Solares Hill, under your feet, is the highest point of land on the island of Key West in the lower Florida Keys in Monroe County, Florida. Its name comes from Victorio Solares, born 30 April 1849 in Coya, Asturias, Spain, who immigrated to Key West after Spanish military service in Cuba and became a grocer. He married Mary Jane Lumley, and his name now marks this small but meaningful rise in the island’s terrain.
The peak elevation here is 18 feet (5.5 m) above sea level, a modest summit by any measure, yet the highest spot on the island. The very top sits near Key West Cemetery in the section of the island called Old Town, at and around where Elizabeth Street, Angela Street, and Windsor Lane intersect. Solares Hill also lent its name to a local weekly newspaper, founded in 1971, independent until 1998 when it was bought by The Key West Citizen, and now published as a section of that paper’s Sunday edition.
Picture that history settling in, and the nearby junction of Elizabeth Street, Angela Street, and Windsor Lane, close to the Key West Cemetery.