Direct descendants of the original Key West settlers and pioneers, the innkeepers of the Conch House possess a rich legacy that reads like a history of the island itself. On the Bahamian Conch side of English ancestry, there's the Lowes and the Currys from Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos. More came by way of Philadelphia in 1852, when brick mason John J. Delaney left there to help build Fort Zachary Taylor. The Conch House came into the family from its Cuban ancestry after Carlos Recio purchased the property in 1895. Arriving in Key West in 1872, he had built the largest wholesale/retail grocery store on the island. A close friend of Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, Recio did much to help the Cuban freedom effort, including smuggling supplies to revolutionists on merchant ships.