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All the United States Florida Key West Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden
AO Edited

Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden

Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, the garden opened in September 1997 to celebrate the men and women who have had the greatest impact on Key West.

Key West, Florida

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James T. Bartlett
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Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Hemingway   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
The Wreckers, 18 x 25 foot broze sculpture celebrating wreckers   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Sandy Cornish - a formerly enslaved man   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Wreckers saved lives, as well as cargo   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
He ran a successful farm, and died a free man   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Captain Asa F. Tift   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
James Mastin was the sculptor of all the garden’s objects   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Tift was an early settler and wrecker; you’ll find references to him everywhere   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
It features 36 bronze busts of notable people from Key West history   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Some are famous, some less-known: Ellen Mallory was a nurse who saved many from yellow fever   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Maria Valdez Gutsens - a nurse and advocate for Cubans   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
  jlord7 / Atlas Obscura User
  Runawaydc / Atlas Obscura User
Harry Truman 🇺🇸   Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
  Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
  Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
Lena Johnson ⚜️  
Woodrow Wilson 🇺🇸   Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
Ernest Hemingway 📚   Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
Located at Mallory Square, it opened in 1997   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
There are some famous sponsor names on the ground - including writer/director Hal Hartley   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
  jlord7 / Atlas Obscura User
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Home to 36 bronze busts representing important and notable people from the history of Key West, the 4 by 2-mile size island at the end of the Florida Keys, this sculpture garden is located on the original shoreline in bustling Mallory Square (the popular tourist area where people go every dusk to applaud the sunset).

Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, the garden was championed by the Friends of Mallory Square, and opened in September 1997 to celebrate the men and women who have had the greatest impact on Key West.

There are some familiar faces and names immortalized here like fisher/drinker/author Ernest Hemingway, former President Harry S. Trueman, and railway magnate Henry M. Flagler, but a glance at the others reveals the deep and often-unknown history of the island, which hosts around 1 million visitors a year.

The busts were all created by the late sculptor James Mastin, who created his various project pieces originally in clay or wax before casting them into bronze, stainless steel, polyester resins, or formed copper. His most impressive piece here is large, evocative sculpture The Wreckers, which measures 18 feet long and 25 feet high, and captures the early spirit of Key West as a rough-and-ready sea town out on the frontier of a young America.

The early wreckers shown here—and they weren’t what we know as “pirates,” because they were officially licensed (more or less)—are shown saving lives as well as the precious (but often unknown) cargo from one of the many hundreds of vessels that ran aground, were blown into danger, or washed ashore on the many reefs.

Wrecking made the island rich, and in the mid-1800s the city, per capita, was the richest in America: salvage fees made wrecking captains, crews, businessmen, lawyers, clerks, packers, dock hands, and insurance agents—plus many more—wealthy indeed.

The ground of the park is largely composed of sponsored bricks, known as the Walkway of History, and you can spot some famous names here, such as writer/director Hal Hartley, as well as many locals, visitors, and fans of Key Largo and “island life.”

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Art Outside Sculptures Sculpture Gardens Memorials

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Open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can learn about wreckers at the Shipwreck Museum, while Truman’s “Little White House” and Hemingway’s House (with its famously expensive swimming pool) nearby too.

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jbartlett2000

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Jason Michael Walker, jlord7, Runawaydc

  • Jason Michael Walker
  • jlord7
  • Runawaydc

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June 15, 2023

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Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden
401 Wall St
Key West, Florida, 33040
United States
24.559644, -81.806927
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