Key West sits closer to Havana, Cuba, roughly 145 kilometres away, than it does to Miami, and the island itself is built almost entirely on ancient coral reef, its bedrock formed over thousands of years before rising sea levels and geological shifts left it exposed as dry land. That coral foundation, combined with the island’s isolated position at the very end of the Florida Keys, gave Key West a genuinely distinct culture and history, locals still sometimes refer to the island’s brief 1982 mock secession, the “Conch Republic,” a satirical protest against a federal border checkpoint that has since become a beloved, tongue-in-cheek piece of local identity.
Ernest Hemingway lived in Key West through much of the 1930s, and his former home, now a museum, remains famous for its population of polydactyl cats, descendants of Hemingway’s own six-toed cat, still cared for on the property today, a small, ongoing living connection to one of the island’s most famous former residents.
A Marker for the Edge of the Country
The colourful buoy marking Key West as “The Southernmost Point” in the continental United States has become one of the most photographed roadside markers in the country, despite technically not being the true southernmost point, a small nearby naval installation actually sits slightly further south but remains inaccessible to the public. Duval Street, the island’s main thoroughfare, runs from ocean to gulf, a stretch locals call the “Duval Crawl,” and the island’s nightly Mallory Square sunset celebration, drawing street performers and crowds every evening, has become a genuine daily ritual rather than a tourist novelty alone.
Key West’s shallow surrounding waters and coral reef system remain part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, protecting one of the only living coral barrier reefs in the continental United States.
Painting Pastel Houses and Tropical Light
Key West’s brightly painted conch houses and tropical foliage give a watercolourist a warm, saturated island palette to work with. We’ve captured that colour in our own Key West Watercolor Print, painted first by hand and printed to order on archival paper, a small piece of Florida for a wall at home.
Built on coral and closer to Cuba than to Miami, Key West remains one of the more genuinely singular corners of the United States, geographically and temperamentally both.