If you have an address for the Southernmost Point in your itinerary, it is probably the wrong one.
It moved
“On September 4, 2025, a temporary buoy was established at the southern end of Duval Street while seawall and roadway repairs are underway. The new temporary location is at 1499 Duval Street.”
The city now lists 1499 Duval Street as the facility’s address. The permanent marker’s home, the corner of South and Whitehead, is a construction site.
Almost every guide, map pin and itinerary still sends you to the corner.
Why, and for how long
This is not a repair. It is a rebuild:
“Project Stage: Construction” · “Construction Begin Estimate: July 2026” · “Construction contract award: June, 2026”
And the size of it:
“Awarding Invitation to Bid (ITB) #26–005 to Charley Toppino & Sons, Inc. for construction of the Southernmost Point Plaza Project in a total amount not to exceed $4,252,177.00”
Four and a quarter million dollars for the plaza around a painted buoy, which tells you how much traffic it carries.
The city has not published a completion date. Its project page gives a July 2026 construction start estimate and a June 2026 contract award, and no finish. That is why this page has a review date on it rather than a promise.
What they are building
“The project would incorporate a two-way limited traffic flow pattern and incorporate resilience and sustainability strategies that address climate considerations, sea-level rise, increased shade, and increased bio-habitats while continuing to accommodate the needs of adjacent residential and commercial properties. The plaza would provide more space for pedestrians and improve the experience for the large crowds that visit daily.”
The stated reasons, as the city lists them:
- ADA compliance
- Driveway accessibility
- Additional sidewalk width to accommodate pedestrians
- Stormwater drainage
- Roadway alignment
- Additional pedestrian area at the southernmost point
- To meet current roadway design criteria
More shade and more room to stand is the honest summary, and anyone who has stood in that line in July will understand why it was worth four million dollars.
The design was funded with a Tourism Development Council grant approved in September 2023.
What the thing actually is
“The buoy was erected in 1983 by the City of Key West to establish that the corner of South and Whitehead Streets is a mere 90 miles from Cuba.”
“The Southernmost Point Buoy in Key West is an anchored concrete buoy marking the southernmost point in the continental United States, the lowest latitude land of contiguous North American states.”
The 90 miles is the city’s figure, and has been since it put the buoy up in 1983.
Should you go?
It is a concrete buoy, painted red, black and yellow, with a line of people waiting to stand in front of it. That is the whole experience, and it is fine — it takes ten minutes, the photograph is the point, and people like the photograph.
Go early. The buoy faces south-east into open water, the morning light is better, and it is cooler.
While you are at that end of Duval
The temporary buoy at 1499 Duval is two blocks from the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory at 1316 Duval, which is a genuinely good hour rather than a ten-minute photograph:
“9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Daily” · “Last admission into the conservatory is 4:30 PM daily” · “is open 365 days a year”
And a detail worth knowing before you buy:
“Your paid admission allows you to go through the Conservatory as many times as you want until 4:30.”
In-and-out all day on one ticket, which makes it a good place to escape the middle of a hot afternoon and come back to.
That whole end of Duval is walkable from Old Town, and if you are doing it without a car, the getting-around page covers how. For everything else on the island, with the one fact that decides each, see the things-to-do list.
