day from sea water.
1995 – The Monroe County Library Branch on Big Pine Key opened.
1990 – Monroe County Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a land-use plan that would allow Big Pine Key to grow from 5,000 to 13,000 residents over 20 years. Commissioner Gene Lytton was dismissive of any potential effects on Key Deer: “They’re quasi-domesticated, regardless of who wants to debate the point,” he said.
1993 – A Tampa woman was seriously injured when a barracuda leaped into the cabin of a rented houseboat. The fish left her with wounds that required nearly 200 stitches.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Stock Island Desalting plant circa 1960s. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.