June 17

Marathon State Bank in 1957.

1914 – The Panama Hotel, Manager C.R. Pierce, was located at the corner of Eaton and Elizabeth streets in Key West. The hotel had running water in every room, and the rates were $1, $1.50 and $2.

1946 – The Marathon Chamber of Commerce said the community had grown to the point that the establishment of banking facilities was essential, and the group was starting a movement to establish a bank there.

1955 – The Key West High School baseball team defeated Jackson High of Jacksonville 3-to-2 in 12 innings to win the Class AA State High School Baseball Championship.

1956 – The Lower Keys Property Owners Association was strongly opposed to legislation that would set aside 1,000 acres of Big Pine and No Name keys as a refuge for Key Deer. “It will hamper the development of the only big area left in the Keys,” said association president Ross Sawyer, Jr.

1968 – Ground was broken for the $2 million project for the construction of a road and toll bridge at Card Sound.

1973 – The four-man 21-foot Johnson-Sea-Link research submarine became entrapped in the wreckage of a scuttled destroyer on which they were diving. In a massive two-day effort, the Navy freed the submarine but only after two of the four-man crew had died.

1980 – A study ordered by Governor Bob Graham concluded that the policy of sheltering the population in a major hurricane is “clearly insufficient” and recommended that the Keys be completely evacuated.

1986 – Governor Bob Graham appointed Mary Reynolds Brown as Monroe County Supervisor of Elections to fill the vacancy left by the death of her husband.

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

Image: Marathon State Bank in 1957. From the archives of Edwin O. Swift III. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.