The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-07-16
Native Of Key West Tells OF
Island City's Golden Era And
How s Downfall Came About

In the St. Petersburg Times Of
July 8, appears an article by John
Watts, native Of Key West, who
is now city editor Of that periodic
cal, telling Of the island city's
prosperous days and the things
which later contributed to its
| present plight. The article in
| question is reproduced herewith;
| (By JOHN WATTS)
Nothing is sadder, perhaps,
than to watch a once prosperous
city slowly dying.
Nothing so sad as to watch b
community, once vigorous and
lively, dropping off to sleep, its
stores and homes slowly closing,
it's families leaving for other
scenes, its streets becoming de-
| serted.
Nothing so nostalgia or heart
gripping as to come back "home"
after years spent in other places,
to find the town you knew as
busting and happy now practically
forsaken, its streets and sidewalks
dilapidated and broken, once
teenling downtown section shut
tered and silent, only few souls
abroad like wraiths left behind in
a deserted village Goldsmith might
/ have had in mind when he wrote
his famous lines to a memory. :
! This is what happened to Key
West. This writer, reared there
from his early childhood, saw the
] "old rock" as the natives affection
ately call it, go through its most
prosperous phase, and lately, re-
turning after years spent away,
watched it reduced to it's present
threadbare, bloodless existence.
Miami A Trading Village
1t was in 1908 that. we moved
from Miami to Key West, by
schooner, leaving a small dog
! named Lion on the dock because
the schooner captain wouldn't let
him aboard. Miami at that time
was still trading village, little
more than a fuelling stop for
locomotives bound south where
Flagler was building the overseas
highway and things were boom
ing.
Down at the tip of this railroad,
156 miles across the sparkling sea,
was Key West, the states last
frontier city and plenty wild and
woolly.
Twenty-Five thousand persons,
about 30 per cent Cuban and the
rest natives and those hailing from
the Bahamas, populated the seven
/ by-four mile island. Trolleys ran
from one end of the island to the
other, there were two or three
banks, all doing a rushing BUSH
ness, so cigar factories turned out
the finest cigars in the world, a
naval station with hundreds of
men quartered in barracks there
! or employed from civilian ranks
took care of hundreds of navy ves-
sells, an army barracks at the other
end of the island supported two
regiments of regulars, a fleet of
several hundred fishing and spong-
ing boats sailed the coral reefs
nearly and brought their catches
into teeming wharves, passenger
ships ran to Havana, Galveston,
Texas. New York city, and huge
Efreighters came down the natural
channel to tie up to one of the
city's numerous well-tended docks.
Holidays Every Weekend
Fridays and Saturdays thous-
ands of men employed on the
overseas railroad poured into Key
West, and by Saturday night the
town was scene of gaiety and so
crowded that sidewalk space was
at premium. Sailors from the
seven seas swelIed the crowds,
money flowed like water, saloons
were wide open, beach resorts
couldn't take care of the crowds,
the whole town blazed like a
diamond.
Key Vests golden age lasted
for about 10 years. In 1912 the
Flagler extension was completed
and III. NJ" himself stepped off
the first train to be greeted by
cheering multitudes on Trumbo
island, which he had built from
bay mud.
Little did the happy people
standing in the hot sun waiting
for glimpse of the old multi
millionaire realize that with the
completion of the railroad-an
event they hailed with huzzas-
was to mean the first tightening
N UP DAILY, LIVE