Editing Key Colony Beach, Florida (section)

==History==
Before the early 1950s, ''[[Shelter Key]]'', on which most of the '''City of Key Colony Beach''' is located, (with a tiny part of the city being on [[Fat Deer Key]]), was a {{convert|97|acre|ha|adj=on|abbr=off}} low-lying island. During the early 1950s, Phil Sadowski began [[dredging]] around the island, adding to its size and increasing its height to {{convert|6|ft|m|1}} above mean [[sea level]], and later built developments on the island via [[land reclamation]].<ref name =KCBhistory>{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018071429/https://keycolonybeach.net/historical.html|title=Historical Notes on Key Colony Beach}}</ref>

Around 1956–1957, residents of nearby [[Marathon, Florida|Marathon]] began discussing incorporating the entire area. Sadowski was not keen on having his development swallowed up into Marathon, so he began the process of incorporating the island into its own city. The [[Florida Legislature]] passed legislation in June 1957 allowing incorporation, which local residents passed unanimously on September 24, 1957, thus creating today's Key Colony Beach.<ref name =KCBhistory/>

Incorporation became a blessing in 1960, when much of the city was destroyed by [[Hurricane Donna]]. As a separately incorporated city, Key Colony Beach received its own federal grant to rebuild; nearby Marathon (not yet incorporated) had to settle for a portion of the grant given to Monroe County. However, the storm (along with the [[Cuban Revolution]]) depressed real estate prices, and it took several years to for prices to stabilize.<ref name =KCBhistory/>