February 25

411 Whitehead Street, ca. 1965.

1893 – In 1892, the Key West Custom House collected $827,147.79 in import duties. This was more than was collected in the rest of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama combined.

1893 – The Key West City Directory for 1893 reported the population of the city was 23,000.

1910 – Colonel W.H. Towles began construction of a new slaughterhouse at the ocean end of White Street in Key West. The building, to be made of wood with a concrete floor, would replace an old slaughterhouse destroyed by the 1909 Hurricane.

1926 – Scottish baritone singer Glen Ellison, accompanied by Alta Hill on piano, appeared at the High School Auditorium in Key West. In some of the numbers, re-creations of Ellison’s voice were played via an Edison phonograph so the audience could compare the fidelity of the machine to the real thing.

1951 – Secretary of the Navy Francis Matthews was the featured speaker at the grand opening of the Key West Art & Historical Society’s Museum and Art Gallery at the East Martello Tower.

1961 – Miami businessman and Key West native Mitchell Wolfson announced that he had purchased the four-volume elephant folio of John J. Audubon’s “Birds of America,” and he intended for the masterwork to be permanently exhibited in Key West. Wolfson was responsible for the restoration of the island’s  Audubon House.

1971 – Four Cuban fishing vessels were seized near the Dry Tortugas and their crews arrested and charged with fishing inside U.S. territorial waters.

1986 – The Old Island Restoration Commission approved the moving of a house at 411 Whitehead Street to 709 Thomas Street, so the parking lot of the La Concha Hotel could be expanded as part of the dormant hotel’s renovation before reopening.

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

Image: 411 Whitehead Street, ca. 1965. Sqr 38, Pt Lot 3. Photo taken by Monroe County Property Appraiser's office. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.