September 18
- Florida Keys History Center
- Sep 17
- 2 min read
1853 – W.C. Dennis, proprietor of the Key West salt works, reported that because of an exceptionally dry summer, a bounteous crop of salt had been produced from evaporated seawater at the salt ponds.
1936 – Hearings began in Jacksonville before the Interstate Commerce Committee to consider the Florida East Coast Railroad’s application to abandon the Oversea Railway between Miami and Key West. Delegates from Monroe County testified that closing the rail line and refitting it for automobiles would be advantageous to the Keys.
1937 – A plan was approved to remove WPA workers from the Upper Keys and bring them to Key West in case of a hurricane. Coast Guard patrol boats were to be used to move the workers to No Name Key where they would be taken to Key West by automobile.
1945 – The Key West City Council heard testimony that J.W. Sykes, caretaker of the Botanical Garden on Stock Island, had been removing and selling plants for personal gain. Sykes’ wife had told others that he had never been paid by the city for his efforts, and they considered the sale revenues fair compensation.
1953 – The 25th case of polio since the beginning of the year was reported. For three weeks an average of five cases a week were reported. Of the 15 cases in the three weeks only one involved partial paralysis.
1983 – A group of New York actors, playwrights and theater supporters tried to purchase the late Tennessee Williams’s home in Key West for a museum. The effort failed from the lack of support and the difficulties of converting a house located in a quiet residential neighborhood into a commercial facility.
2010 – Laura Quinn, founder of the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center in Tavernier, died at the age of 82, just hours before the facility’s visitor center was to be named in her honor. Quinn opened the first incarnation of the center at her Lower Matecumbe home in 1986, before moving it to MM94 in 1988.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: 1431 Duncan Street, the home of Tennessee Williams, ca. 1965. Tr. 14, Sqr. 7 Lot 4. Moved from Bahama Street in the late 1940s. Photo taken by the Monroe County Property Appraiser's office. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
