February 7
- Florida Keys History Center
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
1897 – The Monroe County Schools received state aid of 60 cents per student based on an average attendance of 1,473 students.
1906 – Captain P.L. Cosgrove retired after 30 years with the Lighthouse Service, most of the time as captain of the lighthouse tender Laurel. His son P.L. Cosgrove, Jr. succeeded him in command of the Laurel.
1912 – Keys political leader Wilhelmina Goehring Harvey was born at 1400 Petronia Street in Key West. She served on the Monroe County School Board and the Monroe County Commission, and she was the first woman to serve as Monroe County Mayor.
1946 – Overseas Highway tolls for January totaled $40,095, an increase of almost $17,000 over the previous year. There were 16,825 passenger vehicles for the month, carrying 48,008 occupants.
1955 – Hundreds of people in Key West, and others from central Florida to Cuba, saw a large meteor flash across the sky at 7:30 p.m. The first thought of many was that it was the explosion of an atomic bomb.
1960 – Construction of a 1,400-foot recreation pier at the foot of Key West’s White Street was well underway. Planned expansions for the pier included docking for small boats, the extension of South Roosevelt Boulevard from Bertha Street to White Street, and improvement of the beach fronting the new road.
1961 – In protest over Fidel Castro’s control of Cuba, the directors of Key West’s San Carlos Institute announced that the organization would celebrate no Cuban patriotic events until a “legally elected constitutional government” came to power in Havana.
1975 – The Oldest House on Duval Street officially opened as a museum. The house had been restored by the Historic Key West Preservation Board and the Old Island Restoration Foundation, which would manage the new museum.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Wilhelmina Goehring Harvey, ca. 1930. Gift Pauline Ketchings. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
