July 2

The interior of Thompson Enterprises' Granday Pineapple Cannery on Eaton Street in Key West, ca. 1930.

1884 – The plant on Emma Street for manufacturing gas from coal for home and street lighting was completed.

1926 – A new Red Cross life-saving boat was christened by Dorothy Archer at the Coral Isle Casino Beach at the end of Simonton Street in Key West, with the local life-saving corps and Navy personnel in attendance.

1937 – A boat owned by Key West’s Thompson Enterprises arrived with pineapples from the company’s plantation in Cuba. Employees of the Granday Pineapple Cannery were notified to report to work at 7 a.m. the following morning.

1938 – The grand opening of the new Overseas Highway was held on the Bahia Honda Bridge. The new highway used some of the old railroad bridges to eliminate the auto ferries.

1958 – Navy officials announced that a broken 400-horsepower water pump at the Tavernier pumping station was repaired and a many-weeks-long water shortage throughout the Keys would soon come to an end.

1969 – The new Card Sound Bridge was opened. The bridge was built with $2.1 million in bond money to be repaid with tolls.

1985 – The queen conch (Strombus gigas), the symbol of the Florida Keys, was declared an endangered species.

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

Image: The interior of Thompson Enterprises' Granday Pineapple Cannery on Eaton Street in Key West, ca. 1930. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.