Key West, Florida, USA. August 2019. A girl is walking near Key West Art & Historical Society. The building houses the Museum of Art & History at the Custom House.

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Museum of Art & History at the Custom House

Top choice in Key West


This excellent museum, set in a grand 1891 red-brick building that once served as the Customs House, covers Key West's history. Highlights are the archival footage from the building of the ambitious Overseas Hwy (and the hurricane that killed 400 people), a model of the ill-fated USS Maine (sunk during the Spanish-American War) and the Navy's role in Key West (once the largest employer), and the 'wreckers' of Key West, who scavenged sunken treasure ships.

There's also info on rum-running to Havana during the Prohibition days and some excellent folk art: seek out Mario Sanchez' art naïf paintings of Key West from the 1960s and '70s.


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