June 4
- Florida Keys History Center
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
1859 – Key West was recovering from the terrible fire of May 16, and new buildings were being built to replace those destroyed by the flames. “A number of brick blocks will take the place of the old rough wooden structures. Key West will be greatly improved by the fire,” wrote a correspondent.
1930 – William R. Porter, Braxton B. Warren and Carl Bervaldi were elected to the county commission in the Democratic primary.
1958 – The Monroe County School Board appointed Alfredo Sands principal of Douglass High School.
1960 – The Old Island Restoration Foundation was formed to restore and maintain the traditional atmosphere and architecture peculiar to Key West. The officers were: Reta Sawyer, chairman; Ruth Holtsberg, first vice chairman; Joan T. Knight, second vice chairman; Mary L. Graham, secretary; and J.J. Pinder, treasurer.
1961 – Rose Frank, a second-grade teacher at the Reynolds School in Key West, was chosen as the Teacher of the Year for Florida.
1978 – The Key West Business Guild was formed with the object to make the island a better place for gay and lesbian residents and travelers. Jim Camp, owner of the Island House, was elected president.
2011 – Florida Governor Rick Scott visited the Florida Keys, and he attended a Take Stock in Children graduation ceremony in Marathon, went to a Mosquito Control District Board cookout on Cudjoe Key, and toured the Southernmost Point in Key West. He said that wherever he went, people mostly wanted to talk about windstorm insurance rates.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A member of the Old Island Restoration Foundation placing a marker on a door for the first OIRF Key West house tour in 1960-61. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
