Today in Keys History – Oct. 25, 2022
1888 – Jefferson B. Browne was named Postmaster of Key West.
1901 – The United States dredge boat Winyah Bay competed its work on the northwest channel and steamers could go through at low tide. The depth was about15 feet, which is ample for the boats that used that channel. Larger vessels used the main channel and southwest channel, which had enough water for the largest vessels.
1923 – The 25 cigar factories of Key West were producing over 60 million cigars annually.
1931 – Elena Hoyas Mesa, 22, died of tuberculosis. She would achieve fame as the corpse that Carl Tanzler (who called himself Count Carl von Cosel) would live with for seven years.
1950 – The Navy announced plans for 1,000 new housing units at Dredgers Key (known today as Sigsbee Park), Trumbo Point and the old Army Barracks (known today as Peary Court). The old and dilapidated housing at the Army Barracks and Rest Beach was torn down.
1962 – Military activity remained high in support of the Navy ships operating on the quarantine of Cuba ordered by President Kennedy over the Russian missile on the island.
1994 – Delio Cobo, retired dentist, died at age 83. He had served on the Key West City Commission, Utility Board and the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority board. He also was Mayor of Key West from 1957 to 1961 and from 1969 to 1971.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library
Image: Aerial of Navy housing being built on Gilmore Drive in Sigsbee Park, C 1960. Photo by Airdevron One. From the DeWolfe and Wood Collection. Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library. https://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/8582976012/