Overview
Key
Biscayne is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The
population was 10,507 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population
recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 10,324.
Key Biscayne is an island that lies south of Miami Beach and east of
Miami. It and nearby Virginia Key, while named keys, are not
geologically part of the Florida keys, but are barrier islands composed
of sand moved down the coast from the north by coastal currents.
Visitors can reach Key Biscayne from the mainland by driving over the
Rickenbacker Causeway, a roadway and series of bridges that span
Biscayne Bay.
The Key (from the Spanish word cayo, for "island") is connected to Miami
via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947. Because of its
low elevation and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually
among the first Miami areas to be evacuated before an oncoming
hurricane.
The Key is home to Crandon Park (Miami-Dade County) and Bill Baggs Cape
Florida State Park, and is adjacent to Biscayne National Park, one of
the two national parks in Miami-Dade County.
Since 1985, a major professional tennis tournament for both men and
women has been held annually in Key Biscayne at the Tennis Center in
Crandon Park. Currently known as the NASDAQ-100 Open, the event was
formerly the Lipton Tennis Championships from 1985 to 1999 and the
Ericsson Open from 1999 to 2002. (See Miami Masters.)
History
Native Americans of the Tequesta tribe were the first inhabitants of Key
Biscayne, arriving by dugout canoe. They used the island as a base for
fishing, collecting shellfish and hunting for sea turtle eggs. Juan
Ponce de Leon charted Key Biscayne on his first mission to the New World
in 1513. He christened the island Santa Marta and claimed it for the
Spanish Crown. The island served as a source of fresh water for Spanish
ships but the island was not colonized by the Spanish Empire perhaps
because of the treacherous reefs, constantly shifting sandbars and
unpredictability of tropical storms.
After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, the federal government
built the Cape Florida lighthouse at the southern tip of Key Biscayne in
1825. On July 23, 1836, the lighthouse was attacked and burned by Native
Americans of the Seminole tribe during the Second Seminole War. An
assistant lighthouse keeper (slave) was killed and the lighthouse was
abandoned until the end of the war in 1842.
In 1846, US Congress appropriated $23,000 to rebuild the lighthouse and
work was completed in 1847. In 1861, Confederate militants sabotaged the
lighthouse so that it could not guide Union sailors during the blockade
of Confederate Florida. The lighthouse was repaired and re-lit again in
1866.
Early in the 20th Century, two-thirds of Key Biscayne was farmed as the
largest coconut plantation in the continental United States. It wasn't
until the construction of the seven-mile Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947
that the island became a convenient place to live. The Causeway was
named after Eddie Rickenbacker, a World War I flying ace and former
president of Eastern Airlines. The Mackle Construction Company built
hundreds of ranch and cottage homes for returning Korean War veterans in
the 1950s. Fishing, boating and beachcombing were popular pastimes for
the working class residents of the new suburban island community.
President Richard Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront
homes, forming a compound known as the Florida White House, in 1969 to
be close to his close friend and confidant, Bebe Rebozo and
industrialist Robert Abplanalp (inventor of the modern spray can valve).
Bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for laundering
a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign.
President Kennedy and Nixon met for the first time after the 1960
Election loss by Nixon in an oceanfront villa at the old Key Biscayne
Hotel. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were
discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate
scandal unfolded, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. Nixon
visited Key Biscayne more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The U.S.
Department of Defense spent $400,000 constructing a helicopter landing
pad in Biscayne Bay adjacent to the Nixon compound and when Nixon sold
his property, including the helicopter pad, there were public
accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew flooded some homes and businesses on Key
Biscayne but the eye wall passed over uninhabited Bill Baggs Cape
Florida State Park which received the brunt of the storm. The storm
damage was a blessing for the park because it destroyed all the
non-native vegetation that the state had been trying to eradicate.
Federal and State funding allowed the replanting with native vegetation
making the park a showplace natural area. In recent years the
construction of several large resort hotels, condominium complexes and
shopping centers on the island as the once bucolic island life continued
to accelerate at a frenetic pace. The area was incorporated as a new
city in 1992 which gave the Village control over its taxes and future
development. The Village has its own fire, police and a newly expanded
public elementary and middle school. The tax rate remains the lowest of
any city in Miami-Dade County. The Village has just completed a new
civic center including fire, police and administration buildings and a
well appointed recreation and community center with indoor multi use
courts, and outdoor swimming pool.
Key Biscayne increasingly caters to an elite population of business
moguls, high-income professionals, and a significant influx of Latin
American tourists and part-time residents fleeing political and economic
instability in their home countries.
Demographics
There were 4,259 households out of which 32.3% had children under the
age of 18 living with them, 58.0% were married couples living together,
7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.9% were
non-families. 27.9% of all households were made up of individuals and
9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The
average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.99.
In the village the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of
18, 4.6% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, and
15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years.
For every 100 females there were 88.4 males. For every 100 females age
18 and over, there were 84.8 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $86,599, and the
median income for a family was $107,610. Males had a median income of
$86,322 versus $46,765 for females. The per capita income for the
village was $54,213.
Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools serves Key Biscayne.
Coral Gables High School is zoned to the island.