026. USCGC Ingham Museum
Historic Marker Number 26 is located at Truman Waterfront.The 327-foot U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Ingham was commissioned in 1936 and served for 52 years until it was retired in 1988.During World War II she served on convoy duty in the North Atlantic and has been credited with the sinking of German U-boat 626. She later served in the Mediterranean and served as the flagship for many landings in the Pacific Theater. Also, during World War II, the Ingham carried a crew of over 200 enlisted men and eighteen officers. She was a formidable mini destroyer. Her weapons included 5-inch 38-caliber guns, depth charge racks, 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns, 20 millimeter and 50-caliber guns, and K-guns. She served as the Command Ship in MacArthur's Maravelles, Corregidor, and Manila campaigns.The Ingham continued to serve during the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam and was awarded two Presidential Citations for her Vietnam service – a rare accomplishment. She is the most decorated ship in the Coast Guard and exhibits the ribbons and battle stars on her bridge.In the 1980s, the Ingham was involved on drug interdiction patrols in the Caribbean. She also participated in the Mariel Boat Lift saving the lives of hundreds of Cuban refugees.The Ingham has been declared a National Historic Landmark by the United States Government and is a national memorial to all Coast Guard men and women who lost their lives in battle from World War II through Vietnam. This museum is operated by veterans as a non-profit organization and appreciates your support.
044. The Mole Pier
Historic Marker Number 44 is located at the end of Southard Street near the USCGC Ingham.The concrete pier in front of you has gone through a number of changes over the years but its origins date back to before the Civil War. Fort Zachary Taylor was built as a defensive fortress in 1845. It originally sat 1,000 feet from the shores of Key West and was connected by a wooden causeway and drawbridge. A small land embankment called a ‘cover face’ sat behind the fort at its entrance facing Key West. A wooden dock extended from the cover face and is considered to be the original location of the Outer Mole Pier.At the turn of the nineteenth century, in an effort to expand the U.S. Navy base, the water surrounding Fort Jefferson and the cover face was filled with dredge material leaving the fort land-locked.During World War I, engineers replaced the wooden pier with a massive concrete structure that fits the modern definition of a mole pier. It is a combination of a dock and breakwater built to protect ships and submarines at the numerous piers that had been built in the harbor. Sand and marl from the surrounding seabed were used to fill the concrete blockade.The Outer Mole Pier is a deep-berth pier that is 580 feet long with a deck height of 7 feet. It has been used to dock vessels up to 855 feet in length. The U.S. Navy retained ownership of the pier when the former Key West Naval Station was sold at public auction in 1986. It is currently used as a berth for Navy, Coast Guard and NOAA.
057. U.S. Navy Submarine Base
Historic Marker Number 57 is located at the west end of Southard Street along with Historic Markers for the USCGC Ingham Museum and the Outer Mole Pier.What we know today as Truman Annex got its start in 1845 as part of the U.S. Army installation at Fort Taylor. The base was eventually taken over by the U.S. Navy in 1947 and named the ‘Fort Zachary Taylor Annex to Naval Station Key West’. By 1932, five new metal ‘finger’ docks had been added to the harbor to create a home for Navy submarines.The submarine docks, dry docks and surrounding support buildings were very important during World War II. Due to an oversight in the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, Germany amassed the largest submarine fleet in the world. The submarines, or U-boats as they were commonly called, were very successful in inflicting great losses on Allied supply convoys in the Atlantic. During the war, 3,000 Allied merchant and military ships were lost to U-boat encounters. While most effective in the mid-Atlantic where there was a large gap in air power, their threats were also felt on the shores of Florida. In May 1942, German U-boats sank 47 ships around Florida. Often the burning wreckage were seen from shorelines along the coast.A number of different submarine missions were conducted from Key West’s Naval base. Some involved hunting and destroying enemy ships in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf Coast waters. Others entailed escorting ship convoys that sailed to and from England with crucial supplies for the European Front. Convoy escorts by Navy submarines and sailors are credited with saving countless lives at sea and abroad during the war.The base also served to support the Pacific War against Japan. New submarines built in East Coast shipyards were sent to Key West where they received their crews and orders to sail through the Panama Canal to take their place in the Pacific Ocean Theatre.The Navy’s Fleet Sonar School moved to Naval Station in 1940 and was instrumental in training thousands of officers and sailors about newly evolving sonar technology and submarine warfare tactics. The use of sonar on ships was one of the few ways available to track the presence or movements of enemy U-boats.On March 20, 1946, Naval Station Key West was designated as ‘U.S. Naval Submarine Base Key West’. Subsequently, nuclear-powered submarines replaced Key West's outdated diesel-powered vessels and the base was eventually closed in 1974.
045. Marine Hospital
Historic Marker Number 45 is located at 411 Emma Street in Truman Annex.In late 1844, the U.S. Navy ordered the construction of the Marine Hospital on the banks of the Navy base, overlooking the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The hospital was completed in less than a year. It was two stories high and measured one hundred feet in length and forty feet in width and was equipped with sixty beds.During the American Civil War, the Marine Hospital, along with the rest of Key West and the waters surrounding the island remained in Union control. From 1857 to 1899, the hospital dealt with numerous yellow fever and dengue fever, known as ‘break bone’ fever, epidemics. Key West’s worst yellow fever outbreak in 1899 afflicted 1,320 persons and caused sixty-eight deaths.The building and grounds have seen their share of damage from numerous storms and hurricanes. The Havana Hurricane of 1846 slammed into Key West with category 5 storm force winds less than a year after the hospital was built. Even the stone construction could not withstand the ensuing storm surge and wind force. The structure lost its roof and was heavily damaged when the docks in front of the building were dashed into the side of the building causing one of the exterior walls to collapse.In 1899, the hospital was primarily used for care of wounded military personnel during the Spanish-American War. Located just 90 miles from the conflict in Cuba, it served as a medical facility that saved the lives of many brave soldiers.During World War I in 1918, the hospital was involved in treating victims of the influenza pandemic. The pandemic of 1918-1919, known as ‘Spanish Flu’ or ‘La Grippe’, killed 20–40 million people worldwide and was one of the greatest global health disasters known to man.In 1930, Ernest Hemingway became familiar with the Marine Hospital after being treated for a gunshot wound to his foot. As a tribute he mentions the Marine Hospital in his novel To Have and Have Not. After the Great Depression, the hospital often had to charge $5 to $7 instead of the standard allowance of $3.75 per patient just to break even.The U.S. Navy took over the hospital during World War II and within two months closed the facility and turned it over to the WAVES, a military branch for women in the Navy during the war. After the war it continued as Navy housing for junior officers until the closure of Naval Station Key West in 1974. Late in the 1970s, the building was occupied as a home for troubled teens. By the early 1980s the Navy base, along with the hospital building, was sold for a private redevelopment of Truman Annex.
064. Mel Fisher Maritime Museum
Historic Marker Number 64 is located at 200 Greene Street between Whitehead and Front streets.This impressive building stands at the entrance to Truman Annex, formerly Naval Station Key West. It was constructed by the U.S. Navy in 1900 as the U.S. Naval Store House. An interesting aspect of the building was its dual use as a coal storage structure. The top floor was retrofitted for storing large quantities of coal. This may not make sense unless you look at the layout and uses of this part of the island at the turn of the twentieth century.At the time of construction, the shoreline had not been expanded making the Custom House (see Historic Marker #71) beachfront property. Mallory Square, in its present-day configuration, was still part of the Gulf of Mexico.The military might of the Navy was dependent on access to coal and fresh water to power its steamships. Steam powered ships were faster and more reliable than any sailing ship of the day. With that in mind, the Navy stored large stashes of the precious material in strategic locations throughout the world. The practice was the backbone of naval superiority that the country relied on.Coal storage on the island consisted of large shoreline bins. Many a sailor spent his days filling the bins with coal from supply ships and then reloading the precious cargo onto outward bound steamships. It was a dirty back breaking job but vital to a busy a busy port.Eventually, large conveyer belts were suspended over the piers to deliver coal directly to ships. They were covered for inclement weather and in many cases looked like suspended barn structures hovering over the water.The height of the warehouse coal storage and close proximity to the water would have meshed well with the established conveyor belt delivery system. Shortly after the building was completed the Navy began converting to diesel powered ships. Luckily for the integrity of the building, the coal storage may have never been used.The Navy eventually used the warehouse as temporary storage for furniture and belongings of naval personnel that were transferring in or out of town to new assignments.Today the building is utilized as the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum.
111. Coast Guard Headquarters
Historic Marker Number 111 is located at the corner of Whitehead and Front streets.Construction of this imposing brick structure began in 1856 and was completed in 1861. Even though the present day building is identified as the Coast Guard Headquarters, it began as the United States Navy Coal Depot & Storehouse, Building #1. The historic functions of the building were defense, commerce, trade, warehouse and naval administration until 1932. During the Civil War, the Union’s East Coast Blockading Squadron was headquartered here. The blockade is credited with shortening the Civil War and saving countless numbers of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.One of the structures greatest assets, in the 1800s, was as a coal depot. The U.S. Navy began to convert its fleet from sailing ships to steam powered vessels in the 1840s. Sail transportation was quickly outmoded as the reliability of steam engines improved and iron hulled, screw-propelled ships were developed. Steel-hulled ships could be built substantially larger and longer than their wooden counterparts could. The only downside of a steamship was the need for large amounts of coal to keep the boiler furnaces stoked.Key West was a strategic coaling location for steamships embarking on Trans-Atlantic, Caribbean, or South America voyages as evidenced by the numerous coal sheds lining the harbor in the mid-1800s.Initially, coal was shoveled into bins and pushed along piers to waiting steam ships where it was shoveled onboard. As the need for coal increased, it was moved from shoreline storage facilities on large aerial conveyor belts to a coal transfer station suspended over the harbor waters. Ships were able to transfer coal from the harbor station quicker and with less manual labor.The second floor of the navy building was reserved for sail makers. As the use of steamboats made inroads into traditional sail powered ships, the need for a good sail remained. The irony of many of the early steamboats is that they were outfitted with rigging and sails to augment steam power and as a safeguard in the advent that steam propulsion failed.In 1932, the offices of the 7th Lighthouse District opened in this building. Their duties included overseeing Florida Keys lighthouses, light ships and channel markers. By 1939, the U.S .Coast Guard changed the name of the building from the Naval Coal Depot to the Coast Guard Headquarters to depict their use of the building.The Coast Guard Headquarters building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and remains Key West’s oldest brick structure.
058. Key West Wreckers
Historic Marker Number 58 is located at 402 Wall Street on the corner of the Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden.Wrecking is the name of an industry that we commonly call marine salvage today. Its origins are traced back to man’s first attempts to travel the oceans of the world.The Florida Keys and Key West are well situated for an active wrecking industry. A line of coral reefs and shallow shoals run parallel to the Florida Keys from the southeast tip of Florida’s mainland in a southwest curve toward Key West. If that is not enough of an obstacle for mariners, dangerous shoals also run from Key West to the Dry Tortugas. The reefs and shoals are 200 miles long and have impaired many an unlucky ship.Ships of all types started wrecking along the Florida Keys as soon as Europeans reached the New World in the 1500s. For many centuries, wrecking proved an important economic activity for the Florida Keys. The success of the wrecking industry is key to how a small island located 140 miles from the mainland had the largest population in Florida and amassed the greatest wealth per capita in the United States from the Civil War until the turn of the twentieth century.By the early 1600s, the Spanish started losing ships traveling to and from the New World along the treacherous reefs. Many of the ships were large treasure galleons headed from South America to Spain. The most famous shipwreck was part of a twenty-eight ship convoy of Spanish treasure ships blown onto the reefs by a hurricane in 1622. The Spanish government spent twenty-one years salvaging the fleet but never located the treasure ship Nuesta Senora de Atocha.Mel Fisher, a modern American wrecker, discovered the shipwreck on July 20, 1985. His company has been salvaging gold coins, jewelry, and precious stones from the wreck ever since.The standard tools of a wrecker was a fast ship with a shallow draft, chains, grappling hooks, heavy anchors, rope, block and tackle, along with supplies to make emergency repairs to refloat a ship or cargo for transport to Key West.During the mid-nineteenth century, there was an average of one shipwreck per week. In 1848 there were forty-eight ships recorded as wrecked, victims of the reefs or strong storms.Wrecking was a very lucrative business. Salvaged ships and cargo was brought to market in Key West and a portion of the auction proceeds, approximately twenty percent, were awarded to the wrecker and his crew. By the 1830s, sixty to ninety percent of all exports from Florida came from the wrecking industry.There is a popular fable that unscrupulous wreckers were known to use ‘false lights’ to lure a ship onto a reef at night. The reality is that mariners interpret a light in the distance as indicating land and avoid them if they cannot identify the source of the illumination. In hundreds of admiralty court cases heard at the Custom House (see Historic Marker #71), no captain of a shipwreck ever charged that he had been led astray by a false light.In 1822, in an effort to curb the loss of ships, the United States appropriated funding to build a series of lighthouses and position lightships to warn mariners of the submerged dangers of the Florida Keys. The number of shipwrecks was greatly diminished but were not eliminated. Even with modern navigation and a series of lighthouses along the coast, ships still occasionally ground. While the reefs provide a vital link to the beauty and prosperity of Florida Keys, they have a history that all mariners have come to fear and respect.
037. Mallory Steamship Line
Historic Marker Number 37 is located at 402 Wall Street in Mallory Square.Charles Henry Mallory of Mystic, Connecticut formed the Mallory Ship Line in the 1860s. By 1873, the Mallory Line offered passenger and freight service between New York, Key West, and Galveston. Starting in 1876, the ships also began delivering mail to ports along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast.Mallory started with sailing ships with average travel time taking nine days each way from New York to Key West. The company began using steam powered ships which reduced traveling time to four days. When a Mallory Line ship left New York City for Key West, a tandem ship would leave Key West for New York. That meant that six steamers were necessary to maintain the weekly service schedule desired.At their zenith the Mallory Steamship Line operated as many as seventy ships for their many routes. Their routes were known as the Clyde Line, Porto Rico Line and the Ward Line. All disembarked from New York and stopped at various ports along the East Coast, Gulf Coast, and several Caribbean ports.The cost of passage was not necessarily cheap. In 1898, a first class, one-way ticket could range from $20 to $60 or more depending on the destination.Today, the only remains of the Mallory Steamship Line are the ticket office built after the Great Fire of 1886. The ticket office was built on the site of the former office and observation tower of Asa Tift’s Company in Mallory Square (see Historic Marker #13). The ticket office building was moved to its present-day location in Mallory Square in 1962.
047. Civil War Blockade Squadron
Historic Marker Number 47 is located in Mallory Square.In 1861, seven Southern states joined together in secession from the United States. It was a political decision that sparked the American Civil War.The Confederacy, as the rebellious group was known, had an economy based primarily on cotton production and exportation. One of President Abraham Lincoln’s first military responses was designed to crush that strength of this industry and limit military supplies to the newly formed Confederacy.Lincoln ordered a naval blockade and closure of 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline and twelve major southern ports. The blockade was in place from 1861-1865.The Union Navy commissioned 500 ships and either captured or sank about 1,500 blockade runner’s ships over the course of the war. The overall effect of the Union maritime gauntlet was the reduction of Southern cotton exports by 95% and the obstruction of Confederate military supplies from the outside world. Despite its success, five out of six ships that attempted to evade the blockade were successful.Running the blockade spawned a new and short-lived maritime industry. Ordinary sailing ships were too visible and slow to evade the Navy cordon. Newly designed ships that were small, light and had a shallow draft were the most successful at running the blockade, but their haul was limited to a small, light cargo capacity. While they were fast, the ships were unable to deliver large amounts of heavy weaponry, metal and other supplies desperately needed by the South.The Union blockade proved to be a powerful weapon that contributed greatly to the demise of the Confederate economy, at the loss of very few lives. The measure of the blockade’s success was not indicated by the number of ships that slipped through but the thousands that never tried to. Ordinary freighters had no reasonable hope of evading the blockade and stopped calling at Southern ports all together.The British were heavily invested in the Confederate maritime efforts to beat the grip of the Union blockade. The proclamation declaring the legality of the blockade had an unexpected side effect for the Union. The declaration of the blockade, under international and maritime law, also carried with it the recognition of the Confederacy by the Union. That legitimacy allowed foreign nations to trade with the South as a sovereign nation.The South had an inadequate supply of ship captains, sailors and ship building capacity to launch an effective offense for the blockade. British investors saw an opportunity and began to build new ships in England that had low profiles, shallow draft, and high speed. The new ships were steam driven paddle wheelers that were crewed by retired British naval officers and crews.Under the dark of night, the ships ran from the neutral ports in Bermuda, The Bahamas and Havana, Cuba filled with tobacco, turpentine, rifles, medicine, brandy and other war necessities. British investors stockpiled supplies in the neutral ports to be sold to the South or exchanged for shipments of cotton carried in the hulls of the blockade runners.Blockade running was a fairly low risk occupation and proved extremely profitable to the British investors. If a ship were captured running the blockade the British crew would be returned under the maritime laws of the day.Private British investors spent an estimated $250 million on the building, outfitting, and operating of their blockade running fleet. That is the equivalent of over $2.5 billion in today’s currency.One example of the lucrative and short-lived nature of the blockade running trade was the ship Banshee, which operated out of Nassau and Bermuda. She was captured on her seventh run into Wilmington, North Carolina, and confiscated by the U.S. Navy for use as a blockading ship. At the time of her captured, she had turned a 700% profit for her English owners, who quickly commissioned and built the Banshee No. 2, which soon joined the firm’s fleet of blockade of runners.
039. The Mosquito Fleet
Historic Marker Number 39 is located in Mallory Square.On February 7, 1822, Lieutenant Navy Commander Matthew C. Perry was given the order to survey the coast and inspect the Florida Keys. A little over a month later, on March 25, the first United States flag was planted on Key West soil. The following year, Commodore David Porter and the U.S. Navy officially staked claim to the island.Porter’s mission was two-fold: to establish a naval base in Key West, or Thompson’s Island as it was known at the time, and to eradicate pirates operating in the West Indies. Porter took his duties quite seriously and carried them out perfectly, a bit too perfectly. When it came to erecting the naval base, Porter quickly established a storehouse, workshop, hospital, and living quarters for his men.Under his command the West Indian Squadron was fast, lethal, and efficient. Like a mosquito in a room, you knew it is somewhere, but you never knew when or where it will sting, hence the squadron was nicknamed the ‘Mosquito Fleet’. Porter reduced piracy throughout the Caribbean. He chased the few pirates that remained back to a port in Puerto Rico, at the time controlled by the Spanish Empire. Porter, under no direct command from the Navy, demanded that the Spanish turn over the remaining pirates to be dealt with. When the Spanish refused, Porter marched his soldiers ashore and “taught the Spanish a lesson.”So as not to cause an international incident, the U.S. Navy court-martialed Porter. He promptly left the U.S. and entered the service of the Mexican Navy. Wanting to acknowledge the purported injustice done to him, the U.S. government appointed Porter as the consular agent to Turkey decades later. Porter eventually died in 1843 in Turkey.
046. Sponge Docks
Historic Marker Number 46 is located in Key West Bight near A&B Marina.Sponges were discovered in the waters of the Florida Keys as early as the 1820s. Native fishermen would often find sponges washed up onto the shores after storms. The first catches were only used for the local domestic trade.With the discovery of rich, thriving sponge beds in the remote backwater country of the Florida Keys, an industry was born. Most of the sponge beds were in about twenty feet of water. Fishermen used small boats, called ‘hook boats’ to navigate their way to the sponge beds. The most common method of harvesting them was with the use of a long pole with a three- or four-pronged rake at its end. The fishermen, branded as ‘hookers’, used the rake to pry sponges loose and retrieve them from the waters below.While Key West’s waters were abundant with rich sponge beds yielding high quality sponge, the remote location of the island made it difficult and expensive to get the product to market. In 1849, the first shipment of sponges was transported to New York City to determine whether there was a market for them. The softness and wide variety of the Keys’ sponges were an instant success. This began an island industry that lasted 50 years.At its peak, Key West held a monopoly on the sponge trade in the United States, by employing 1,200 men working on 350 hook boats. It produced an average of 2,000 tons per year which yielded the economy roughly $750,000.In 1904, Greek immigrants came to the Keys to pursue sponging. They used primitive diving suits with heavy lead boots which allowed them to reach sponges in deeper water. Local fishermen were skeptical of this practice and correctly believed that walking on the sponge beds with the lead weighted boots damaged the young sponges and reduced future harvests. A combination of the use of the diving suits, overfishing and the spread of a deadly sponge fungus brought the island’s sponging industry to an end.New, healthy sponge beds were later discovered off the coast of central Florida and the industry moved to Tarpon Springs where it still thrives today.Check out the 1953 movie Beneath the 12 Mile Reef. It is a Hollywood B movie starring a young Robert Wagner. The highlight of the movie is that it was one of the first movies to be filmed in CinemaScope. It was shot in Key West and is a fictionalized story of the sponging industry.
081. Thompson-O'Neal Fish House
Historic Marker Number 81 is located at 631 Greene Street on the corner of Greene and Elizabeth streets.This historic site has played an important role in the prosperity of Key West since the 1890s. The discovery of large sponge beds in the shallow waters of the backcountry spawned an industry that lasted fifty years.Large, wide docks were built on the water stretching to Historic Marker #46 (Sponge Docks) displaying the catch of the day. Wholesalers would stroll along the docks to inspect the wide variety of sponges to purchase for markets throughout the country.At its peak, Key West held a monopoly on the sponge trade in the United States. The trade employed 1,200 men working on 350 ‘hook boats’. It produced an average of 2,000 tons a year which yielded the economy $750,000 annually.This building was built for and around the discovery of Florida pink shrimp in 1947. News about the abundance of the nocturnal pink shrimp found off the shores of South Florida spread like wildfire. By 1950, there were 500 shrimp trawlers in port and the ‘pink gold rush’ was on.This metal clad building was constructed in 1948 by two fish house companies. The Thompson and O’Neal shrimp packing houses combined their resources to meet the demand of the new industryA fish house is a packing plant that unloads and purchases seafood from boats. It cleans the catch and packs it in wooden crates with ice for transport to market. Workers removed the heads and cleaned the catch by hand. Shrimp heads and refuse from the cleaning process was thrown into the water off the dock much to the delight of large schools of tarpon fish.The fish house also provided dockage and land storage space, supplied the fuel, ice, bait, gear and repairs that a fisherman needed to operate efficiently. The building also served as a social meeting place for the fishermen and the community. The numerous jobs it created were a significant increase for the city’s economy.In conjunction to the fish house, Thompson-O’Neal built a large two story ice factory. It employed the latest ice making technology that proved to be much safer than the volatility of ammonia-based ice production.In 1976, Henry Singleton’s Corporation purchased the Thompson-O’Neal Shrimp Company. The purchase included most of the waterfront of the historic seaport. You can see a life-size statue of John ‘Booty’ Singleton next to Historic Marker #77.With the decline of the shrimp industry and the relocation of the fleet to a neighboring island there was no longer a need for the ice factory. Today, the building is used as an educational facility for Reef Relief. Our shrimp fleet has dwindled from nearly 500 trawlers in the 1950s to three working boats today. The industry has been rocked by cheap imports and high fuel prices.By the 1960s the metal building was being employed by watersport companies, fishing and scuba charters, sailmakers and water transportation to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. In its most recent transformation, the Thompson-O’Neal fish house building operates as a restaurant and bar overlooking the Historic Seaport.
088. Norberg Thompson
Historic Marker Number 88 is located between Elizabeth and William Streets.Norberg Thompson was a man of initiative and enterprise who always seemed to be ahead of the times. By shaping much of the economic infrastructure that gave growth to the town in the first half of the twentieth century, he significantly influenced the development of Key West.In an early business venture, he was involved in the sponge industry, having taken over for his father as the representative of several New York sponge buyers. At its peak, local spongers held a monopoly on the sponge industry, supplying 60% of the sponge demand nationally. Thompson was responsible for a good portion of that success. At the peak of his career, Thompson owned most of the Historic Seaport. His greatest achievement was the thousands of local jobs his businesses supported for nearly fifty years.Most of Thompson’s businesses were located in the Historic Seaport District. His business, Thompson Enterprises, engaged in fishing, ice production, cigar box manufacturing, pineapple and guava canning, turtle soup production, sponging and hardware sales. Over time, business after business would emerge, flourish, decline and be replaced by another. Thompson’s various business ventures are a reflection of changes to Key West during the early twentieth century.For hundreds of years, turtles were an important food source and economic catalyst for many seafaring communities. In 1910, Thompson purchased the A. Granday Turtle Canning business. A French chef who came to Key West seeking a source for green turtles owned the business. His turtle soup recipe became famous in restaurants in New York City and was shipped all around the world. The cannery was the only factory in the U.S. that exclusively distributed green turtle products. It operated until 1971 when the Endangered Species Act was passed (see Historic Marker #78).During the heyday of the cigar industry Thompson built a cigar box factory that manufactured cigar boxes from cedar logs shipped from Cuba. The factory was capable of producing 7,000 boxes per day. The high quality boxes were a prized commodity for nearly 200 local cigar factories (see Historic Marker #80).The Thompson Fish Company had a fleet of nearly 125 fishing boats. The company processed the catch from its own and other fleets and then shipped the fish, which was either salted or packed in ice from Thompson’s ice factory, to markets throughout the United States.In the 1930s, Thompson opened a pineapple and guava canning factory with fruit shipped from Cuba on Henry Flagler’s railroad ferries traveling from Cuba to Key West (see Historic Marker #89).With the destruction of Flagler’s Overseas Railway during the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935, Thompson provided freight service to Miami by way of a barge line. When the Overseas Highway was completed in 1938, he started the Overseas Transportation Company, which at one time operated fifty-two trucks from Miami to Key West. During World War II, almost everything that reached Key West from the mainland was carried on his truck line.Thompson was at the forefront of a brand new industry that emerged in the 1950s. In 1948, he hired a select group of fishermen to find elusive Florida Pink Shrimp in the Gulf waters. The shrimp were discovered and kicked off the ‘Florida Pink Gold Rush’ (1949-1970s), which led to the capture of vast amounts of shrimp for decades to come (see Historic Marker #77). By 1950, there were 500 shrimp trawlers docked at the Historic Seaport. Thompson’s icehouse, fish packing and transportation lines were a crucial part of the success of this lucrative industry.Throughout his career, Thompson was a generous visionary who managed to stay a step ahead of the times. He was a major job creator throughout the cycles of good and bad economic climates. During the Great Depression era, he employed 40% of Key West and left a lasting legacy at the Historic Seaport and throughout the island he loved.
087. Schooner Western Union
Historic Marker Number 87 is located at the Key West Historic Seaport and the end of William Street.The Schooner Western Union, built in Key West between 1938 and 1939, is one of the oldest surviving authentic wooden working schooners in the United States and the only remaining tall ship built in Key West. It is referred to as a ‘working schooner’ due to its design and purpose – it was used for work rather than it being a passenger ship or a ship of leisure.Thompson Enterprises, owned by Norberg Thompson (see Historic Marker #88), built and ported the Western Union locally in Key West as a job specific ship. Thompson constructed it with a 24-foot beam and drawing 7.5 feet, to lay and maintain the Western Union telegraph cable lines stretching from Key West under the waters of the Florida Straits to Cuba.The Western Union launched from Key West’s Smathers Beach on April 7, 1939, and sailed the Florida Straits, the Caribbean, and South Atlantic until 1974. The ship logged over 30,000 miles in the service of the Western Union Company. Prior to the telegraph cables, the only way to communicate across the 90 miles to Cuba was to travel by sailing ship or steamer to deliver messages.To determine the location of cable breaks, operators sent an electronic signal along a damaged cable to determine its location. Once the ship reached the location of the break, sailors would drop lines with hooks and slowly drag it along the bottom until it caught hold of the cable. Crewmembers would winch the cable to the surface and fix the cable break before releasing it back into the waterIn 1974, Western Union sold the ship to Vision Quest a non-profit that aimed to redirect troubled youth who eventually sold it to the for-profit touring company, Historic Tours of America. In 2007, Historic Tours donated the ship to the Schooner Western Union Preservation Society & Maritime Museum, who restored the schooner to sail with passengers as a sailing and working museum.Since then, the ship was designated the flagship of the City of Key West and, in 2012, it was officially designated the Flagship of the State of Florida. The ship was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.Currently, the Western Union is undergoing a major restoration project to return her to Key West's waters.An interesting footnote to the history of telegraph cables happened on Christmas day, 1900. The International Ocean Telegraph Company (a Western Union subsidiary) ran an experiment with the Key West side of the telegraph cable to see if it could be used to transmit telephone calls. John Atkins, the manager, called Cuba. After a long silence, the Cuban operator replied 'I don't understand you'. The call was the first recorded international phone call (see Historic Marker #27).
060. Thompson Fish House
Historic Marker Number 60 is located at the end of Margaret Street on Thompson’s pier in the Historic Seaport.The Thompson Fish House was part of Norberg Thompson’s sprawling enterprises in and around the Historic Seaport. He built the wooden structure at the end of the pier in conjunction with the Turtle Kraal pens and turtle canning building in the vicinity. The structure has had many uses over the years. It started out as a waterside packing location for fresh fish and turtles from the local fleets. The sea fare was packed in ice from an icehouse (see Historic Marker #80) and transferred to trains to ship to mainland Florida, Cuba and beyond. Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railway terminal (see Historic Marker #75) was a short distance by water or land from the fish house.For a time, there was a submerged wooden cage suspended beneath the building used to house exotic fish and maritime specimens caught by local fishermen. Selling the specimens to aquarium and maritime research ships proved a lucrative side business.From 1928 to 1930, Ernest Hemingway resided at the Trev-Mor Hotel (see Historic Marker #6) and often disembarked from this pier for many of the fishing excursions that fueled his love of the sea and the stories and lore of the local fishermen he met.During the golden days of shrimping in the 1950s, the pier was the epicenter of that industry. The burgeoning success of the shrimp industry brought entrepreneurs from all over the country along with a cast of colorful characters.
078. Turtle Kraals & Cannery
Historic Marker Number 78 is located at 200 Margaret Street on the Thompson Pier.As long as humans have inhabited the Florida Keys, turtles have been a valuable and much sought after food source. Some of the earliest recorded history referencing the turtle population in the Florida Keys came from Ponce de Leon’s exploration of Florida in 1513. His travels took him through what we now call the Dry Tortugas. His three small ships captured 160 green turtles to fortify their food rations for the unknown voyage ahead of them. He termed the area ‘Las Tortugas’ which is Spanish for ‘the turtles’.The earliest maps of Key West show Turtle Kraals along its shores. Kraals consist of shallow water enclosures with wood poles driven into the bay bottom at intervals close enough to keep the turtles in and yet far enough apart to allow water to flow freely through the enclosure. In this case, you can see the remnants of concrete pillars, built in the 1920s, that were used to keep captured turtles at bay.‘Kraals’ take their name from the Dutch African word ‘corral’. The kraals were a convenient way to store captured turtles in the water until they were needed for meat, eggs, soup or destined for further transport.This small wooden turtle processing and canning building located next to the pier between the remains of two kraals had easy access to the pier, turtle trawlers and the Oversea Railway. It was here that, when needed, turtles could be hoisted from the kraals and processed, canned or packed for market.The greenish colored fat processed from the turtles was a prized ingredient in the preparation of turtle soup. The cannery produced cans of soup cherished in restaurants throughout the country and Europe. Soup canning ran from 1912 until 1957 when it was eventually discontinued and operations were moved to New York.Over the years the turtle population plummeted in the Keys and South America due to overfishing. Thanks to size limits and the Endangered Species Act passed in 1971, the turtle population has begun to recover. The turtle kraals and soup cannery building ceased operations in 1971.On June 23, 1994, this historic cannery was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The building is currently a turtle museum operated by the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum (see Historic Marker #64).
079. Turtle Kraals Restaurant
Historic Marker Number 79 is located at 231 Margaret Street at the Historic Seaport.This building was constructed as a combination curio store, gift shop and tourist attraction. It faces the Historic Seaport with a good view of the turtle kraals, cannery building and Thompson’s Fish House.During the 1940s and 1950s, Key West tourism began to increase along with interest for travelers in visiting working waterfronts. Today, tourism has become the base of Key West’s economy.The workings of the turtle kraals and the cannery were of great interest to visitors from around the world. For 13¢, you could observe turtles, some weighing 300lbs or more, being unloaded from turtle trawlers anchored at the dock. Captured turtles were slid across the pier on their backs and lowered down a steep ramp into the kraal directly in front of you.Visitors were able to enjoy a tour of the cannery building, visit an unusually large turtle named ‘Big George’ and have the option of purchasing a can of turtle soup as a souvenir of their trip to Key West.The store was filled with a vast array of turtle memorabilia and postcards of the kraals. It is local lore this was the first paid tourist attraction along the Historic Seaport.The building has undergone several transitions over the years but still pays homage to its history with nightly box turtle races at the bar. Grab a number for your lucky racer and cheer your turtle to the finish line.
077. Shrimp Boat Fleet
Historic Marker Number 77 is located at 200 Margaret Street at the edge of the Historic Seaport.The Historic Seaport has seen many industries come and go. For 50 years, the port was dominated by the sponging industry and the turtle kraals and cannery were present until the 1970s. From 1912 to 1935 commerce centered on the main terminal for Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railway. With the demise of the railroad, those docks became a military base and a training ground for Navy seaplane pilots. Today the docks are home to the United States Coast Guard.The Historic Marker is located at the epicenter of the Key West shrimp fleet. Florida pink shrimp were discovered off the Dry Tortugas in 1947. The new industry attracted nearly 500 shrimp trawlers. There were so many boats in port that it was often said that you could walk from one side of the seaport to the other without ever touching water.Fish markets, packing factories, icehouses, a cannery, rough bars and thousands of fishermen and shrimpers followed. The bustling shrimp industry became a significant driving force in the local economy for two decades and the shrimping era is often referred to as the ‘pink gold rush’.The bronze statue behind the marker honors Henry ‘Boots’ Singleton. He was one of the first fishermen to capitalize on the shrimp industry. He acquired four shrimp trawlers in 1948 and fished the Key West area extensively. He was an enterprising man and opened the Singleton Seafood Company in Fort Myers the same year. As shrimp supplies began to dwindle in the 1960s, he relocated his operation to Tampa. He purchased shrimp throughout the country and packed and trucked the product around the world. He was celebrated as the ‘king of shrimp’ for most of his life.Eventually the local shrimp business dwindled due to overseas competition and ever rising diesel prices. Today the icehouses have been replaced with hotels, offices and parking lots. The shrimp packing building now operates as a restaurant and the turtle kraals and cannery are a museum. Charter boats and ferries dock where the shrimp trawlers once called home.Tourism has replaced the historic endeavors and industries that existed here in bygone years. It is a good change for the seaport as long as we remember our history and cherish our maritime heritage.
080. Industry Row
Historic Marker Number 80 is located at Margaret and Caroline Streets.The blocks along the Historic Seaport were filled with businesses that served the needs of fishermen, spongers, shrimpers and the turtle cannery. In turn, these businesses were reliant on ships and the Overseas Railway to import raw material and export their finished goods.Before 1912, the only way to transport all the essentials of life was by sailing ship or barge. The completion of Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railway in 1912 connected the island chain to the mainland and opened the channels of commerce.The largest structure on this lot was Norberg Thompson’s cigar box factory built in 1910. Obtaining enough cigar boxes for the thriving Key West cigar industry had always been a problem. Shipments from the mainland were sporadic at best. The Thompson Cigar Box Factory was a large enterprise consisting of a factory building where boxes were assembled. An adjoining lumber yard cut cedar and mahogany logs transported from Cuba into slim slats for premium boxes. A wood drying facility and lumber storage barn rounded out the business.With the advent of the successful shrimp industry in the 1950s, Thompson installed a large icehouse. Ice was produced with ammonia and chemicals. The process was volatile and dangerous but the need to pack fish and shrimp in ice for delivery to distant markets made it a lucrative business.On the water side of the lot, sandwiched between the lumber yard and icehouse, was a fish market. Land for businesses along the shoreline, including the Turtle Kraals Restaurant, was added in the 1920s.
024. Trumbo Naval Station
Historic Marker Number 24 is located at the entrance of Trumbo Point.When Henry Flagler was told that there was not enough land to build the grand terminal he envisioned for his Overseas Railway, his response was simple, ‘Then make some’. J.R. Parrott, Flagler’s right hand man on the ambitious project, hired the Trumbo American Dredging Company to create enough land to build Flagler’s terminal. With Howard Trumbo as head engineer, they quickly created an extra 134 acres of Key West and Trumbo Point was born.Recognizing that Trumbo Point had great strategic value, the Navy acquired it from Flagler and, on July 13, 1917, broke ground to create the Trumbo Naval Air Station. The first naval officer to take command of the base was Stanley V. Parker, Captain U.S.C.G., who reported for duty on December 17, 1917. The initial cost of the base was just over $1,000,000, a massive sum at the time.During World War I, dirigibles, or blimps as they were commonly called, were deployed from Trumbo Point. Among these was the C-1, the Navy’s largest blimp, which set a record flight traveling from Rockaway, New York to Key West. Through both World Wars, Trumbo’s seaplanes played a vital role in submarine patrol throughout the Caribbean. During World War II, the seaplanes deployed from Trumbo escorted Allied convoys and eventually, through their assistance, helped to win the war.In addition to being an ideal location for an active base, the weather conditions and protected waters made Trumbo Point a perfect training facility. Within the first 6 months of the base’s operation, 3,460 hours of flight training were booked.
095. The Sponge Warehouse
Historic Marker Number 95 is located at 901 Fleming Street at the corner of Margaret Streets.This building has long been used as a place of economic activity. Even before it was erected in 1896, this site contained a small wooden structure that operated as a meat market. The stepped front parapet roof façade was a typical building design in the nineteenth century and usually denotes a commercial building. The wide glass windows on the street side of the building are well suited to display any number of products.An 1899 Sanborn Insurance Company map, drawn up to assess fire insurance costs and risks, listed the building as a dry goods store, which sold dry foods, clothing, textiles and toiletries. By 1912 the building had transformed into a haberdashery. A haberdashery is a term used to describe a man's clothing store. The business also carried notions, which is a term for clothing related items like buttons, snaps, collar stays, and small sewing tools. In 1926, the Key West Directory listed the location as an office building.In 1948, an ambitious local entrepreneur turned the building into a sponge warehouse. By then, the large commercial sponging business of the mid 1800s had ended due to over harvesting and a deadly fungus. However, he was able to hook enough to open a sponging business. He advertised as an "active sponger" who sold his wares wholesale and retail. His business mainly consisted of selling sponges to tourists (see marker #46 for additional information on the sponging industry).In 1959, the building became the home of a wholesale furniture store. Since then it has been the home of numerous varied businesses and remains a vibrant historic commercial building serving the needs of the Key West community.
