December 10
- Florida Keys History Center
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
1830 – President Andrew Jackson appointed William A. Whitehead to be Collector of Customs and Inspector of Revenue for the Port of Key West.
1899 – Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Allen wrote that the bodies of the USS Maine victims would remain in Key West. The Maine dead buried in Cuba would be removed to the United States and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1938 – City Attorney Henry H. Taylor Jr. filed incorporation papers for the Key West Federal Art Center. The center was a nonprofit organization to initiate and aid cultural activity in the city. Mrs. Florence Spottswood was chairman.
1940 – Nationally-known apiarist Ernest R. Root visited Key West to survey the island’s potential as a bee-raising center. Root found the climate ideal for bees but noted a difficulty for Key West apiaries would be their distance from honey markets.
1950 – The Department of State presented Key West native Frank E. Pinder, head agricultural production specialist of the United States Economic Mission in Liberia, with the Meritorious Service award.
1960 – Florida Governor LeRoy Collins dedicated and christened John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first wholly underwater park in the world. A crowd of over 1,000 attended the ceremony at Harry Harris Oceanfront Park near Tavernier.
1993 – The new Monroe County Jail on Stock Island was dedicated.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Governor LeRoy Collins at the dedication of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on December 10, 1960. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.