May 13

A crowd waiting for the last matinee of the Southern Stock Company at the Key West Odd Fellows Hall and Opera House on Caroline Street, May 20, 1899.

1873 – Lodge No. 13 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was instituted at Key West.

1886 – Monroe County commissioners purchased a steam fire engine for $3,175 from the Button Steam Fire Engine Company of Waterford, NY, to fight fires outside the corporate limits of the City of Key West (which at the time extended only to Angela Street). Horses were also purchased to pull the apparatus.

1923 – Harry Gwinn, owner of a large tract of land on Boca Chica Key, hired Monroe County Engineer J.N. Watkins to conduct a survey of the property with a view toward building a residence and planting 500 coconut trees there.

1935 – The final tally for the 1935 Florida census showed there were 12,470 people in Key West and 865 living in other areas of Monroe County.

1935 – A “skytrain” – an airplane with two gliders in tow – stopped in Key West as it made its way toward Havana.

1959 – Kerr-Mcgee Oil Industries announced that, as of noon this date, drilling for a well 14 miles northwest of Key West had reached a depth of 11,059 feet, or over 2 miles below the seabed.

1997 – The movie “Shadow Warriors: Assault on Devil’s Island,” starring wrestler-turned-actor Terry “Hulk” Hogan, was being filmed in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

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

Image: A crowd waiting for the last matinee of the Southern Stock Company at the Key West Odd Fellows Hall and Opera House on Caroline Street, May 20, 1899. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.