UPPER KEYS -- About two dozen homes built of concrete and steel are the foundation upon which Islamorada was rebuilt after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 wiped the islands clean.

Following that deadly Category 5 hurricane, the American Red Cross responded in a manner never since replicated: It built hurricane bunker houses from Upper Matecumbe Key to Tavernier for survivors of the storm.

Those homes gave pioneer families a place to call home while they rebuilt their community from the cap rock up. Today, they serve as reminders of the power of nature and man to change communities.

Richard "Rich" Russell, 52, grew up in a Red Cross home. He is not sure how many of his pioneer family members were lost on Sept. 2, 1935, but he knows that only 11 remained, including his father, Richard Gilbert Warren Russell.

"We lost 40 or more family members in that storm," he told the Free Press. "That hurricane reinforced the notion that Islamorada needed better construction."

Russell remains impressed by the lengths to which the Red Cross went to build the squat concrete homes, pointing out that the country was still in the throes of the Great Depression.

"There was no railroad with which to transport the steel and concrete. They had to ship by boat and truck. The logistics must have been very difficult," he said.

Today most of those homes still provide hurricane-proof shelter for residents. The foundations boast 18-inch thick concrete, reinforced with one-inch steel re-bar. The walls are so thick one resident said he couldn't hear Hurricane Wilma as it clipped the island chain in 2005.

Though local historians don't agree on the exact number built (a commemorative plaque in Islamorada says 26), they do know that the homes were the only ones ever built by the American Red Cross for landowners.

That beneficent organization will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the homes at month's end during a street fair and sidewalk art show near at the Florida Keys Hurricane Memorial, mile marker 81.6.

"No other Red Cross houses were built anyplace other than here," said J.B. Hunt, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys chapter of the American Red Cross. "We expect this will be of interest nationally."

Russell says the Red Cross' singular response to the Labor Day catastrophe is "an area of pride and distinction" for the community.

"They had never dealt with a Category 5 hurricane before and the impact on those workers of all the bodies piled up and the total destruction was well-documented," he said.

Long-time Islamorada resident, author and historian Irving Eyster says one of the most significant aspects of the homes is that many are still in use today as homes or businesses.

Eyster says the front portion of Helen Wadley Branch Library on Upper Matecumbe, a former Red Cross home, was once used for church services and as a hurricane shelter.

Tavernier resident and historian Jerry Wilkinson devotes a section on his cyber-museum Web site to the structures and includes a hand-drawn floor plan.

"There were one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom houses. The appearance was the same except the more the bedrooms, the longer the house," he writes. "They were configured differently inside, but the widths were the same. The side the front porch was on varied, but was the same size."

Rick Trout takes pride in his 970-square-foot, two-bedroom Red Cross house on Lowe Street in Tavernier. It required many hours of renovation, however.

"I bought this in 1989 for $72,000," he said. "I had to blow out all the windows. The original windows were glass reinforced with chicken wire. I replaced jalousie windows when I bought it and I replaced the back door with French doors.

"The floor was horrible and [previous owners had] plastered over the original tongue-and-groove Dade County pine. I stripped off layers of paint someone applied over the wood."

Trout says the biggest chore was restoring the vertical columns where steel re-bar had rusted and was showing through. With freshwater at a premium when the homes were built, saltwater was mixed with cement to form the concrete, a fact that has led to corrosion and buckling over the decades.

But now the interior of Trout's home has been brought back to its original condition with wooden ceilings and walls and, like the other Red Cross homes, the house sits on a foundation that hides a cistern. Those cisterns were designed to meet the freshwater needs of residents during the dry season.

"I've never had to leave during a hurricane," Trout said. "I feel very safe here."

Nearby on a spacious Beach Street lot sits Dr. Ronald Molinari's Red Cross house.

Molinari's and Trout's homes are about 10 miles north of the most prominent cluster of Red Cross homes, which are located near the hurricane monument at mile marker 81.6 -- ground zero on Sept. 2, 1935.

A stark white Red Cross house sits next to Chanticleer South Restaurant with a For Sale sign announcing a $350,000 asking price.

Down the Old Highway is Island Pediatrics, a former Red Cross home where Kristi Bagnell, M.D., now treats patients. Around the bend from the Green Turtle Inn sits a neat Red Cross house with a plaque in front that details the organization's effort, in conjunction with the Works Progress Administration, to help sustain a community faced with disaster.

That effort will be celebrated during the Islamorada Street Fair and Sidewalk Art Show, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 27.

sgibbs@keysnews.com