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Today in Keys History – June 5, 2023

A three story building with palm trees around it.

1887 – Key West had two cases of yellow fever in a recent outbreak. Authorities were urging those who were not acclimated to the island climate to leave, and many “strangers” were departing by steamship. 

1903 – City workers were excavating a trench near the intersection of United and Thomas streets when they uncovered at least 50 skeletons, along with three headstones dating between 1835 and 1838.

1914 – The U.S. Marine Hospital was located at the corner of Fleming and Emma streets. G.M Gutierrez was the surgeon in charge and S.D.W. Light was the medical officer in command. Dr. Light was also in charge of the U.S. Quarantine Station.

1922 – Unemployment in the cigar business at Key West and Tampa was high, with as many as half the workers laid off and only part-time work available.

1927 – The new Overseas Highway from Key West to Big Pine Key was opened for traffic. An estimated 1,000 cars with 4,000 passengers made the round trip.

1929 – Examples of the new, small-size U.S. paper currency were on display at the First National Bank in Key West. The new bills were 25% smaller than the old series and were to begin circulation on July 10.

1941 – Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Arthur Gomez ordered 198 ½ acres on Boca Chica Key to be condemned for use as a county airport. The landowners would be paid $35 an acre for yielding their property.

1943 – Local and federal officials recommended that the 700 families in the Navy’s Poinciana Place, because of the neighborhood’s distance from the City of Key West proper, be given their own school, firehouse, and police station.

1953 – A waterspout slashed through Key West turning over a Martin P5M seaplane at the Naval Air Station at Trumbo Point, smashing 16 windows at Key West High school on White Street and slicing in half a two-foot tree on Johnson Street.

1989 – The Key West Citizen changed from an afternoon to a morning newspaper with the first morning edition.

1997 – Representatives from 47 nations were attending a drug summit hosted by the Joint Interagency Task Force East at the Truman Annex of the Naval Air Station.

Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: U. S. Marine Hospital, Key West. From the N. Y. Herald Syndicate. 23 July 1912. The De Wolfe and Wood Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

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