April 8

The Cuban Club at 1108 Duval Street, Key West, in 1976.

1898 – Chief Gunner’s Mate Oscar Johnson, a 31-year-old native of Sweden, was asphyxiated while in a diving suit examining the hull of the USS Newport. He was buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West Cemetery.

1928 – Pauline and Ernest Hemingway arrived in Key West for the first time on the Peninsular & Occidental steamship from Havana.

1945 – Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin W. Demeritt received word from the War Department that their son Ray E., who had been reported missing 10 months before when he bailed out of his plane over France, had died of his wounds.

1949 – The Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff met at the Little White House. General Dwight Eisenhower, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was in Key West recovering from a serious illness and so the Chief and their deputies flew to Key West for the meeting. The Chiefs and Secretary met for three days.

1956 – Nearly 100 travel agents from Cuba arrived at Key West on the ferry City of Havana. They were visiting to get first-hand information on the attractions and accommodations offered in the Keys.

1976 – The Historic Key West Preservation Board approved a contract with the Florida Division of Archives to conduct a complete historical, architectural, and archaeological survey of the island. The results of the survey would then be used to inform development planning.

1988 – The Key West City Commission, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, approved plans to rebuild the Cuban Club at 1102 and 1108 Duval Street. The original building had been destroyed by fire in 1983.

---

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

Image: The Cuban Club at 1108 Duval Street, Key West, in 1976. Photo by Joe Regan. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.