December 12

Key West open-air aquarium at the end of Whitehead Street.

1893 – Key West’s Trinity Presbyterian Church was founded by Reverend George Lester as the Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church. The ministers for the church came from the Bahamas but during the depression the practice ended and on May 12, 1931, the church became Trinity Presbyterian.

1904 – The Navy’s wireless telegraph was being built on the Naval Station by the DeForest Company.

1924 – The Big Pine Key residence of Mrs. Lida R. Calkins was destroyed by fire. Calkins had left her waterfront home in the Palm Villa By The Sea subdivision for the post office, and when she returned the house was in flames. The loss was estimated at $3,500.

1935 – Biologist Emory Lowe Pierce of the Key West Aquarium received notice that his proposal for a crawfish and stone crab hatchery had been approved by Washington. Pierce said that as soon as he could set up the equipment, the process of hatching the crustaceans would begin.

1940 – The Fleet Sonar School was established at the Naval Station. This school would play an important part in training sonar operators to man the ships that defeated the German U-boats in World War II. After the war the school would train thousands of U.S. and allied Navies students until the early 1970s.

1969 – In a ceremony at the Naval Air Station Key West, Lt. Colonel Eugene Flanagan relieved Lt. Colonel William Badaker as Commanding Officer of the Army’s 6th Battalion (HAWK), 65th Artillery.

2014 – Key West National Wildlife Refuge management informed high performance powerboat operators that Boca Grande was off-limits for their annual “Fun Run to Boca Grande,” after more than 150 boats gathered at the small island 20 miles west of Key West a month earlier.

---

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

Image: Key West open-air aquarium at the end of Whitehead Street. From the DeWolfe and Wood Collection in the Otto Hirzel Scrapbook. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.