September 20

Florida East Coast Railway, Key West Extension. The Knight's Key Dock and the beginning of work on the Seven Mile Bridge.

1862 – Key West’s New Era newspaper published a list of 49 persons who had died of yellow fever at the Marine Hospital since July 1. The illness continued to rage unchecked on the island.

1901 – St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church on Duval Street was destroyed by fire, though a large part of the church’s valuables were saved. The city’s fire main system was undergoing repairs, and the lack of water hampered firefighters’ efforts to battle the blaze.

1909 – Monroe County Deputy Sheriff B.W. Glisson arrived at Key West from Knight’s Key on the steamer Mascotte, with prisoners Manuel Moses, Nod Cornell, Elio McKinney, and E.E. Whalton. Glisson had arrested the men for selling whiskey without a license at the railroad work camps.

1925 – Big Pine Key’s Southeast Point and Long Beach, a 163-acre tract along the Atlantic Ocean, sold for $197,000. The peninsula featured 2½ miles of ocean frontage and 2 miles of bay front and was called “one of the most picturesque and attractive high sections of land for development in South Florida.” 

1930 – Key West’s La Concha Hotel was one of many acquired by the Pennsylvania corporation to be operated under their Colonial Hotel chain, and the landmark property would be known as the Key West Colonial Hotel.

1931 – Captain Eddie Sanders of the shark fishing boat Holland brought in 36 sharks for the Ocean Leather Company. The catch, mostly nurse sharks, was made with a 300-foot net. The shark skins were used for leather, the livers for codfish oil, and the fins sold for shark fin soup.

1968 – John N. Thompson, president of Thompson Enterprises, announced the sale of the company’s shrimp fleet, along with property and buildings on Caroline Street in Key West, to Sea Farms Inc.

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

Image: Florida East Coast Railway, Key West Extension. The Knight's Key Dock and the beginning of work on the Seven Mile Bridge. Postcard made in Germany. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.