Islamorada Sites

Also known as the Hurricane Monument, this limestone monument marks the mass grave of the over 300 people killed in one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the Florida Keys in 1936. "Standing just east of U.S. 1 at mile marker 82 in Islamorada, near where Islamorada's post office stood, is a simple monument designed by the Florida Division of the Federal Art Project and constructed using Keys limestone ("keystone") by the Works Progress Administration. It was unveiled in 1937 with more than 4,000 people attending. A frieze depicts palm trees amid curling waves, fronds bent in the wind. In front...

This building was constructed by the WPA in 1936 as the Matecumbe School and Storm Shelter: "After the 1935 hurricane, to build a new school Hugh Matheson exchanged land he owned on the highway for the beach site of the destroyed school. W.P.A constructed the new school and was to be a combination hurricane shelter and school. A second almost identical structure was also constructed in Tavernier. The Matecumbe school is now the Islamorada Library and in Tavernier it is the health department."   (www.keyshistory.org)

The building contains six bas reliefs by WPA artist Joan van Breeman: "The six bas reliefs in the back rooms were made by Joan van Breeman and depict children at play. Girls on swings or spinning globes, young men charging forth with footballs or boxing gloves. In French, bas relief literally means low-raised work; it's sort of like a sculpture slightly bursting from a flat backdrop. With their simple compositions and white facades, the reliefs also bring to mind line drawings; they are both hopeful and humble, from another era altogether."   (https://articles.sun-sentinel.com)

"The Overseas Highway is a 127.5-mile (205.2 km) highway carrying U.S. Route 1 (US 1) through the Florida Keys. Large parts of it were built on the former right-of-way of the Overseas Railroad, the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway. Completed in 1912, the Overseas Railroad was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the destroyed sections, so the roadbed and remaining bridges were sold to the State of Florida for $640,000." www.wikipedia.org   "The F.E.C. Railway was washed up in more ways than one - it...