KEYS HISTORY: JOHN GEIGER GOES FROM WRECKER TO WEALTHY MAN
Key West’s Audubon House was built after 1846’s Havana Hurricane ravaged Cuba, destroyed the Sand Key Lighthouse, and threw the double hurricane punch of high winds and...
KEYS HISTORY: HOMESTEAD CLAIMS REQUIRED CLEARING LAND, BUILDING HOME & PRODUCING CROPS
Even before Florida became a U.S. territory, Spain’s government tried to give away the largely uninhabited frontier land. In the Spanish territorial years, these efforts were called...
KEYS HISTORY: ADDERLY FAMILY LEGACY LIVES ON AT KEY VACA
The oldest house in the Florida Keys, outside of Key West, takes a bit of effort to find. It is found in the woods of Marathon, on...
KEYS HISTORY: AFRICAN BAHAMIAN PRIVATEER & GROCER THOMAS ROMER LIVED TO BE 108
In a letter written dated March 3, 1935, poet Robert Frost wrote: “The oldest person I could find in the Key West grave yard yesterday (Sunday) was...
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: ANDREW ‘SANDY’ CORNISH’S JOURNEY TO FREEDOM WASN’T EASY
The Florida Keys are a storied string of islands with tremendous history. Some of those stories are told repeatedly, like when Henry Flagler brought the Key West...
STATE ESSAY CONTEST FEATURES AFRICAN-AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO FLORIDA’S HISTORY
First Lady Casey DeSantis announced the theme for this year’s Black History Month contests will be Celebrating African-American Contributions to Florida’s History.
“Black History Month is an opportunity...
KEYS HISTORY: SALVAGE ACT OF 1823 BRINGS ORDER TO LAWLESS INDUSTRY SEEN IN THE...
I started a Facebook page the day before Christmas Eve and decided to call it Florida Keys History with Brad Bertelli. Fifteen years of study have revealed...
KEYS HISTORY: 2 LARGE KEYS PROPERTY SALES OF 1946
I recently spent some quality time in a third-floor room at the public records office on Whitehead Street. The repository holds the documentation of every property deed...
KEYS HISTORY: APIARY BUSINESS BUZZES IN KEY LARGO
Key Largo’s Stellrecht Point, found on the bayside in the area of MM 105, is named for a German immigrant named Otto Stellrecht. Stellrecht was born in...
KEYS HISTORY: LIEUTENANT DECLARES U.S. POSSESSION OF KEY WEST SOME 200 YEARS AGO
When East Florida and West Florida were still Spanish territories, they were wild, sparsely-populated frontiers.
The Spanish had established two ports. On the Atlantic coast, there was the...
