A New Deal Experiment Transforms Key West

The response was instant, and soon most of the town, including the mayor, was out cleaning up the streets and gathering the piles of uncollected garbage and rubbish to be burned. Eyesore shacks and scores of unsanitary outhouses were razed and teams went in to beautify parks and build cabanas for beaches. Flowers, shrubs and palm trees were planted everywhere and shabby gray houses were renovated and slapped with new paint. A Hospitality League and a band were formed to welcome visitors, and boat owners were given loans to repair their boats to take them charter fishing. Homeowners were urged to make over rooms and apartments into guest quarters, and the receivers were persuaded to reopen Flagler’s plush Casa Marina Hotel; a guarantee given against losses proved unneccessary. For a resort, most rents were a steal — $35 to $50 a month.

Federal artists and writers were brought in to paint historic murals on public or private buildings and write descriptive guidebooks and attractive brochures. Teachers, also employed by the federal government, were sent down to instruct men and women in vocational skills utilizing native materials and enabling them to operate handicraft shops. An outpatient medical and dental clinic was provided, with special health programs for children. And weekly shipments of fresh vegetables and surplus relief commodities were also distributed.

Cultural activities flourished. The town’s distinctive architecture was repaired and restored, a little theater and a choral group were organized, and classes were held regularly in folk dancing and painting.

By the time the 1934-35 tourist season approached, the entire town had volunteered more than two million hours of labor. Coy. Sholtz sent each volunteer an engraved certificate of recognition for his effort. More importantly, the town’s spirits had soared. As Stone later observed: “Last year, hopelessness and resignation ruled; now hope and confidence are on the throne.”

The sweat and labor — and the publicity — paid off. As the season got under way, tourists began to pour in to the island by boat, plane, car ferry and train, more than 40,000 of them, double that of previous years. FERA statistics cited the record increases: hotel guests up 86%; guest homes, 150%; restaurants, 84%. National luminaries also came down to see the phenomenon first hand. They included Robert Frost, John Dewey, Wallace Stevens, Max Eastman, Hart Crane, S.J. Perlman, John Dos Passos and Archibald MacLeish.

Journalist-newscaster Elmer Davis, a former visitor to “old” Key West, came to see the new one and returned to write an article, “New World Symphony,” in Harper’s magazine, reporting Key West as “the New Deal in miniature.” He added: “The experiment. . . gave life there a fourth-dimensional flavor. Words are poor tools to convey the feeling created by the experiment and the atmosphere of continuous intellectual excitement and surcharged intensity. . . Nothing quite like it will ever be seen again.”

In mortal coma only months earlier, Key West was now on a vibrant road to recovery. Even the devastating hurricane that hit the upper keys later that year and wiped out the FEC railroad did not deter the recovery. The railroad’s bridgework was used later, in 1938, to build the new overseas highway.

By 1936, when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) took over the second phase of the project — new sewerage, electrical and water systems — unemployment was reduced by two-thirds. People were employed at essential jobs and local government resumed control.

Thus, where private initiative had failed, a group of intelligent, dedicated men and women, a renewed community spirit and a benevolent government had restored a city to life. The long-range effects and benefits of that resurrection are still visible in Key West today.