Prepared for some Key West trivia?
- What was the island’s very first vacationer attraction, having opened 90 years in the past this month, on Feb. 17, 1935, amid the depths of the Nice Melancholy?
- Which attraction needed to shut seven months after it opened, when the 1935 hurricane destroyed the railroad that delivered most guests to Key West?
- Which open-air, waterfront institution was transformed right into a taking pictures vary throughout World Warfare II?
The reply is identical for every query — the Key West Aquarium.
It’s true. Key West’s first vacationer attraction — and by extension its total tourism economic system — opened for enterprise 90 years in the past this month on Feb. 17, 1935.
The power has a complete 12 months of ninetieth anniversary actions deliberate for locals and guests, however the official birthday celebration takes place Monday, Feb. 17, that includes free birthday cake for friends all day. In celebration of its 1935 opening, admission will probably be discounted to $19.35 for adults and is free for teenagers 4-12 all day on Feb. 17. At 11 a.m., Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez will concern a proclamation designating Feb. 17 as Key West Aquarium Day.
Historical past of the Key West Aquarium
By 1934, Key West was broke and 80% of its residents have been on welfare. Metropolis and county officers declared a state of emergency, and handed management of the island to the state of Florida and Gov. David Sholtz.
“The town’s monetary plight, as one journal reporter later noticed, ‘was nearly probably the most determined within the nation,’” wrote Garry Boulard in a 1988 essay for the Florida Historic Quarterly referred to as, “State of Emergency: Key West within the Nice Melancholy.”
The governor positioned your complete metropolis below the jurisdiction of the Federal Emergency Reduction Act (FERA) and its regional director, Julius Stone Jr.
Stone would eternally change the trajectory of the island metropolis, envisioning a tourism mecca that took benefit of town’s climate, pure magnificence, structure, tropical crops and heat waters.
It wouldn’t be straightforward, however Stone had practically limitless energy in Key West, and $2 million of FERA funds. The federal program would later develop into the Works Progress Administration, a federal jobs program that offered funding and jobs to place able-bodied People to work constructing roads, bridges, hospitals, libraries, parks and, sure, the Key West Aquarium.
Stone inspired the ten,000 Key West residents on welfare reduction to participate in their very own future and volunteer for 30 hours per week to scrub up town.
They turned properties into visitor homes, constructed thatched huts on Relaxation Seaside for guests; painted and cleaned eating places and bars, planted dozens of coconut palms; razed dilapidated buildings; constructed a dozen playgrounds, parks and a minimum of one main swimming pool.
In the meantime, development crews, a lot of them unemployed veterans, have been constructing the Key West Aquarium on the finish of Whitehead Avenue.
It could be the primary and largest open-air aquarium within the nation, and could be outfitted with a pipe system that furnished salt water from the harbor to the tanks.
The thought was to draw guests to the little island metropolis, enhance the native economic system, and function a showroom for different aquariums wishing to function Key West’s numerous native marine life in their very own reveals.
The height of that first vacationer season in Key West occurred in February 1935, the identical month the aquarium opened. The identical month, American Journal wrote that Key West would possibly develop into a ‘hot-cha roaring whoopee city. In that case, all luck with them — definitely that’s higher than the desolation of 1934.’”
Key West did develop into such a city, however the aquarium was compelled to shut seven months later when the hurricane of 1935 destroyed the railroad and as soon as once more separated Key West from the mainland.
The navy leased the constructing from town throughout World Warfare II and transformed it to a taking pictures vary.
“By the late Nineteen Seventies, the aquarium was exhibiting indicators of its age and was closed for a number of years to bear restoration and growth below the path of two of Key West’s main businessmen, Chris Belland and Ed Swift III,” states the aquarium’s web site. “Inside reveals have been enhanced. One addition was the 50,000-gallon Atlantic Shores exhibit that offered area for big species of sport fish, tropical fish, sharks, sea turtles and extra, together with a mangrove shoreline.”
The aquarium reopened in 1982, simply as tourism was changing into the principle financial engine for Key West and the Florida Keys.
At present the aquarium is dwelling to over 250 specimens of fish, sharks and 4 of the 5 species of sea turtles that inhabit the waters of the Florida Keys.
“The aquarium actually put Key West on the trail as a vacationer vacation spot,” mentioned John Hodge, operations supervisor. “The aquarium’s assortment is reflective of the Florida Keys nearshore surroundings and offers each locals and guests a possibility to see up shut the undersea residents of the Keys.”
Go to keywestaquarium.com for a schedule of particular occasions going down every month all through 2025. Ninety by no means appeared so good.