1910 – Florida State Health Officer Dr. J.Y. Porter notified Key West Mayor Fogarty that the dumping of trash at the foot of White Street would have to end at once. It was decided that garbage would be dumped offshore, and the city would purchase a schooner to tow a garbage barge to the new disposal site.
1920 – Key West public schools opened the new school year with an enrollment of more than 2,600 students.
1933 – U.S. Senator Park Trammel and Key West businessman William R. Porter met with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, urging that, considering the recent coup d’état in Cuba, Naval Station Key West should be reopened.
1934 – Tons of scrap iron, the remains of old coal sheds at the Dry Tortugas, were being brought to Key West by tugboats, loaded onto flat cars, and carried by train to Port Everglades for shipment overseas. Sherman Adler, who bought the metal, expected the work to last three weeks.
1948 – Sister Louis Gabriel died at the Convent of Mary Immaculate where she had served since 1897. On May 25, 1922, at the dedication of the Grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes which was erected to commemorate her 25th anniversary of her religious vows, Sister Gabriel prayed that as long as the Grotto remained standing, Key West would be protected from the ravages of a major hurricane.
1951 – A.E. Golan was building the 48-unit Key Ambassador Motel on South Roosevelt Boulevard and planned to open by December 1.
1954 – Application was filed for a charter for Key West State Bank. The local backers of the bank were: A. Maitland Adams, Howard E. Wilson, Dr. J. Lancelot Lester Jr., Frank A. Shepherd, Karl O. Thompson and Joe Sirugo.
1963 – Long Key residents voted to incorporate a portion of the island as a municipality, approved naming the new city “Layton” and voted to have Del Layton serve as mayor.
1985 – The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services was conducting a study of multiple sclerosis in Monroe County, where as many as 59 cases had been reported. The study did not find any common links in the cases.
1994 – Monroe County Commissioner Wilhelmina Harvey was a guest of President Bill Clinton for the signing of the long-awaited crime bill.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Coaling sheds in the Dry Tortugas C 1920. The DeWolfe and Wood Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.