Key West, Florida
Key West .
Key West, Florida City of Key West Aerial photo of Key West, looking north, March 2001.
Aerial photo of Key West, looking north, March 2001.
Official seal of Key West, Florida Key West is positioned in Florida Key West - Key West Location of Key West in Florida Key West is an island town/city in Florida and the governmental center of county of Monroe County. The town/city boundaries include the island of Key West and a several nearby islands, as well as the section of Stock Island north of U.S.
Sigsbee Park originally known as Dredgers Key and Fleming Key, both positioned to the north, and Sunset Key positioned to the west are all encompassed in the town/city boundaries.
Both Fleming Key and Sigsbee Park are part of Naval Air Station Key West and are inaccessible to the general public.
Key West is the southernmost town/city in the adjoining United States and the southern end of U.S.
Key West is 129 miles (208 km) southwest of Miami by air, about 160 miles (260 km) by car, and 106 miles (171 km) north-northeast of Havana, Cuba. Cuba, at its closest point, is 94 miles (151 km) south. Key West is a port of call for many passenger cruise ships. The Key West International Airport provides airline service.
Naval Air Station Key West is an meaningful year round training site for naval aviation due to the tropical weather, which is also the reason Key West was chosen as the Winter White House of President Harry S.
3 Port of Key West 6.3 Key West Naval Air Station In Pre-Colonial times Key West was inhabited by the Calusa citizens .
Cayo Hueso (Spanish pronunciation: [ ka o weso]) is the initial Spanish name for the island of Key West.
In 1815, the Spanish governor of Cuba in Havana deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, an officer of the Royal Spanish Navy Artillery posted in Saint Augustine, Florida.
John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a shipwreck in 1819 and he had been impressed by the potential offered by the deep harbor of the island.
Perry, sailed the schooner Shark to Key West and planted the U.S.
Flag, claiming the Keys as United States property. No protests were made over the American claim on Key West, so the Florida Keys became the property of the United States.
After claiming the Florida Keys for the United States, Perry retitled Cayo Hueso (Key West) to "Thompson's Island" for Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson, and the harbor "Port Rodgers" with respect to War of 1812 hero and President of the Navy Supervisors Board John Rodgers.
In 1823, Commodore David Porter of the United States Navy West Indies Anti-Pirate Squadron took charge of Key West, which he ruled (but, as stated to some,[according to whom?] exceeding his authority) as military dictator under martial law.
Porter was tasked by the American Navy to end acts of piracy in the Key West region including slave ships.
John Whitehead, his friend who had advised him to buy Key West. John Whitehead lived in Key West for only eight years.
Fleeming spent only a several 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.
Simonton spent the winter in Key West and the summer in Washington, where he lobbied difficult for the evolution of the island and to establish a naval base on the island, both to take favor of the island's strategic locale and to bring law and order to the town.
The names of the four "founding fathers" of undivided Key West were given to chief arteries of the island when it was first platted in 1829 by William Adee Whitehead, John Whitehead's younger brother.
He had the genius of preserving copies of his journal as well as copies from the "Key West Gazette", its predecessor.
He later sent those copies to the Monroe County clerk for preservation, which gives us a precious view of life in Key West in the early days (1820 1840).
Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West, active amid the Civil War, contains the biggest compilation of Civil War cannons ever identified at a single location.
Key West Historic District During the American Civil War, while Florida seceded and joined the Confederate States of America, Key West remained in U.S.
However, most locals were sympathetic to the Confederacy, and many flew Confederate flags over their homes. Fort Zachary Taylor, constructed from 1845 to 1866, was an meaningful Key West outpost amid the Civil War.
When completed, they were connected to Fort Taylor by barns tracks for boss of munitions. Fort Jefferson, positioned about 68 miles (109 km) from Key West on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, served after the Civil War as the prison for Dr.
In the 19th century, primary industries encompassed wrecking and salvaging; fishing; turtling, and salt manufacturing. From 1830 to 1861, Key West was a primary center of U.S.
During the Ten Years' War (an unsuccessful Cuban war for independence in the 1860s and 1870s), many Cubans sought refuge in Key West.
By 1889, Key West was the biggest and wealthiest town/city in Florida. The USS Maine sailed from Key West on its fateful visit to Havana, where it blew up and sank in Havana Harbor, igniting the Spanish American War.
Crewmen from the ship are buried in Key West, and the Navy investigation into the blast occurred at the Key West Customs House.
Pan American Airlines was established in Key West, originally to fly visitors to Havana, in 1926.
The mail route was known as the 'Key West, Florida Havana Mail Route.
Kennedy himself visited Key West a month after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Prior to the Cuban revolution of 1959, there were regular ferry and aircraft services between Key West and Havana.
Sunset Key, Wisteria Island Gulf of Mexico, Fleming Key, Sigsbee Park North Stock Island, Key Haven Gulf of Mexico, Marquesas Keys Stock Island, Cow Key Key West Key West is positioned at 24 33 33 N 81 47 03 W. The maximum altitude above sea level is about 18 feet (5 m), a 1-acre (4,000 m2) region known as Solares Hill. It contains shopping centers, retail malls, residentiary areas, schools, ball parks, and Key West International Airport.
Key West and most of the rest of the Keys are on the dividing line between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
The region where the two bodies merge between Key West and Cuba is called the Straits of Florida.
The FEC yard and station on Trumbo Point in Key West about 1930 Key West was mostly isolated until 1912, when it was connected to the Florida mainland via the Overseas Railway extension of Henry M.
Palm tree lined street in Key West Key West has a tropical savanna climate (Koppen Aw, similar to the Caribbean islands). Like most tropical climates, Key West has only a small difference in monthly mean temperatures between the coolest month (January) and the warmest month (July) with the annual range of monthly mean temperatures around 15 F (8.3 C).
Climate data for Key West Int'l, Florida (1981 2010 normals, extremes 1872 present) Like most tropical climates, Key West has a two-season wet and dry climate.
Key West is the driest town/city in Florida. Flooding caused by Hurricane Wilma on Key Haven, island suburb of Key West, Florida.
Hurricanes rarely affect Key West, and the island has been mostly unaffected by primary storms.
Low-lying areas of Key West and the lower Keys, including primary tourist destinations, were under as much as three feet (one meter) of water.
Sixty percent of the homes in Key West were flooded. The higher parts of Old Town, such as the Solares Hill and cemetery areas, did not flood, because of their higher elevations of 12 to 18 feet (4 to 5 m). The surge finished tens of thousands of cars throughout the lower Keys, and many homes were flooded with one to two feet (thirty to sixty-one centimeters) of sea water.
A small-town journal referred to Key West and the lower Keys as a "car graveyard." The peak of the storm surge occurred when the eye of Wilma had already passed over the Naples area, and the sustained winds amid the surge were less than 40 mph (64 km/h). The storm finished the piers at the clothing-optional Atlantic Shores Motel and breached the shark tank at the Key West Aquarium, freeing its sharks.
A cruise ship docked at Navy Mole pier in Key West In present times, a several cruise ships dock on a regular basis at Key West, including the Royal Caribbean ship Majesty of the Seas and the Carnival Fascination, both of which visit weekly.
In the last a several years, however, larger cruise ships have increasingly bypassed Key West due to the narrowness of the island's chief ship channel.
On October 1, 2013, 74% of resident voters opposed a popular vote that would have allowed the City Commission to request a feasibility study from the Army Corps of Engineers for a $36 million universal to dredge a wider channel. Economic benefits from visiting cruise ship passengers are substantial but not attractive to all Key West people as the daily existence of thousands of tourists from cruise ships affects the character of the city, resulting in operation of facilities that cater to mass tourism clean water to a potentially more profitable and pleasant upscale clientele.
As of the census of 2000, there were 25,478 citizens , 11,016 homeholds, and 5,463 families residing in Key West.
In 1960 there were 13,340 families in Key West, with 42.1% of homeholds having kids living in them.
Many of the inhabitants of Key West were immigrants from the Bahamas, known as Conchs (pronounced "conks"'), who appeared in increasing numbers after 1830.
Many were sons and daughters of Loyalists who fled to the nearest Crown soil amid the American Revolution. In the 20th century many inhabitants of Key West started referring to themselves as Conchs, and the term is now generally applied to all inhabitants of Key West.
Some inhabitants use the term "Conch" (or, alternatively, "Saltwater Conch") to refer to a person born in Key West, while the term "Freshwater Conch" refers to a resident not born in Key West but who has lived in Key West for seven years or more. However, the true initial meaning of Conch applies only to someone with European lineage who immigrated from the Bahamas.
A typical Cuban sandwich available in many cafes and restaurants in Key West Key West is closer to Havana (106 miles [171 km]) than it is to Miami (129 miles [208 km]).
In 1890, Key West had a populace of nearly 18,800 and was the biggest and richest town/city in Florida. Half the inhabitants were said to be of Cuban origin, and Key West regularly had Cuban mayors, including the son of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, father of the Cuban Republic, who was propel mayor in 1876. Cubans were actively involved in reportedly 200 factories in town, producing 100 million cigars annually.
Mayors of Key West have reflected the city's cultural and ethnic heritage.
In 1982 the town/city of Key West briefly declared its "independence" as the Conch Republic in a protest over a United States Border Patrol blockade.
Flags, T-shirts and other merchandise representing the Conch Republic are still prominent souvenirs for visitors to Key West, and the Conch Republic Independence Celebration including parades and parties is jubilated every April 23.
Monroe County School District operates enhance schools in Key West.
District-operated elementary schools serving the City of Key West include Poinciana Elementary School, which is positioned on the island of Key West, and Gerald Adams Elementary School, which is positioned on Stock Island. District-operated middle and high schools include Horace O'Bryant School, a former middle school which now operates as a K 8 school, and the Key West High School.
All of Key West is zoned to Horace O'Bryant School for grades 6-8 and to Key West High School for grades 9 12.
Sigsbee Charter School is a K 8 school of choice, sanctioned by the District and serving dominantly military dependent kids as well as kids from the improve at large. Admission to Sigsbee Charter School is limited and the waiting list is managed by a lottery system. Key West Montessori Charter School is a district-sanctioned charter school on Key West Island. The chief campus of Florida Keys Community College is positioned in Key West.
Wolkowsky, a wealthy developer, about 10 miles (16 km) west of Key West.
Although Ballast Key is positioned inside both the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, signs on the island strictly prohibit unauthorized visitors.
The initial Key West settlement on the part of the island is called "Old Town" and comprises the Key West Historic District.
Old Town is comparable to the "New Town" section of the island, which was created when the island of Key West was more than doubled in size via landfill.
New Town, on the easterly part of the island, contains shopping centers, retail malls, residentiary areas, schools, ball parks, and Key West International Airport.
Key West from space, October 2002 Key West was always an meaningful military post, since it sits at the northern edge of the deepwater channel connecting the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico (the southern edge 90 miles (140 km) away is Cuba) via the Florida Straits.
At the beginning of World War II the Navy increased its existence from 50 acres (200,000 m2) to 3,000 acres (12 km2), including all of Boca Chica Key's 1,700 acres (7 km2) and the assembly of Fleming Key from landfill.
NAS Key West This is the chief facility on Boca Chica, where the Navy trains its pilots.
This portion has largely been decommissioned and turned over to private developers and the town/city of Key West.
Presidents have visited Key West.
Kennedy visited Key West a month after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Jimmy Carter held a family reunion in Key West after leaving office.
Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway wrote part of A Farewell to Arms while living above the showroom of a Key West Ford dealership at 314 Simonton Street while awaiting bringy of a Ford Model A roadster purchased by the uncle of his wife Pauline in 1928. He used Depression-era Key West as one of the locations in To Have and Have Not his only novel with scenes that occur in the United States.
The Key West City Commission has exempted the home from a law prohibiting more than four domestic animals per homehold.
Tennessee Williams first became a regular visitor to Key West in 1941 and is said to have written the first draft of A Streetcar Named Desire while staying in 1947 at the La Concha Hotel.
He bought a permanent home in 1949 and listed Key West as his major residence until his death in 1983.
Williams had a series of rented homes all over the United States, but the only home he owned was in Key West.
Even though Hemingway and Williams lived in Key West at the same time, they reportedly met only once at Hemingway's home in Cuba, Finca Vigia.
Main article: Media in Key West, Florida See also: List of tv stations in Key West and List of airways broadcasts in Key West The tv stations received in Key West are the stations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Designated Market Area with rebroadcast transmitters in Key West and Marathon.
The Key West region has 11 FM airways broadcasts, 4 FM translators, and 2 AM stations.
Island 107.1 FM is the only locally owned, autonomous FM station in Key West, featuring alternative modern music and improve programs.
The Florida Keys Keynoter and the Key West Citizen are presented locally and serve Key West and Monroe County.
The Southernmost Flyer, a weekly printed announcement printed in conjunction with the Citizen, is produced by the Public Affairs Department of Naval Air Station Key West and serves the small-town military community.
Key West and the Florida Keys have been the setting for many film and tv productions beginning in 1942 with Reap the Wild Wind. Neighborhoods in Key West, Florida Official records for Key West were kept at the Weather Bureau in downtown from January 1871 to February 1958, and at Key West Int'l since March 1958.
Google Earth, Key West: Google, 2008 "Key West Looks at Identity as It Plots Tourism Future".
Key West: General History and Sketches URL retrieved August 20, 2006.
Yesterday's Key West "Exploring Florida Documents: Key West: The Municipality".
Key West: The Old and the New (PDF).
A Chronological History of Key West A Tropical Island City, Stephen Nichols, 3rd ed.
June Keith, June Keith's Key West & The Florida Keys: A Guide to the Coral Islands (5th ed.: Palm Island Press, 2014), p.
"Station Name: FL KEY WEST INTL AP".
"Average Weather for Key West, FL - Temperature and Precipitation".
Gutelius, Scott; Stone, Marshall; Varner, Marcus (2003), True Secrets of Key West Revealed!, Key West: Eden Entertainment Limited, ISBN 978-0-9672819-4-0 Key West Citizen "New commissioners' trial by wind and flood" October 27, 2005 a b Key West Citizen October 25, 2005, pp 1-2, 6 Key West Citizen "Flooded cars litter the Keys" October 27, 2005 City of Key West Port Operations Office Enumeration 2000: Households of Key West, Florida Modern Language Association Data Center Results of Key West, Florida Windhorn, Stan & Langley, Wright Yesterday's Key West p.13 "Key West Montessori Charter School: About Our School".
"314 Simonton Street, Key West, Fl" (Map).
Hemingway's Key West.
"907 Whitehead Street, Key West, Fl" (Map).
"1431 Duncan Street, Key West, Fl" (Map).
"Key West FL Newspapers & News Media - ABYZ News Links".
"Key West fest honors Tennessee Williams." a b "Key West: The Last Resort." Calvin Klein House Key West The Streets of Key West.
Florida Keys & Key West Film & Entertainment Commission.
Florida Keys & Key West Film & Entertainment Commission.
Key West, Florida
Categories:
Key West, Florida - County seats in Florida - Cities in Monroe County, Florida - Micropolitan areas of Florida - Seaside resorts in Florida - Port metros/cities in Florida - Port metros/cities and suburbs of the United States Gulf Coast - Cities in Florida - Populated coastal places in Florida on the Atlantic Ocean
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