The Monroe County Public Library’s Islamorada branch is celebrating 60 years in November with a series of Tuesday evening programs focusing on the community and local history.
The Islamorada Library branch is at 81830 Overseas Highway on Upper Matecumbe Key. The front portion of the building was constructed out of 12-inch-thick reinforced concrete as a safe “community house” after the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. It opened in 1938 as the Matecumbe Grammar School and later served as a meeting place for local church congregations. Local residents sheltered in the building during Hurricane Donna in 1960.
Public libraries in the Keys date back to the 19th century and the modern Monroe County Public Library system started in 1959, with the construction and opening of the Key West library. The Islamorada library branch opened on Nov. 6, 1966.
The county expanded the structure in 1983 and 1999. In 2025, the county gave the building’s interior a complete refresh with new carpeting, furniture, shelving and paint.
“This historic structure has been sheltering and serving the Islamorada community since it was built almost 100 years ago,” said Kimberly Matthews, Monroe County director of libraries. “We are honored that the majority of that time has been under our stewardship. Things have changed a lot since 1966, but the library’s role as a place for residents to find information, education and enrichment has continued and will continue.”
The Tuesday evening programs will all take place at 6:30 p.m. They will start on Nov. 3 with a presentation from Corey Malcom, lead historian of the library’s Florida Keys History Center, on the history of the Monroe County Public Library system and the origins of the Islamorada library branch. On Nov. 10, the Florida Park Service will provide a presentation about Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park and have a period craft. The 2015-17 Netflix series “Bloodline,” set and filmed in Islamorada, will be the focus of the Nov. 17 program with Rita Troxel, former Monroe County film commissioner, and Maria Chavez, “Bloodline” location manager. The final program will be Nov. 24 with Jerry Lorenz, former research director of Audubon Florida, talking about the history of wildlife conservation in the area and “big pink birds” (roseate spoonbills and flamingoes).
All programs are free and open to the public. You do not need a library card to attend. The library has a small parking lot that fills up quickly.
More information is at keyslibraries.org.
