February 22

An aerial view of West Summerland Key and the Boy Scout Camp, looking east toward Bahia Honda.

1821 – The United States Senate ratified the Adams-Onis treaty with Spain and Florida became a U.S. Territory.

1917 – Polk’s Key West city directory for 1917/1918 listed 80 grocery stores in the city.

1925 – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Mrs. Lou Hoover, Attorney General Harlan F. Stone and Mrs. Agnes Stone, and Mark Sullivan, writer with Collier’s Weekly, and Mrs. Marie Sullivan arrived on the yacht Kilkenny and registered as guests of the Hotel Casa Marina.

1946 – Boy Scouts of Key West Troops 50, 51 and 52 left for a three-day camping trip to the old Civilian Conservation Corps Camp on West Summerland Key. This was the first time the Scouts made use of the site.

1949 – Renovations and the redecorating of Key West’s Little White House, used by President Truman, were completed. The work cost about $60,000.

1961 – The Monroe County Health Department was victorious over the developer of an unsanitary “shantytown” housing project built for Black residents at Tavernier. The eight small plywood buildings were serviced by three illegal cesspools. The structures were ordered to be condemned within 30 days.

1971 – The new Key West Tree Commission was authorized by the City Commission.

1986 – During recent work on Old Town streets, the City of Key West had unearthed many old paving bricks. Those that were in good condition would be reused to repave the entrance to Simonton Beach.

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

Image: An aerial view of West Summerland Key and the Boy Scout Camp, looking east toward Bahia Honda. Photo taken by the Federal Government on October 7, 1987. From the Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.