Hurricane Monument

After getting settled in at the Cheeca Lodge & Spa, I strolled a few yards down Route 1 to the Hurricane Monument (actually known as The Florida Keys Memorial), which was dedicated in 1937 as a memorial to the approximately 300 persons who lost their lives in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, the most intense ever to hit the United States and one of the most destructive ever to hit the Florida Keys. The monument is built of Keys coral limestone and is 65 feet long by 25 feet wide. In front of the monument is a ceramic-tile mural of the Florida Keys which covers a stone crypt, where the victims' ashes are interred. The monument was built by the Florida Works Progress Administration at a cost of $12,000 using 40 workmen.





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