From its humble beginnings as a small but influential newspaper to its current stature as the only daily newspaper based in Monroe County, the Key West Citizen has undergone major transformations during its 125-year history.

Through war and peace, prosperity and the Great Depression, the paper has become a Key West institution that has survived all the great local newspaper wars this century and become, in the words of Monroe County historian Tom Hambright, “The newspaper of record,” for the Florida Keys.

Though it only became known as the Key West Citizen on April 29, 1905, when the first weekly edition rolled off the presses at 534 Front St. announcing the coming of Flagler’s Overseas Railroad to Key West, the paper was actually the result of the amalgamations of several other related publications over the years.

The common thread running through the various incarnations dating back 125 years was Walter Willard Thompson, who gained prominence as the editor of the historic weekly Key of the Gulf.

Born in Key West in 1875, Thompson began his newspaper career as a carrier at age 12, becoming the editor of the third incarnation of the Key of the Gulf shortly before the turn of the century.