January 14
- Florida Keys History Center
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
1891 – In the early morning hours, thieves blew open the safe at the Key West Post Office and made off with $2,100 in cash. They also stole 24 registered letters that contained a large amount of money.
1910 – All the concrete railroad piers had been completed from Knight’s Key to Pigeon Key, and half from there to Moser Channel. To aid the progress, the camp at West Summerland Key was to be closed and the workforce moved to Pigeon Key.
1926 – The Key West chapter of the Ku Klux Klan initiated 20 new members, all dressed in full regalia, before the audience of the Bob Morton traveling circus, which had been brought to the island under sponsorship of the Klan organization.
1926 – Monroe County Commissioners awarded the Janner Brothers construction company a $563,145 contract to build a section of the Overseas Highway running from the lower end of Key Largo to the southern terminus of Lower Matecumbe Key.
1941 – Captain Edward “Bra” Saunders, 75, died at his home in Key West. Captain Saunders was the fishing guide for Ernest Hemingway and “gang.” Hemingway used him as his model for the character Captain Willie Adams in the novel “To Have and Have Not.”
1956 – Key West’s building boom continued with the announcement by the Porter-Wagor-Russell company that they would build 32 homes in the new “Bay Manor” subdivision along Patterson and Fogarty avenues around 11th and 12th streets. The homes would sell for approximately $14,000.
1964 – The Monroe County Board of Public Instruction named Key West’s new junior high school for Horace O’Bryant, superintendent of public instruction, in recognition of his 35 years of service to the school system.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Construction work on the Seven Mile Bridge piers. The wooden pier to the Knights Key dock is beside the concrete piers. The postcard was mailed from Lantana, Florida on November 3, 1909. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
