July 14

Dogs laze on the sidewalk at Simonton and Eaton streets, Key West, ca. 1970.

1888 – Benjamin B. Baker, master wrecker and pioneer pineapple planter on the Keys, died at his home on Key Largo.

1900 – Key West had three newspapers: The Key West Inter-Ocean, T.J. Appleyard, editor in chief, published daily except Sunday; Key West Advertiser, Q. Charles Ball, editor, published every Saturday, and Redemption, Luis G. Puig, editor, published weekly.

1903 – Contractor William Kerr signed a contract to build a brick addition to the Convent of Mary Immaculate in Key West. The cost was $18,000.

1951 – The Key West Housing Authority voted to name a housing project on First Street for George Whiting Allen. George Allen served as Collector of Customs in Key West from 1897 to 1913, and he was one of the founders of the First National Bank and was president until his death on May 30, 1922. He had also run for Florida governor, unsuccessfully, in 1916.

1953 – The Navy held a court martial on a lieutenant commander who oversaw the Navy Relief smoker held at the Key West Cuban Club in February. Seven men were charged for staging the affair, which had started as an ordinary “stag show” and degenerated into a sexual orgy.

1966 – A man driving a green panel truck and claiming to be from the Humane Society was stealing stray dogs from Key West streets. Mrs. Janice White, president of the local Humane Society, said the man had no association with the group and that he was likely selling the dogs to medical laboratories.

2008 – The Higgs Beach Pier at the end of Reynolds Street in Key West was reopened after undergoing a three-year renovation. The pier had been badly damaged by multiple hurricanes in 2005.

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

Image: Dogs laze on the sidewalk at Simonton and Eaton streets, Key West, ca. 1970. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.