HISTORIC PIGEON KEY

Visitors to Pigeon Key venture back in time to a tiny island that played a tremendous role in the Florida Keys of today. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this five-acre property served as a home base for railroad workers erecting and later operating the final installment of Henry M. Flagler's Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway: the Old Seven-Mile Bridge.

Flagler's railway made the Keys accessible from mainland Florida, and his Seven-Mile Bridge was considered an engineering feat. The bridge is, like Pigeon Key, listed on the National Historic Register. But with a more modern Seven-Mile Bridge serving motorists, Flagler's feat today is utilized as a fitness path and fishing pier. Pigeon Key is nestled beneath this trestle at the edge of Marathon, and its modest wood frame structures have experienced a renaissance.

Largely colored in Flagler's trademark yellow, the cottages are a charge of the not-for-profit Pigeon Key Foundation, which manages the island and works to preserve its rich heritage. Among the foundation's completed projects: Transforming one Pigeon Key structure into a railroad museum. Here, on view to the public, are historic artifacts from the FEC Railway, including concrete "bones" that served to test the strength of mixtures used in erecting the Old Seven-Mile Bridge. Photographs feature the trains of the railway, the making of the original bridge, the buildings of Pigeon Key, and the island's former inhabitants.

Pigeon Key is reached either by foot or ferry service. The Pigeon Key Visitor Center and Gift Shop is located on Knight's Key, mile marker 47 oceanside. Admission to the island costs $11 per adult and $8.50 for students 14 and under (children 4 and under are admitted free). Proceeds benefit the Pigeon Key Foundation and its preservation and restoration efforts. For more information: (305) 289-0025.

Pigeon Key Foundation
P. O. Box 500130, Marathon, FL 33050
Phone 305/289-0025; FAX 305/289-1065