April 16

The Key West Citizen building at 3420 Northside Drive.

1926 – New sanitary regulations went into effect in Key West. Among the rules: All privies had to be made fly-proof; cisterns had to be screened to prevent access by mosquitoes; any freshwater pond or area where water could stand had to be filled.

1952 – The first families moved into the new 1,000-unit military housing projects at Sigsbee Park and Peary Court.

1976 – Florida Keys State Representative Wm. A. Freeman submitted a bill that would create districts for jurors serving in any county with a population over 50,000. The need for districts was especially acute in Monroe County, where jurors from Key Largo had to travel to Key West, or Key Westers to Marathon.

1976 – Musician Jimmy Buffett gave an evening performance at the “Saints and Sinners Room,” located in the Key Wester Motel’s Inner Circle Lounge on South Roosevelt Boulevard.

1985 – Mayor Richard Heyman led the ground-breaking ceremonies for the new 158-room Key West Hampton Inn on North Roosevelt Boulevard.

1997 – Monroe County commissioners voted unanimously to rename the new county government building on Truman Avenue The Harvey Government Center at the Historic Truman School. The new name honored the late C.B. Harvey, former mayor of Key West, and his wife Wilhelmina, at the time serving as a county commissioner and who had been the first woman mayor of Monroe County.

2019 – A large majority – 69% – of Key West voters said “Yes” to the city’s purchase of the Key West Citizen building on Northside Drive. The city hoped to house its Community Services department there.

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

Image: The Key West Citizen building at 3420 Northside Drive. Photo by Raymond L. Blazevic. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.