Hidden History of the Florida Keys by Laura Albritton

Book Review - Five Stars

Hidden History of the Florida Keys by Laura Albritton.

This book is an in-depth look into what brought South Florida’s Monroe County to its present state of being.

I loved the author’s insightful story telling ability to put a human touch and face on how and what brought it about. When my wife and I first sailed into the Florida Keys back in the mid 1980s it was said about Monroe County that there were so many junkies there that you could become one by osmosis.

This is a very interesting and entertaining read.

EXCERPTS:

“Miami wasn’t a shipping port at the time. The only real natural port in those days was Key West. In 1900, it was Florida’s largest city, a bustling port alive with the cigar industry, fishing and sponging. So the impetus for building an overseas railroad was that Henry Flagler needed a port.”

Just a few years earlier, nobody had any need to “run” rum, whiskey, gin or any other spirit into the United States. But with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment and the passing of the Volstead Act at the end of 1919, Prohibition became a reality. Suddenly, the law mandated that “no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, or furnish any intoxicating liquor.” Across the Florida Keys, it was as if the residents released one long, exasperated groan in response. From the sparsely inhabited shores of Key Largo to the city streets of Key West, the majority of residents—not to mention visitors—despised this new puritanical ban on alcohol. Because the Upper and Middle Keys saw a limited number of year-round residents in the 1920s, local law enforcement was almost nil. One lone officer made his way up and down the Keys, and somehow, the “coconut telegraph” ensured that people generally knew when he was coming. While rumrunners hid in Islamorada’s Little Snake Creek (around today’s mile marker 86.7, near the Montessori school), illicit watering holes catered to the thirsty on the island of Key Largo. Opened by Mabel Harris in 1928 in North Key Largo, Mabel’s Place served up favorites such as Florida lobster and key lime pie, along with prohibited hooch. Mabel Harris, sister of future politician Harry Harris, ran what was politely termed a “tearoom,” although customers did not necessarily have any interest in a pot of Earl Grey: “In the Prohibition years, ‘tearoom’ was a common code name for an establishment that served alcohol.” Not only could customers imbibe, but they could also indulge in the services of the on-site brothel.

John M. Grimsrud