June 26

Postcard showing businesses along the 600 block of Duval Street, ca. 1950.

1894 – Walter C. Maloney, Jr. died at the age of 55. A Florida native, he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He served as mayor of Key West from 1889 to 1891. He was also tax collector and assessor for Key West and Monroe County attorney.

1934 – Arthur Gomez was re-elected state senator over William Albury. Also re-elected was Bernie C. Papy as state representative and Nathan C. Niles as a county commissioner.

1936 – Judge Jeptha Vining Harris of the Criminal Court of Record died at age 71.

1956 – With high rates of employment and with Key Westers having relatively high incomes, island businesses were going through a boom time as local retail sales for the year totaled $31,286,000, a marked increase over the $23,058,000 figure of the year before.

1977 – Florida’s Attorney General Robert Shevin and members of the Florida Keys Community College board broke ground for the $3 million Fine Arts Center.

1980 – Art McKee Jr. died at age 69. He was one of the first men to gain fame for finding sunken Spanish treasure in the waters of the Florida Keys. He founded the Museum of Sunken Treasure on Plantation Key.

2011 – Volunteers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission completed a survey of North Key Largo and the keys around Biscayne Bay to assess the population of the critically endangered Shaus Swallowtail butterfly. Only 41 individuals were found during the month-long search, most on Elliott Key.

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

Image: Postcard showing businesses along the 600 block of Duval Street, ca. 1950. The DeWolfe and Wood Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.