Cuba was always close, and in 1868 the cigar industry crossed the Straits. Cuban makers brought their trade to Key West, and for a generation the island was a cigar capital, its factories turning out millions of hand-rolled cigars and its streets filling with a Cuban community whose San Carlos Institute still stands on Duval Street as "La Casa Cuba." A great fire in 1886 and years of labor trouble eventually sent much of the industry north to Ybor City in Tampa, but the Cuban-American heritage stayed rooted on the island.
The Navy made Key West a base — a submarine station from the 1930s on — and the warm island drew writers and presidents. Ernest Hemingway kept a house at 907 Whitehead Street from 1931 to 1939, a place built of native limestone in 1851 and still known for the descendants of his six-toed cats. Tennessee Williams wrote here for decades. And Harry Truman so loved the old naval officers' quarters that they became his Little White House, where he ran the country through the winters of his presidency. The literary-and-presidential Key West remains a pilgrimage.
Why People Visit Key West
Key West rewards travelers who want history, water, and a freewheeling island culture rather than only a beach — the Southernmost Point, the Conch Republic, the literary and presidential houses, and a compact Old Town you can walk end to end. People come for the sunset at Mallory Square and the bars of Duval, for the Hemingway and Truman landmarks and the wrecking-era treasure, and for an easygoing day at Mile Marker 0 where the Overseas Highway, and the country, finally run out of road.
