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On the corner of Duval and Amelia, in Duval's 1100 block, sits the Cuban Club. When formed in 1900, (see Key West History's issues #9 and #10,) it served as both a social and beneficial club for cigar makers and their families. Each member paid weekly dues. In return they each received free medical coverage there was even a hospital a few blocks down in a house which is today's Avalon Bed & Breakfast. In 1920, they built their "home" on Duval Street, next to the Soria cigar factory. |
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The Cuban Club was the social center for the island's Cuban residents. Inside the club, there was a pool room, domino tables, a reading room with the latest periodicals, and a front porch that served as a neighborhood clearing house for all ideas large and small. Upstairs, a dance hall and bar took the entire space and dances were held every weekend for more than fifty years. If one didn't require a family membership, social memberships were available. And "social" is what the Cuban Club did very well. (LEFT) By the mid-1920's these neighborhood kids were photographed on the Amelia Street side of the building. |
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| Perhaps there'll never be another New Year's Eve celebration at the Cuban Club - at least not one to compare with the one above left. But memories of nights like these live on in the minds of many Key Westers. On the right, it's a regular Saturday night and they're three deep around the bar. |
| Here, a group of Key Westers gathered at the Cuban Club. They include Frank and Sally Morales, Eugene Hernandez, Charlie Fernandez, Nilo and Onelia Lopez, Olga Lopez, Gil "Papo" Garcia and his wife Violetta, and Sylvia Albury. |
| In the 1950's, Arturo Boza organized Comparsa dancers. In this shot taken in the 1950's, Arturo Boza's Comparsa dancers are shown dancing down Duval, just beyond the Cuban Club. That's Senor Boza carrying the "faro," or light. These dancers even kept the beat going all the way down the route of the Orange Bowl parade in Miami. |
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By the 1970's, membership in the Cuban Club had dwindled to less than twenty. In 1979 the Old Cuban Club Restaurant & Bar was advertising at that location. By the 1980's, the building was sold to the Fountains restaurant. |
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After a few successful years, tragedy struck the Fountains. On December 29, 1983, a propane truck exploded on Duval. Some restaurant employees reported seeing a fireball by the truck, parked on the Amelia Street side, before assisting patrons in evacuating. Three regular pumper trucks, the huge snorkel fire truck, and a Navy pumper truck were soon on the scene. More than forty-five on- and off-duty firemen battled the blaze. Amazingly, the bad weather front just moving across the island had brought rain. This caused the Fountains staff to move diners inside from the patio. Had they still been out there... Although losses were in the millions of dollars, no neighboring buildings were damaged due to the quick and professional response of the Key West Fire Department and the hands-on supervision of Fire Chief Gabby Gates. |
