First Stop Heading North
The Chase Brothers Depot

Of all the entertainments, curiosities and demonstrations available to those celebrating the arrival of the FECRwy, one of the most interesting was an exhibit for a new Keys industry­ sponge farming. Charles W. Chase of the Florida Keys Sponge and Fruit company set up displays in three large glass tanks on Duval Street to show local and international visitors alike how the waters around the Lower Keys were perfect for the cultivation of natural sponges.

Mr. Chase, an Englishman, was first entranced by Key West on a visit in 1899. Recognizing opportunity in the nascent field of sponge farming, he, his brother George, and a group of investors bought property sixteen miles out of Key West on a key now known as Sugarloaf.

It was 1910 when cultivation began. By January of 1912, observers saw on display in those three saltwater tanks a collection of large concrete disks­ each growing its own sponge. The Chase brothers had taken three-year-old sponges and divided them into 10 sections, then wired each section to a concrete disk 30 cm in diameter. The resulting "package" was then lowered from a rowboat to the bottom of the bay. It was working­ new full-sized sponges were growing in the shape of the disks. This method was expected to yield a million sponges per year.

When the tracks to Key West passed through the sponge farm's front yard in 1912, the brothers opened a depot. This warehouse/shipping office was the centerpiece of a small manufacturing community (named "Chase") that eventually boasted around 100 residents and had its own post office, ice plant, and telephone/telegraph office. The plant for the manufacture of concrete disks was located exactly where the office for the Sugarloaf Lodge stands today.
By 1914, the majority of the sponge crops that hadn't been destroyed by the vagaries of weather had been decimated by poachers. The Chase brothers went back to England to secure further financing and were successful, but World War I interrupted their business and the funds weren't forthcoming.

When Florida Keys Sponge and Fruit finally declared bankruptcy in 1917, it spelled the end of the community and the end of its depot. The land was eventually sold to Richter Clyde Perky, who eventually developed it as a fishing resort.

Nonetheless, in January of 1912, two brothers from England shared their American dream with the curious from a booth on Duval Street. Charles and George Chase, with their families, depended on the new railway to carry their product to market and thence to the far-flung corners of the world. They had invested in the future of sponge farming in the Keys, and the future looked bright.

(Above) The disk house at Chase on January 22, 1912­ the day the train first went through to Key West. This is where the concrete disks were made, and the man walking with his dog is Charles Chase.

(Below) The main office building for Florida Keys Sponge and Fruit is on the far left, bedecked with flags. From the left are cottages for the engineers, shops and a storage building. The sponging community at Chase was the first settlement between Key West and the Marathon area.