20 Years ago

[phragle]

I thought that Floyd was the barber

[Bobcat]

Florida East Coast Railway, Key West Extension. The P and O steamship City of Key West at the P and O Dock at the end of Duval Street early 1900s. Photo from the Library of Congress.

Today in history:

1898: Lt. Cmdr. Adolph Marix, carrying the final report of the USS Maine Court of Inquiry, sailed on the steamship City of Key West for Washington via Miami.

1902: Mark Twain and Thomas B. Reed were in the city on their way to Cuba.

1927: Harvey E. Firestone, auto tire manufacturer, stopped in Key West on his way to Havana.

[Bobcat]

1924: The first six holes of the golf course on Stock Island were opened for play

[Bobcat]

1822:Mr. Hemming arrived from Mobile, Ala. with workers and material to erect the first house on the island

[Bobcat]

1822: Lieutenant Matthew Perry, U.S. Navy, raised the American Flag over the Island of Key West for the first time and the Keys were formally taken in the name of the United States. Lt. Perry named the island Thompson's Island and the harbor Port Rogers, in honor of the Secretary of the Navy and president of the Navy Board. He fired a 13-gun salute followed by 13 regular toasts.

[Ratickle]

Taken from who?

[Bobcat]

1961: President John F. Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan met in Key West to discuss the situation in Southeast Asia.

[Ratickle]

You're ignoring my question?????

[fund razor]

Taken from who?

From all the various people that Juan Pablo Salas had sold it to in various transactions, I'd guess.

[phragle]

1822: Lieutenant Matthew Perry, U.S. Navy, raised the American Flag over the Island of Key West for the first time and the Keys were formally taken in the name of the United States. Lt. Perry named the island Thompson's Island and the harbor Port Rogers, in honor of the Secretary of the Navy and president of the Navy Board. He fired a 13-gun salute followed by 13 regular toasts.

Any relation to commander Oliver Hazzard Perry??, Who was rather famous for the battle of lake Erie by put-in-bay Ohio (frequently refereed to as the key west of the great lakes)

[fund razor]

No.

But his great, great grandson was on Friends.

[Bobcat]

Photo taken by the Property Appraiser's office c1965; 800 Whitehead St.; destroyed by fire c1975; Padron's Grocery


1971: Racial unrest over the arrest of a 15-year-old led to two buildings being fire-bombed. The Benitez Grocery on Simonton Street was damaged by a firebomb that may have been a decoy for the attack on Pardon's Grocery at 800 Whitehead St., which was destroyed by fire.

[Bobcat]

The two building center right was all that remained of the 100 block of Duval Street.


1886: A fire started at 2 a.m. at the San Carlos Hall on Duval Street between Fleming and Southard Streets, burning for 12 hours. The fire destroyed the block around the San Carlos then crossed Duval and burned almost every building between Simonton and Duval from Fleming Street to the waterfront. The estimated loss was over $2 million.

[Ratickle]

$2 million would be like one of the smaller buildings now......

[Bobcat]

Today in History:

1823:Commodore David Porter issued the order to name the town and island Key West.



1903: Workmen at the Naval Station uncovered a cave that contained a man's petrified body chained to a chair. Sitting nearby were two kegs of gold, one of American Eagles and the other Spanish doubloons.


(If I had been one of the workmen, they would have just discovered a Skeleton )

[Ratickle]

Looks to me like that says Allenton???????

[Bobcat]

The Victoria Restaurant at 201 Duval Street




1935: Joseph "Sloppy Joe" Russell purchased the building that housed the Victoria Restaurant on the corner of Duval and Greene streets and moved his Sloppy Joe's Bar from its location at 428 Greene St. to the building.

1939: The schooner Western Union launched. The last large schooner built in Key West, Norberg Thompson built the ship for lease to the Western Union Telegraph Company.

[Bobcat]

1928:Pauline and Ernest Hemingway arrived in Key West for the first time on the Peninsular & Occidental steamship from Havana.

[Bobcat]

1942: The Norwegian freighter Benwood, loaded with phosphate, collided with the tanker Robert C. Tuttle, killing one man. The Benwood lost power and drifted until she grounded in her final resting-place on the reef in what is now the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Both ships had been operating at night without lights because of the fear of German U-boats operating in the area.

.

1953: Mom's Tea Room, the Stock Island bordello for 11 years, closed. County law enforcement authorities never officially admitted that Mom's existed and the reason for the closing was never confirmed but rumored to be pressure from the Navy.

[fund razor]

They renamed her "Bentwood."