September 1
- Florida Keys History Center
- Aug 31
- 2 min read
1924 – Marie Jane Pinder, familiarly known as “Aunt Jennie” died at the age of 112 years. She had made her home in Key West for the past 70 years.
1931 – Key West firefighters walked off the job, leaving firehouse no. 1 with only Chief Pinder. Firehouse no. 2, which was funded by the county, was still manned. The firefighters walked out because they had not been paid, and the City Commission could not tell them when they might be.
1936 – The steamship H.R. Mallory, arriving from Galveston and bound for New York, took on a cargo at Key West consisting of 2,000 cases of empty beer bottles, shark hides, 2½ tons of honey from Big Pine Key, and tanks of fish and other marine life for the New York Aquarium.
1955 – Charley Toppino and Sons purchased a 30-acre tract along Flagler Avenue between Sunrise Shores and 11th Street in Key West for $150,000. The company planned to build 150 homes on the 400-foot-deep property.
1959 – The Monroe County Commission voted to ask the State Road Department to allocate $25,000 for a survey to determine the feasibility of the construction of a highway from Big Pine Key to Cape Sable on the southwest coast of Florida.
1960 – A proposal was made in Washington for Key West to become the site of power radio transmitters that would “beam the truth about Fidel Castro and his Communist advisors” to the Cuban people via a new radio facility called Radio Free Cuba.
1976 – President Gerald Ford signed the authorization to transfer ownership of Key West’s Fort Taylor to the State of Florida.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Fort Taylor parade grounds, Key West, August 6, 1976. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
