Welcome to “Island Chronicles,” the Florida Keys History Center’s monthly feature dedicated to investigating and sharing events from the history of Monroe County, Florida. These pieces draw from a variety of sources, but our primary well is the FKHC’s archive of documents, photographs, diaries, newspapers, maps, and other historical materials.
By Corey Malcom, PhD
Lead Historian, Florida Keys History Center
When William A. Whitehead made the first formal land survey of Key West in the winter of 1828-1829, he designated two areas within the resulting plat map as public spaces. One was Jackson Square, the rectangular block framed by Whitehead, Thomas, Fleming and Southard streets, and where the county courthouse and jail were to be located. The other was a smaller space with an odd shape formed in part by the angling of Front Street along the curving Key West harbor front. This triangular plaza, framed also by Whitehead and Greene streets, was designated “Clinton Place” by surveyor Whitehead in honor of the influential New York politician DeWitt Clinton, who had died recently before in 1828.[1]
Early Key West historian Walter C. Maloney noted that the two common properties were never formally sold or deeded by the original proprietors, they were just designated, without opposition, to be for public use. In an 1876 address to the citizens of Key West, Maloney said, “You hold [Jackson] Square and also ‘Clinton Place’ by the same terms by which you hold the streets running through your city, not by an express grant, but by an ‘implied use,’ or ‘usufruct.’”[2] For the island community’s first 30 or so years, Clinton Place was open and unimproved ground.
The first known improvements to Clinton Place came during the Civil War. These changes started in 1863, after the U.S. Army’s Col. Tilghman Good rescinded an order to deport suspected Confederate Key Westers to behind enemy lines. The island’s residents were especially grateful for Good’s compassion, and they gifted him a sword in an elaborate ceremony at Clinton Place.[3] Colonel Good, mounted on his horse, and the soldiers under his command marched through the streets to the front of the Custom House. A stand had been built on the open plaza, and flags were stretched across the streets for the occasion. Speeches were given, and after the sword was presented to Good, he thanked the community. A band then struck up the tune “Bully For You,” while the crowd cheered. At some point afterward, military band performances became such a regular feature at Clinton Place that a fixed bandstand was built there.
At the conclusion of the Civil War, the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (headquartered at Key West with the mission of stopping supplies from entering the Confederacy’s Gulf of Mexico ports) was discontinued. When the squadron’s assets were sold, its officers, who also formed the Navy Club, decided to use the proceeds to erect a monument to those servicemen who had died on the island during the war. An announcement of the project read, “Officers who have been stationed at Key West, will be pleased to learn the city authorities have devoted to the monument the square of ground upon which formerly stood the pagoda, where the bands of music were accustomed to play, and which was also erected by the ‘Navy Club.’”[4]
Seed money of $1200 was raised, and formal plans for the monument were drawn: A granite shaft would bear the inscription “Erected to the memory of the officers, soldiers and sailors of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps of the United States, who died at this military and naval station during the war of 1861-’65.” On the reverse would read “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country).” The plans were kept at the Boston Navy Yard with Paymaster George F. Cutter, who was accepting donations for the remainder of the monument’s price.
In May of 1866, with fundraising completed, an announcement ran in a New London, Connecticut, newspaper: ”Mr. Edward Prest[5] of this city has contracted to build a monument to be erected at Key West, Florida, to the memory of those who died in the service at that port during the late war. The monument will be made of granite, appropriately inscribed and tastefully decorated, and will cost, put on board of a vessel in this port, in the neighborhood of $1,500.”[6] The 17-foot-tall monument was successfully delivered to Key West and installed later that year, making it the first Civil War monument in the state of Florida. Initially, the monument was closely surrounded by an octagonal wooden fence. Sometime around 1880, a three-foot-tall wooden picket fence and trees were installed to delineate a triangular perimeter around the monument and create the boundaries for a small park, which stood for the next 150 years.
Though Clinton Place is city ground, it was, from the outset, associated with nearby federal properties: The lot directly across Front Street was always utilized for the Custom House; in 1857, a Navy storehouse was built to the northeast of the Custom House, and then for the next few decades, the U.S. Naval Station began expanding south and southwest from the triangle.[7]
After a new and large red-brick Custom House was opened in 1891, a survey of government properties noted, “The building is on a slight elevation facing a small triangular park, known as Monument Square, formed by the intersection of the three streets [Whitehead, Front, and Greene].”[8] With the new imposing building adding a grand presence to the area, the Clinton Place park began to also be improved. At some point in the 1890s, the wooden fence was removed, and it was replaced by a low, concrete retaining wall, which made the Civil War monument much more visible. Sidewalks were also installed around the perimeter to further distinguish the small park.
In 1913, the streets around Clinton Place were graded, elevated, and paved, which necessitated the raising of the adjacent sidewalks. “When the work is completed and the Monument Square improved, which is contemplated by Dr. J.V. Harris, the lower part of the city will be very attractive,” wrote Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union newspaper.[9] Dr. Jeptha Vining Harris did make his contemplated improvements, and as he was a proud and outspoken Confederate veteran, they included a low, gated iron fence installed atop the retaining wall dedicated to those who gave their lives for the Confederacy.
By 1924 there seemed to be some dissatisfaction with the appearance of Clinton Place, and control of the space was turned over to the Navy: “The Navy department has taken over the triangle plot in front of the Naval Station and will in the future take care of the monument reservation, keeping it clean and beautiful,” reported the Key West Citizen[10] Navy laborers John A. Roberts and John Solomon initially volunteered time to “clearing away the plot.” Then, Capt. C. D. Stearns, C.O. of the station, said, “other men of the station will shortly volunteer their services in an effort to help in making the site present a much better appearance.” It is not known how long the Navy’s maintenance program lasted.
In 1951, a new use was devised for Clinton Place – as an arts plaza. A group of Key West artists decided to hold an outdoor street fair at the triangle, but in planning for the event, they realized Clinton Place had an identity problem, and not many people knew of it or how to get there. The Citizen reported on their options for steering tourists there: “Clinton Place is so many places. It is where Greene Street, Front Street, and Whitehead Street meet. It is a stone’s throw and a half from the Gulf of Mexico. It is right across from Duke’s Sidewalk Café. It is across from the aquarium. It is across from the Shore Patrol. It is almost on the Gulf end of Duval. It is a block from where all those shrimp boats go out in the Gulf. It is a few blocks up from the Oldest House. It is about three blocks up and to the right from the Key West Citizen.”[11] Though all the descriptions were generally accurate, the group finally gave up on offering directions to the obscure park and decided the large, colorful umbrellas used to cover the exhibits would be sufficient to attract peoples’ attention. Annual art exhibits continued at Clinton Place for decades, and significantly, in relation to these shows, the misnomer “Clinton Square” appears to have come into somewhat regular use.[12]
Clinton Place continued to have its ups and downs. In 1961, a drunk driver smashed headlong into the park at 50 miles-per-hour, destroying some of the Harris fence and taking out trees, but fortunately sparing the monument. By 1965, Clinton Place was in need of attention, and the Citizen mockingly wrote of its maintenance, “Sporadically, it undergoes the somewhat haphazard ministrations of a team of city jail ‘landscapers’ who clean out the weeds, put a new coat of liverish-colored paint on the fence, and then leave it for a spell.”[13] But, prompted by an offer of $1,000 by Key West native Mitchell Wolfson to renovate the small park, ideas for improvement began to brew. Initial plans proposed by the Key West Planning and Restoration Committee called for “red-bricking the area around the monument, removing the rusted fence, placing a couple of benches there, and planting some shrubbery and possibly a tree or two.” Jack Thompson of Thompson Enterprises offered one of his shrimp boats to go to the Dry Tortugas to get bricks for the project from a “scrap pile” near Fort Jefferson. Lethargy prevailed, though, and the plans did not come through.
In 1966, again at the urging of Mitchell Wolfson, who had apparently not given up on Clinton Place, a second memorial – a plaque marking the nearby Mallory family homesite – was installed by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the northern tip of the park on February 26.[14] Stephen Mallory was a U. S. Senator and Secretary of the Navy for the Confederacy, and he and his mother Ellen once lived along the nearby waterfront southwest of the triangle, where she maintained a boarding house.
At the conclusion of the plaque installation ceremony, Wolfson kept his earlier promise and gave the City of Key West a check for $1,000 “for the restoration of Clinton Place.” The exact date of the resulting renovations is not known, but in due time the J.V. Harris fence was replaced, with the gate and other sections of the original reused to closely surround the Civil War memorial; broad stone pavers were installed to form pathways within the small park, and flowers, shrubs, and trees were planted. Clinton Place would retain this design for most of the next 60 years, tended to by city staff and dedicated volunteers.
In 2011, at the urging of the director of the Key West Art & Historical Society, which occupied the Custom House building, Front Street was closed to automobile traffic to create a pedestrian plaza between the organization’s museum and Clinton Place. The design of the park did not change, though, and the increased pedestrian capacity did not translate to its increased use. The park’s plants and trees also began to overgrow the space, which obscured the Civil War memorial, and frustrations grew about the site’s attractiveness.
In 2022, the City of Key West issued a request for proposals for the redesign and renovation of Clinton “Square” Park and awarded a $1.1 million contract to Charley Toppino & Sons, Inc. to do the work.[15] Construction began in 2024. The redesign is a dramatic reconfiguration of the nearly 200-year-old space, with space around the Civil War monument opened to a plaza, making it much more visible, and the elimination of Front Street, unifying that side of the park with the former federal buildings along that side. The overhauled park will open in 2025.
Clinton Place is one of the oldest common areas in Key West, and it has been the site of multiple chapters in the city’s long and rich story. Though its history cannot be denied, the odd little triangle has not always been appreciated. Hopefully, as it enters a new era, Clinton Place will find the love it has long deserved. (And, with any luck, it will be called by its proper name!)
[1] Maloney, Walter C. (1876). A Sketch of the History of Key West, Florida, Advertiser Printing House, Newark, p. 81.
[2] Ibid. p.58
[3] Schmidt, Lewis G. (1992). Florida’s Keys and Fevers. The Civil War in Florida, Vol. 3. Lewis G. Schmidt, Allentown, PA, p.585.
[4] Anonymous (1865). Army and Navy Journal, September 23, Vol. III, No. 5, p73.
[5] Prest was an English stonemason who relocated to New London, where he became one of the community’s preeminent builders. Anonymous (1898). Biographical Review, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of New London County, Biographical Review Publishing Co., Boston, pp217-218.
[6] Anonymous (1866). New London Weekly Chronicle, May 12, p2.
[7] Anonymous (1881). A Naval Encyclopedia, “Naval Station, Key West, Fla.”, L.R. Hamersly & Co. Philadelphia, p516.
[8] U.S. Treasury (1891). A History of Public Buildings Under the Control of the Treasury Department, Court House, Post-Office, etc., Key West Fla. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. p.91. This is the only instance that can be found calling Clinton Place “Monument Square.”
[9] Anonymous (1913). “Key West News Notes,” Florida Times-Union, August 7, p.13.
[10] Anonymous (1924). “Navy Department Takes Over Custody of Plot Opposite Navy Yard.” Key West Citizen, Feb 15, p. 5.
[11] Gingras, A. (1951). “Clinton Place is Where You Find it, Key West Artists Tell Their Public.” Key West Citizen, May 26, p. .8.
[12] Kraus, Larry (1955). “Fifth Annual Key West Artists’ Group Street Fair Will Start Sunday.” Key West Citizen, February 5, p. 8.
[13] Anonymous (1965). “Clinton Square to be Beautified,” Key West Citizen, April 6, p. 1.
[14] Raymer, Dorothy (1966). “Mallory Paid High Tribute,” Key West Citizen, February 27, p. 1.
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