July 18
- Florida Keys History Center
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
1909 – O.O. Poppleton, “the bee king of the East Coast,” reported that he had harvested 14 tons of honey from his 200-hive apiary on Key Largo.
1918 – Twenty-one Navy reservists left Tampa for Key West to undergo training at the island before heading to the war in Europe.
1943 – The U.S. Naval Air Ship (Blimp) K-74 was shot down by the German submarine U-134 near Elbow Cay on the Cay Sal Banks, about 50 miles southeast of Marathon. Navy ships from Key West rescued the crew except one man who was killed by a shark.
1961 – Ground was broken for the Monroe County Cerebral Palsy and Crippled Association therapy center on Stock Island.
1986 – Reef Relief, a new not-for-profit organization based in Key West, was proposing to install mooring buoys at Sand Key Reef in a bid to help preserve corals growing there. By tying to a mooring ball, boaters would not have to deploy their anchors in the fragile environment.
1993 – Key West’s Full Moon Salon on Simonton Street closed after 12 years of operation. The famed late-night haunt was a victim of changing times and increasing rent.
2006 – The City of Key West approved developer Pritam Singh’s plan to transform the Hampton Inn on North Roosevelt Boulevard into 74 “Keys-style” condominiums that owners could rent to tourists as de facto hotel rooms. The units would not be eligible for homestead status.
2011 – Florida Keys home values were up 13% over the previous year, with an average selling price of $472,000. Key West saw the largest bump in price with the average property up 16.7% to $523,000.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: An aerial view of the Hampton Inn at 2801 North Roosevelt Boulevard, Key West. Photo taken by the federal government on October 7, 1987. From the Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.