Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Key Colony Beach

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Key Colony Beach

Key Colony Beach was first counted by the census in 1960

Most of Key Colony Beach was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: maps from 1971 on and the census since 1960.

1960first census
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Florida Keys--Public Libraries from Key West, Fla., USA · CC BY 2.0
Quick answers

How Key Colony Beach began

When was Key Colony Beach founded?

1960

Key Colony Beach first appears in the census in 1960.

First census: 66 in 19602020 census: 79066 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓

What stands out about Key Colony Beach’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Key Colony Beach are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Key Colony Beach’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Key Colony Beach’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Key Colony Beach came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Key Colony Beach.

Read it all →

Before the early 1950s, Shelter Key, on which most of the City of Key Colony Beach is located, (with a tiny part of the city being on Fat Deer Key), was a 97-acre (39-hectare) low-lying island. During the early 1950s, Phil Sadowski began dredging around the island, adding to its size and increasing its height to 6 feet (1.8 m) above mean sea level, and later built developments on the island via land reclamation.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Key Colony Beach on the map, 1971 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Key Colony Beach. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Key Colony Beach on the 1971 USGS mapKey Colony Beach on the 1983 USGS map1971Marathon sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Key Colony Beach.

People over time

Key Colony Beach, census by census

02004006008001,0001960198020002020Peak: 977

Between 66 and 977 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Key Colony Beach’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Marathon2 historic placesC−

Questions about Key Colony Beach’s history

What year was Key Colony Beach founded?

The Key Colony Beach post office opened in 1960, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.