1890 – Key West, with a population of 18,786, was the largest city in Florida. Primary employers were the cigar factories making...

1873 – The Alligator Reef Lighthouse was completed. 1907 – Coast Artillery companies were conducting target practice from Fort Taylor...

1901 – The population of South Florida (all the land south of Lake Okeechobee, comprising Lee, Dade, and Monroe counties) was 26,092....

1899 – Thanksgiving Day was observed by all churches, which held services. In the afternoon the bazaar was held at La Brisa. The bicycle...

1901 – The population of Monroe County by the 1900 census was 18,066, with 17,114 in the city of Key West, and the remainder of 364 in...

1907 – The Florida East Coast Railway steamer St. Lucie left Key West for Long Key with a crowd of men. The railroad had announced 100...

1899 – Annie Fay, a white woman, and Will Harrison, a Black man, were convicted in the criminal court at Key West for having married....

1895 – The Key West sponge schooner Shamrock sank off St. Marin’s Key and six of the 14-man crew were lost. 1908 – James Miller, a Key...

1907 – Russell Hall was reopened after Schools Superintendent J.V. Harris had closed the school for a week because a saloon was nearby....

1909 – The Bell Telephone Company at Key West, which had been destroyed in the October 11 hurricane, had restored service to 200 lines...

1906 – The Episcopal bishop’s yacht Message of Peace arrived at Key West from Nassau with Rev. Father Andley J. Brown and H.W. Weigall...

1908 – Captain A.B. Potter of the R.G. Ross Construction Company arrived to begin work on raising the east jetty of the Northwest...

1904 – James A. Waddell died at age 65. He was born in Canada and came to Key West in 1881 to work at the John White Bank. He served as...

1908 – There was a scarcity of gasoline in Key West after the schooner Wave burned in Tampa 10 days earlier. While Capt. George Wish...

1898 – Battery B, 1st U.S. Army Artillery, with 2 officers and 121 men, arrived at the Key West Barracks from Hilton Head, SC. 1907 – A...

1890 – Commander J.H. Winn, Commander Naval Base Key West, moved into the newly built commandant’s quarters (now known as the Little...

1909 – Many vessels were still sunk, jumbled, or trapped at Key West because of the October 11 hurricane. Especially problematic were...

1828 – The act incorporating the City of Key West was repealed and a new one incorporating the Town of Key West was passed by the...

In November 1831, a ship carrying 230 Irish laborers to New Orleans ran aground. The passengers rose up and caused havoc in Key West.

1853 – Capt. J.M. Scarritt of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was in charge the construction of Fort Taylor in Key West Harbor. It was...