September 23

A private yacht tied up to a pier at the shuttered Naval Station Key West, ca. 1935

1894 – William McClintock died in Key West. He came to the island during the Civil War as a captain in the Navy and returned after the war to live. He served on the city commission and in 1882 was elected mayor from which he resigned a year later to take a job in the Custom House.

1925 – Paul Lumley, proprietor of the Monroe Meat Market at 510 Fleming Street in Key West, announced he had sold the property to the Florida Keys Bond and Mortgage company for $75,000.

1930 – Secretary of the Navy Charles F. Adams ordered the Naval Station at Key West to be placed in inoperative status no later than November 30. The closure was intended to save money as part of a broader “economy campaign” instituted by President Hoover.

1932 – The Post Office opened for business in the new Federal Building on Simonton Street, at the corner of Caroline Street in Key West.

1966 – City officials and backers held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Key West Theater in the Sears Town Shopping Center.

1974 – Members of the Key West Fire Department began moving into the new station at the corner of Kennedy Drive and Flagler Avenue.

1975 – During a workshop with Monroe County Commissioners, Nick Lally, chief of floodplain management for the Federal Insurance Administration, said new homes in the Keys had to be built 8 feet above mean high water on a system of pilings to qualify for federal loans and insurance.  

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

Image: A private yacht tied up to a pier at the shuttered Naval Station Key West, ca. 1935. From the Dale McDonald Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.