Today in Keys History – July 27, 2024
1864 – Admiral Theodorus Bailey, flag officer commanding the East Gulf Blockading Squadron at Key West, wrote: “My worst fears have been more than realized, and for more than two months [yellow fever] has held its course without abatement… [it] has been raging at this post with a violence that has exceeded that of 1862, or I believe of any previous year.”
1923 – Architect and civil engineer Sr. Francisco Centurion, Dr. A. Covas Guerrero from Havana’s Office of Public Works, and Ramon Perdomo of the San Carlos Institute arrived in Key West to plan for the construction of a new San Carlos Theater at the site where the old theater stood on Duval Street.
1933 – The Smith Shoals lighthouse was first lighted.
1974 – Marathon’s Lum’s restaurant burned to the ground overnight. It was the fourth major fire in Marathon and the Middle Keys over the previous few months, but authorities were not sure an arsonist was to blame for the disasters.
1981 – Peter Pell, one of the founders of Key West Hand Print Fabrics, died suddenly at his home in Key West. Pell, with his partner James Russell, founded the Hand Print Fabrics in the early 1960’s.
1990 – A second endangered green sea turtle suffering with strange tumors called fibropapillomas was found in the Florida Keys. The turtle was flown to the University of Florida for emergency treatment, with hopes that veterinarians there could find a cause for the mysterious condition.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The memorial in Bayview Park for the soldiers from New York State who died (mostly from yellow fever) in Key West during the Civil War. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.