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Wolkowsky also served as a prime mover in the architectural preservation culture that still endures on the island much to the benefit of the real estate market.īy the early 1970s word had begun to filter north throughout gay culture that Key West was one of the few truly accepting, come-as-you-are, quirky, fun places in the world where LGBTQ people could express their creativity, their freedom, their love. Key West” and the “Father of Key West Tourism” by local media. The savvy businessman brought in travel writers and publicists from around the world to stay at the Pier House and experience the beauty and charm of the island. It was in 1967 that a gay native Key Wester, David Wolkowsky built the first true resort on the island, the Pier House located at Zero Duval Street. Interestingly there were fewer lesbian visitors despite the residency of notable gay poet Elizabeth Bishop.
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By the 1970s the stream of gay visitors to the island had turned into a torrent with more than 30 same sex guest houses on the small island catering to gay men. Back when gay life existed in a parallel universe separate from jobs, birth families and a harshly intolerant mainstream society the LGBTQ community opted to vacation in out-of-the-way destinations like Key West. The fact that it was difficult to get to Key West made the destination all the more alluring for the LGBTQ culture. Other gay artists, notables, cultural arbiters, doyens, publishers, eccentric illuminati and just curious gay travelers followed with their own entourages, assorted friends and acquaintances. Soon after this first visit Bernstein committed to a seasonal rental each winter and Williams put down roots by purchasing a home for him and his partner Frank Merlo, maintaining a residence on the island until his death in 1983. In 1941 both Tennessee Williams and Leonard Bernstein followed “where the boys are” with their first visits to Key West, garnering lots of attention in artistic circles and beyond. and other major cities that Key West was an easy, live-and-let-live sanctuary that blends sun, salt water, salubrity and a “soupcon” of sin. Word was circulating among the crescive gay culture in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C. After tense negotiations ended with Russia, Washington let the island slip back into its sleepy southernmost status quo.īut right after the end of World War II something wonderful started to quietly percolate just under the surface of the island’s economic twists and turns. Navy during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Another lull in the economic fortunes of the island was followed by yet more frenzied attention and funding from the U.S. World War II brought more frenzied attention-and thousands of sailors and servicemen-until that war too ended. Department of Defense until the war ended when projects, personnel vanished and Key West became so destitute it had to declare municipal bankruptcy. World War I brought frenzied attention-and lots of funds–from the U.S.
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A robust effort to produce sponges ended with the onslaught of a toxic “red tide.” Years of a roaring trade in cigar making came to a screeching halt when the city fathers of Tampa lured away all of the cigar factories on the island with the promise of no taxes and infrastructure incentives. signed the international laws of admiralty ending the “finders-keepers” practice of the salvagers. Settled in 1830 to combat piracy, the island evolved into a major wrecking port where salvagers won staggering sums saving foundered ships on the infamous reefs surrounding the archipelago.
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The economic history of Key West reads like a wild roller coaster ride, careening from boom to bust up until the 1970s. He was followed by a lavender wave of enterprise, ingenuity and industry that has lasted for decades and continues to this day. Hemingway lived and worked on the island barely 11 years. Long associated with the testosterone-fueled macho marketing of Hemingway, Key West in fact has benefited far more from a very different variety of creative energy.