Created to honor the men and women who have had the greatest impact on the island of Key West in Florida, the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden celebrates the legacy of the entire region in a profound manner. Featuring numerous bronze busts of the people who have been responsible for Key West’s founding and growth, audiences are able to connect with the legacy of the region in a personal way that resonates for both residents and visitors.
Telling the Story of Key West
In the early 1900s, the Friends of Mallory Square, Inc., a not-for-profit Florida Corporation, was given the task of raising funds and designing a Memorial Garden for Key West. Opened in 1997 on the original shoreline of Key West, the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden featured 36 bronze busts that depicted men and women that made Key West an important outpost of American culture and folklore.
Each bust also contains a description of their life and how they helped shape or influence Key West. Since then, many other busts that similarly celebrate the legacy of the city and region have been added to more fully define the space.
Various individuals that are known across the nation have their history with Key West highlighted in the garden. These individuals include people like Ernest Hemingway, Harry S. Truman, Henry Flagler and Sister Louise Gabriel. Locally-recognized figures like Commodore David Porter and John Bartlum have also been immortalized, while far more obscure people like Sandy Cornish and Eduardo Gato are similarly included to celebrate their impact on the area. The Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden was designed to highlight the people and the efforts they made to enable the community to prosper despite the island’s isolation from the continental United States, no matter how they were received or recognized during their lifetime.
A large sculpture entitled “The Wreckers” dominates the space. It shows two men salvaging the remains of a sailing ship while another is focused on rescuing a young girl. Sculpted by James Mastin, the piece is 18 feet long and 25 feet high. The sculpture depicts the people dedicated to saving lives and cargo in the seas that defined the early days of Key West.
The Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden was entirely funded by the donations of people who bought the bricks that would eventually line the garden. A scenic walkway was paved with these memorial bricks purchased by local citizens. To continually enable these donations, it contains the space to add new ones. As an additional means of revenue, the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden souvenir guide book is for sale in Key West gift shops and at the Key West Chamber of Commerce.
Created to celebrate the history of the island while also enabling a legacy for future generations, the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden allows residents to celebrate the people that defined their community. At the same time, visitors can engage with the people and stories that they might not encounter any other way. Doing so has brought to life the legacy of individuals and an entire community in a way that audiences of all types can engage with and celebrate across the eras.
Experiencing the Legacy of a City and Community
More than 1,000,000 visitors stroll through the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden each year. Whether they take the time to read the individual bios, or take in the Wreckers sculpture or read the numerous brick dedications, audiences of all types can experience the legacy of the island that connects the past to the future of the entire region.
