Today in Keys History – April 12, 2024
1893 – The Key West Cornet Band was the “Champion of the State.” The officers of the band were: Charles A. Shavers, president; F.W. Adams Jr., vice president; F.E. Welters, secretary; N.F. English, treasurer and Cubel Mickens, leader and director.
1924 – Monroe County voters who wished to participate in the year’s upcoming primary and general elections were reminded they were required to have their 1922 and 1923 polls taxes paid. If they wanted to vote in the city bond election in May, a third poll tax would be necessary.
1937 – A party from Green Bay, Wisconsin, fishing with charter boat captain Jake Key brought in a Kingfish that weighed 121 pounds.
1956 – Adlai Stevenson, candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, spoke to a large crowd at Bayview Park.
1975 – The Salgado Brothers grocery at the corner of Eaton and Grinnell streets in Key West closed for good. The grocery, said to be the oldest on the island, had first opened in the 1880s.
2009 – The former Air Force missile tracking ship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg left Norfolk, Virgina, on its way to Key West to be sunk as an artificial reef.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Salgado Brothers Grocery, 930 Eaton Street; built c1889; Sqr 33, Pt Lot 2. Photo taken by Monroe County Property Appraiser’s office, ca. 1965. Monroe County Library Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.