Located near the center of the Key Peninsula, Key Center (map) is the major business center and crossroads going east, west, north and south.
Key Center opened for business in March 1932, a little over a year after the Key Peninsula itself got its name. On December 12, 1930, the Peninsular Business Men’s association, a group based in Vaughn, announced a contest to select a name of the still-unnamed peninsula. The winning entry, announced on January 21, 1931, was Key Peninsula, suggested by E. M. Stone of Lakebay who thought the peninsula was shaped like an old-fashioned skeleton key. The name was not officially recognized by the state’s board on geographic names until 1980 and by the the U.S. board in 19881.
On March 12, 1932, the Tacoma Daily Ledger reported that that in addition to an existing service station operated by I. James and a lumber and hardware store built by Alden Visell a few year earlier, the new business center featured several “modern stores” in including a grocery store operated by C. D. Hipp, a radio and electrical store run by John D. Edwin and a drugstore and coffee shop operated by I. James.

Visell’s Lumber & Hardware store in the 1960s. Key Peninsula Historical Society