December 29

The Overseas Highway toll booth at Lower Matecumbe Key, ca. 1940.

1912 – President William H. Taft returned to Key West from his inspection of the work on the Panama Canal and boarded a train for Washington, DC.

1923 – Key West’s Casa Marina Hotel opened for the season with a dinner and dance with the largest number of diners served since its first year.

1938 – Toll receipts showed that 1,821 automobiles, carrying 3,632 passengers, had traveled the Florida Keys Overseas Highway over the Christmas weekend.

1945 – The mackerel market in the Keys was glutted, and wholesalers had stopped making purchases from fishermen. Reports were that vast schools, with many thousands of fish each, were present in local waters.

1955 – In honor of President Dwight Eisenhower’s visit to Key West, North Beach Road was renamed to Eisenhower Drive.

1975 – Tourists were arriving in the Keys in record numbers. The Key West Chamber of Commerce reported that there were no rooms available.

1985 – The City of Key West’s Port and Transit Authority was pursuing state funding to remove 43 derelict vessels from city waters, which it was estimated would cost over $85,000 to raise.

1996 – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, wife Rosalynn, and 32 members of their family were in Key West to celebrate the New Year’s Holiday.

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

Image: The Overseas Highway toll booth at Lower Matecumbe Key, ca. 1940. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.