City Manager Brian L. Barroso, Historic Tours of America founder and CEO Chris Beland, Historic Tours of America President and founder Ed Swift, Richard Toppino, County Historian Dr. Corey Malcolm, Vice Mayor Lissette Carey, Commissioners Monica Haskel, Donie Lee, and Sam Kaufman, Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, and MCSO Capt. David Smith.

Key West City officials gathered in front of the Custom House Tuesday to cut the ribbon on the newly refreshened Clinton Place.

Vice Mayor Lissette Carey welcomed the community who turned out for the event. Commissioners Donie Lee, Monica Haskell, and Sam Kaufman all thanked the staff and Charley Toppino & Sons for seeing the project through.

County Historian Dr. Corey Malcolm provided an historic perspective of the Civil War monument, around which the park evolved.

“At the conclusion of the Civil War,” he said, “the Key West Navy Club decided to erect a monument dedicated to the servicemen who had died on the island.

“The 17-foot-tall monument was successfully delivered to Key West and installed in 1866,” said Dr. Malcolm, “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.”

The monument bears this 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.”

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