One of the few “ghost town” listed locations in Monroe county immediately got my attention. I decided to visit Perky during a short trip to the keys.
It is a semi-ghost town in reality with a few people still living there. It is not as old as I thought - a post office called Perky was established in 1929, and remained in operation until 1942. It is located on the Sugarloaf Key half way to the Key West. The town of Perky was originally known as the plantation town of Chase when it was formed in the early 20th century. By the 1920s an investor known as Richter Perky bought up the land rights in hopes of turning the town of 500 into a resort town
Bat Tower
The tower was built in 1929 by Richter Clyde Perky, a fish lodge owner, to control the mosquito problem in the Lower Keys. However, when the bats were put in, they supposedly flew away, never to return. For preservationists, the Tower was an architectural rarity: Of the fourteen towers built worldwide from Dr. Campbell’s designs, Sugarloaf’s was one of just three still standing when Irma’s winds razed it to the ground.
Unfortunately, tower was destroyed by hurricane in Autumn 2017. Was there late at night, so photos are not very representative.
On the newest google map photos you can see that the tower fall down:
