The land north of this canal was developed as part of what is now the Village of Key Biscayne. This strip included a canal that had been dug by William Matheson in the 1920s, and which extended from the bay across most of the island. After Áleman died in 1951, his widow, Elena Santeiro Garcia, added to her Cape Florida property by buying an ocean-to-bay strip that had been part of the Matheson property. In 1948 José Manuel Áleman, a Cuban politician in exile, bought the Cape Florida property from the Deering estate. The southern third of Key Biscayne, which included Cape Florida, was owned by James Deering and, after his death, by his brother Charles, for 35 years. Post Office contract branch was opened, the Community Church started holding services in an old coconut-husking shed, and the Key Biscayne Elementary School opened in 1952. Starting in 1951, the Mackle Construction Company offered new homes on the island for US$9,540, with just US$500 down. The remaining Matheson property, stretching across the middle of the island, was then sold off to developers. In 1940 the Matheson family donated over 800 acres (3.2 km 2) of their land to Dade County for a public park (Crandon Park) in exchange for a commitment that the county would build a causeway to the island. The northern two-thirds of the island had been operated as the largest coconut plantation in the continental United States during the first half of the 20th century. While there had been earlier schemes to develop a town on Key Biscayne, it wasn't until the opening of the four-mile (6 km) long Rickenbacker Causeway from Miami to Virginia Key and on to Key Biscayne in 1947 that the island was opened up to large scale residential development. President Richard Nixon at Key Biscayne's Fourth of July parade in 1969

Key biscayne