IN THE LATE ‘60s, CITY ELECTRIC’S MANAGER WAS INDICTED AND CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLING MONEY. THE GOVERNOR ALSO SUSPENDED THREE MEMBERS OF THE UTILITY BOARD
Staff Report
Every two years, Key West voters are asked to vote for candidates running for the Utility Board of Key West— but few voters really know what the members of the board do or how the board came into being. The following history was provided by Julio Barroso, Keys Energy’s communications coordinator, and he says that he pulled much of it from a history project researched and written by Bruce Neff and Tom Hambright, as well as the company’s 50th anniversary history book.
Just seven years after Thomas Edison started generating electric power in New York, J.J. Philbrick constructed a plant here on Emma Street to bring electricity to Key West. In 1887, Philbrick created the Key West Gas and Electric Light Company. Two years later, Philbrick got out of the gas business and his company officially became the Key West Electric Company.
But Philbrick wasn’t the only magnate in Key West to start an electric company. In 1897, Curry and Sons built their own power plant and they competed with the Key West Electric Company for a number of years. However, when Philbrick passed away in 1904, his nephews— John P. Laflin and A.F. Laflin— took over Key West Electric Company and they were soon able to negotiate the purchase of the Curry plant. Two years after the consolidation, the Stone and Webster Corporation bought Key West Electric Company and provided electricity to the island for almost four decades.
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