Key West History

Native Peoples of Key West

The Calusa people were the original inhabitants of Key West. The Calusa were a Native American group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast.

The Calusa had a stratified society, consisting of "commoners" and "nobles" in Spanish terms. A few leaders governed the tribe, and were supported by the labor of the majority of the Calusa. The leaders included the tribal chief, or "king," a military leader, and a chief priest.

The Calusa Indians were a fierce tribe, with weapons that incorporated sharks teeth. Their diet consisted primarily of seafood from the coastal estuaries and plants. They did not cultivate maize, but did grow or raise squash, gourds, chili peppers and papayas in small gardens.

Spanish Discovery & Administration

The first European to visit the island was Juan Ponce de León, in 1521, during his last visit to Florida.

European sailors frequently visited, but did not settle, in Key West, during the first 300 years of European colonization of the New World. During this period, Key West was then referred to as Cayo Hueso, or "Bone Island," the original Spanish name for the island.

Over time, a small community of Spaniards and Native Americans came to populate the island.

In 1763, after Great Britain wrested control of Florida from Spain, the community of Spaniards and Native Americans were relocated to Havana. Florida returned to Spanish control 20 years later, but there was no official resettlement of the island. Informally the island was used by fishermen from Cuba and from the Bahamas, who were later joined by others from the United States.

While claimed by Spain, no nation exercised de facto control over the island until 1822.

Juan Ponce de León

Florida's First Land Scam

In 1815, the Spanish governor in Havana, Cuba, deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, an officer of the Royal Spanish Navy Artillery posted in St. Augustine, Florida.

After Florida was transferred to the United States in 1821, Salas was so eager to sell the island that he sold it twice: first to a John Strong, in exchange for a sloop valued at $575, and then, on January 19, 1822, to U.S. businessman John W. Simonton, during a meeting in a Havana cafe, for the equivalent of $2,000 in pesos. Strong quickly sold the island to General John Geddes, a former governor of South Carolina. It then came out that Strong had also sold the island twice: first to a John Murray, and then to Geddes.

After the perfidy had been discovered, Geddes tried in vain to secure his rights to the property before Simonton, who with the aid of some influential friends in Washington, was able to gain clear title to the island in 1828.

Simonton had wide-ranging business interests in Mobile, Alabama. He bought the island because a friend, John Whitehead, had drawn his attention to the opportunities presented by the island's strategic location. John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a shipwreck in 1819 and he had been impressed by the potential offered by the island's natural deep harbor.

John W. Simonton

The U.S. Navy and the Growth of the Wrecking Industry

In March 1822, Navy Lt. Commandant Matthew C. Perry sailed the Navy Schooner Shark to Key West, took a survey and planted the American flag, thus physically claiming the island as U.S. property. He renamed the island Thompson's Island, in honor of Smith Thompson, the then Secretary of the Navy.

Based on reports by Perry, Commodore David Porter was ordered to establish a depot on Thompson's Island to combat piracy, which was then rife in the Caribbean. Porter arrived in 1823 to establish the depot. At around the same time, a customs house was built on the island.

Perry came to rule the island as a military dictator under martial law, and while he saw success repelling pirate attacks, he was loathed by Simonton, his partners and the other residents of the island. Perry lost his command in 1825, and in 1826 the Navy moved the Naval base to Pensacola, leaving behind a coaling and supply facility on the island.

In 1825, the US Congress established the Federal Wrecking Act, which prescribed that all property wrecked in US waters be taken to a US Port of Entry. In 1828, Key West was designated an official US Port of Entry, thus enabling the island to become a center of the wrecking industry.

Key West's location proved pivotal to its growth as a wrecking center. Not only did it have a natural deep water port, but it was situated on the primary shipping route between the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by treacherous reefs.

During the subsequent years, Key West grew substantially on the wrecking trade and other activities. The island's population grew from 517 souls in 1828 to over 2,600 by 1850.

Commodore Matthew Perry

The Economic Development of Antebellum Key West

After purchasing the island in 1821, Simonton subdivided the island into plots and sold three undivided quarters of each plot to:

• John Mountain and U.S. Consul John Warner, who quickly resold their quarter to Pardon C. Greene, who took up residence on the island
• John Whitehead, his friend who had advised him to buy Key West
• John Flemming (nowadays spelled Fleming)

John Simonton spent the winter in Key West and the summer in Washington, where he lobbied hard for the development of the island and to establish a naval base on the island, both to take advantage of the island's strategic location and to bring law and order to the town. He died in 1854.

Pardon C. Greene is the only one of the four "founding fathers" to establish himself permanently on the island, where he became quite prominent as head of P. C. Greene and Company. He also served briefly as mayor. He died in 1838 at the age of 57.

John Whitehead lived in Key West for only eight years. He became a partner in the firm of P. C. Greene and Company from 1824 to 1827. A lifelong bachelor, he left the island for good in 1832. He came back only once, during the Civil War in 1861, and died the next year.

John W. C. Flemming was English-born and was active in mercantile business in Mobile, Alabama, where he befriended John Simonton. Flemming spent only a few months in Key West in 1822 and left for Massachusetts, where he married. He returned to Key West in 1832 with the intention of developing salt manufacturing on the island but died the same year at the young age of 51.

The names of the four "founding fathers" of modern Key West were given to the main roads of the island when it was first platted in 1829 by William Adee Whitehead, John Whitehead's younger brother. That first plat and the names used remained mostly intact and are still in use today.

Duval Street, the island's main thoroughfare, is named after Florida's first territorial governor, William Pope Duval, who served between 1822 and 1834 as the longest serving governor in Florida's U.S. history.

The collection of salt became a big business in Key West, starting in the early 1830s. Salt was used as a preservative for food, and Key West produced around 50,000 bushels of salt annually, exporting their bounty to ports throughout the United States.

Another industry that led to the growth of Key West was the sponge industry, which became important beginning in the 1840s. Bahamians were adept spongers, and migrated to Key West in large numbers to take up the trade. The harvesting of sponges was an important economic activity while the wreckers were awaiting disasters off the coast.

Key West is in the hurricane zone, and suffered a devastating storm in October 1846. Only 8 homes out of over 600 were intact after the storm, known as the Great Hurricane of 1846. In May 1859, Key West experienced its first of several infernos, with a fire started in a warehouse burning all but two houses n the two blocks formed by Greene, Front, Simonton and Whitehead Streets.

William Pope Duval

Military Influence on the Island

The War of 1812 had a significant effect on Key West. The US Government decided to erect a vast coastal defense system, including the construction of brick coastal fortifications. Construction of Fort Taylor by the US Army commenced in 1845, and continued for another 21 years. During the American Civil War, while Florida seceded and joined the Confederate States of America, Key West remained in Union hands because of the naval base.

At the time, most locals were sympathetic to the South, and many flew Confederate flags over their homes. Fort Zachary Taylor was an important Key West outpost during the Civil War. Construction began in 1861 on two other forts, East and West Martello Towers, which served as side armories and batteries for the larger fort. They were connected to Fort Taylor by railroad tracks for the movement of munitions.

The Civil War was largely responsible for Key West becoming Florida's largest city. While other cities in Florida suffered considerably, ships from other nations were seized and brought into Key West Harbor for disposition.

Fort Zachary Taylor

Key West Becomes Florida's Richest City

In 1866, Key West became the hub for the International Ocean Telegraph Company, which connected Havana with the United States. This was not the only connection Key West had with Cuba.

The Key West cigar industry got its start in 1831, when Englishman William Wall started a cigar factory. But it wasn't until the onset of the Ten Years' war in Cuba, beginning in 1868, that the cigar industry boomed in Key West. The migration of Cubans to Key West began in earnest at the outset of the war, and Spanish became the second language of the island.

In 1875, Cuban refugee Carlos Cespedes was elected mayor of the town.

The power of the cigar-maker's unions grew steadily, and in 1885 a major strike took place that lasted many months. The following year, a fire destroyed over 50 buildings, including many cigar plants and the cigar box manufacturer. Only one plant was spared. While many plants were rebuilt, the cigar companies slowly began to decamp from Key West to other towns, notably Tampa.

By 1889, Key West was Florida's largest and wealthiest city. The city had mule-drawn streetcars, steamships had established regular service between Key West, Tampa and Havana, an electric power plant became operational, and the city boasted a new courthouse, a turtle canning plant and a new post office. In 1890, the population of Key West was over 18,000.

During the Spanish-American War of 1895, Key West played an important role, as the US Navy's facilities in the city were the closest American outpost to Havana. In fact, the USS Maine made her fateful last journey from Key West to Havana harbor before being blown up.

By the turn of the century, the wrecking industry had ebbed considerably, due to the conversion of vessels from wind power to steam. Cuban emigres comprised over half of the population. Cigar making was the primary industry, the first electric streetcar became operational on Duval Street, and things were looking up.

Cigar Makers

Key West in the 20th Century

In the early part of the 20th century, the most important spur to the development of Key West was the construction of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad, which linked Key West with Miami. Prior to this time, all commerce was by ship. Construction began in 1905, and despite several devastating hurricanes in 1906, 1909 and 1910, the railroad was completed in January 1912.

World War I was another impetus to the growth of Key West. In July 1917, ground was broken for a coastal air patrol station, and two months later the US Navy began flight training operations. The US Navy also began an expansion of their facilities to accommodate destroyers and submarines. However, much of the military activity subsided after the end of the war.

The Florida land boom of the 1920s provided another boost to the fortunes of Key West. New hotels were built in Key West, and the construction of a vehicular highway was begun that would allow 2-way traffic from Miami to Key West. The Overseas Highway was completed in 1928.

Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American Airways, started his company in Key West in 1927, delivering 700 pounds of mail to Havana from Key West.

Ernest Hemingway made his first visit to Key West in April 1928. He and his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer arrived in Key West aboard the steamship Orita. They were returning from France, via Havana, and had made arrangements to pick up a new Ford roadster purchased by Pauline's uncle for the couple. The car had yet to be delivered, so they checked into the Trev-Mor Hotel to await its arrival. In the seven weeks it took for the car to arrive, Hemingway fell in love with Key West. Legend has it that he wrote his classic A Farewell to Arms during his stay. He later purchased a home in the town, and is perhaps its most famous citizen and booster.

The Depression saw a severe reversal of fortunes for Key West. First, the tourist industry that had sustained the city in the 1920s evaporated. Then the US Navy reduced its base to maintenance status in 1932. The preference for cigars waned as cigarettes became increasingly popular. And the sponge industry fell sharply due to a disease that spread to the plants. Key West declared bankruptcy in 1934.

The Depression era agencies help a bit; the Key West Aquarium was constructed in 1933/34 by the WPA. When the Hurricane of 1935 destroyed forty miles of railroad bridges, the government stepped in to rebuild and expand the infrastructure.

The onset of World War II lifted Key West's economy, as the town's Naval facilities were reestablished in 1939, and the Fleet Sonar School was established in 1940. In 1945, the Key West Naval Air Station was set up. A new water pipeline was installed that brought water from the mainland, and an improved road system--now Highway 1--was constructed.

After the war, President Harry S Truman made Key West his favorite retreat. During the 8 years of his administration, Truman spent 11 working vacations in Key West, beginning in November 1946. Truman saw Key West as the perfect island winter getaway, and spent a total of 175 days at his Winter White House, which the press dubbed "Truman's Little White House." Truman enjoyed morning walks along the beach, and, as an avid fisherman, would try to make some time to angle in Key West's waters as often as he could.

During the Cold War, the military played the dominant role in the economy of Key West. Perhaps the highlight was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But the military downsizing in the 1970s once again had a deleterious effect on the city's economy. In 1974, the Navy closed the Key West Naval Station, thus ending 151 years of operation on the island. However, the Naval Air Station and the Coast Guard activities remained.

In 1982, the citizens of Key West formed the Conch Republic in protest of the Border Patrol's establishment of a road block near Florida City. The roadblock caused a 15-mile traffic jam on Highway 1. Symbolic border passes and visas were issued, and wooden Conch currency was sold.

Florida East Coast Railway

Ernest Hemingway

Harry S Truman

Today's Key West

Key West enjoys a thriving economy based primarily on tourism. Cruise ships dock almost daily, bringing in over 900,000 visitors each year. Overnight tourists from the mainland and around the country continue to augment the town's tourism-based economy.

However, hurricanes and man-made economic turmoil will always threaten the established order. Every year we seem to see the reports of impending hurricane strikes, with reporters huddling outside Sloppy Joe's bar while intrepid locals imbibe their way through the storms. Time will tell how the current economic recession will affect Key West.