argo Key the railroad had four stations:
Tavernier, Rock Harbor and Key Largo and a small building at Jewfish Creek mainly for the bridge tender. The telegraph station
was at the Key Largo depot, located at today's mile marker 105.6 just south of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce. Although
there were other small platforms, only four were listed on a 1909 time table as flag-stops.
A James Clark was appointed postmaster of the Jewfish post office on May 7, 1908, but the order was rescinded for some
reason on August 18, 1908. Planter continued to be the only post office in the Middle and Upper Keys. When the railroad was
completed to Key West in 1912, a viable Jewfish, Florida, post office was opened on February 8, 1912. David Sasser was the
postmaster. Postal records show its name remained as Jewfish until May 31, 921, when it was renamed Key Largo. Additional
records support this timetable. The post office cash book of domestic money orders dated August 4, 1920 is titled "Jewfish." The
Register of Money Orders dated August 17, 1925 is labeled Key Largo. National Archive microfilm records also verifies this.
A copy of the 1926-27 F.E.C. insured property list shows "Jewfish Station, Bldg. No. 596, insured for $600" and nothing for
contents. The next location shows "Key Largo Station, Bldg. No. 1573, insured for $1,600, contents $150 and a Covered Platform
insured for $300." Both Jewfish and Key Largo have "agent's cottages" listed and no others are listed until Marathon. Some
assume that these were only for the telegraph operators, however, Islamorada had a telegraph operator, believed to have lived
in a private home.
The name change to Key Largo evidently occurred after appointing Wilbur Lofton as postmaster of Key Largo on April 18, 1921.
The same year on November 15, 1921, Mrs. Lillian Sexton was appointed postmaster. Around 1923, Lillian and Charles Sexton
traveled from Mississippi to build their "Venice" in Florida on Blackwater Sound, The Sexton's purchased the land just north of
the St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church (mile marker 105.5), across the tracks from the Key Largo railroad depot. Today the tracks
would have been where the southbound lane of U.S. 1 is now, and the depot in the median strip of Highway U.S. One.
The Sextons operated the hotel, store and post office, plus developed their land holdings. In addition, Charles offered land
clearing and dredging services. He used this equipment, when not working for others, to develop his "Venice of the Keys" that
later became known as Sexton Cove. This complex was advertised as the "Key Largo Plaza" in a 1926 issue of the Key Largo
Breeze. We actually possess the microfilm copies of the local newspaper which was published in Homestead.
The Shaw family, who worked for Charles Sexton, was an additional source of information. Clifford Shaw, on a 1993 trip to Key
Largo, verified the location of the depot at about mile marker 105.6. He produced family photographs of the depot, hotel, hotel
annex, store and homes. Additional telephone conversations with his older brother, Everett Jr. and younger sister, Francis,
establish a vivid picture of life in the early community of Key Largo. In fact Mrs. Shaw maintained a diary, the only written
documentation of life in Key Largo of the era.
From Clifford's pictures and memory, we get a better idea of 1926 Key Largo. The Sextons, Shaws and Prues had homes
between the hotel annex and Blackwater Sound. There was a road leading from the depot, past the hotel and homes, down to
the canals west of where Linda Drive is presently located. The Chapman lime packing house was north of the depot; Mr.
Chapman lived on the southside. Okie Hill, from Rock Harbor, operated the dredge for Charles Sexton, whose service was also
advertised in the Key Largo Breeze newspaper.
The history of the Card Sound road began in 1922 when Monroe County floated a $300,000 bond issue with an additional $2.5
million in 1926. Dade County cooperated and built a road from Florida City to a wooden Card Sound bridge. The project was
disrupted in late 1926 by a hurrican