October 14
1939 – The Navy Department announced that the long unused Key West Naval Station would re-open on November 1. The station was used to support ships engaged in neutrality patrols of the Atlantic and Caribbean.
1946 – Parking meters were meeting resistance in Key West, with a dozen of the machines having been purposefully destroyed by vandals in the past five days. Despite their unpopularity, the City of Key West announced that 288 new meters had arrived and would be installed along the island’s streets.
1978 – Indian Key, which had once had a significant community and was the first county seat of Dade County in the 1800s, was dedicated as a state park.
1989 – Noted Key Wester Hilario Ramos, Sr. died at age 82. He was president of Lopez Wholesale Liquors and had been a founder of Florida Keys First State Bank and Boulevard Bank. Ramos was long active in local, state, and national politics and had hosted many dignitaries in his “Southernmost Mansion” home at the ocean end of Duval Street.
2001 – A new website launched by the Monroe County Clerk of the Court was fully operational, and it allowed anyone with an internet connection to access court and property records, as well as County Commission actions, dating as far back as the 1970s.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Hilario Ramos, Sr. in his home at 1400 Duval Street, Key West, in 1984. Photo by Wendy Tucker. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
