June 27

First Congregational Church at 513 William Street, Key West, ca. 1918, with the old parsonage on the left.

1896 – The Assistant Surgeon at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Key West reported there were three cases of smallpox in the city and that local officials were taking the necessary precautions to isolate those infected.

1903 – The cornerstone was laid for the First Congregational Church on William Street in Key West. The ceremony was conducted by Reverend S.F. Gale, Home Missionary Superintendent for the Congregational Church of Florida.

1914 – The R.L. Polk & Company’s Key West City Directory contained 8,606 names. By using the multiple three to allow for women and children, whose names did not appear, a population of 25,818 was indicated for the city.

1934 – Frank Welters died at age 70. In 1889 he was one of the founders of the 17-piece Welters Cornet Band, which had appeared all over the state and was named Champion Band of the State.

1946 – The Monroe County polio epidemic stood at 19 cases, with four deaths. Of the four deaths, three were adults.

1957 – Twenty-seven Duval Street merchants joined together to have a “hound dog” sale of hard-to-sell goods. “These things are just like hound dogs – they’re pretty fine characters, but they take up residence and stay on and on – you can’t get them to leave,” said William Gamble of the Retail Merchants Division.

1958 – Two men and two women were arrested on charges of prostitution and running a house of ill fame from an establishment known as “The Pier” on Old Stock Island Road.

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

Image: First Congregational Church at 513 William Street, Key West, ca. 1918, with the old parsonage on the left. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.