Let’s call the place the Place

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Last month, the city of Key West began working on improvements to the public area bounded by Front, Greene and Whitehead streets in front of the Custom House, one of our grandest and most important public buildings (and now an excellent museum run by the Key West Art & Historical Society). Today, the Citizen ran a photo by Rob O’Neal showing the area scraped clean, the obelisk at the center wrapped up.

I’m very glad this historically important area is getting attention - especially the obelisk, which was erected by the Key West Navy Club in 1866, dedicated to Union soldiers and sailors who died here during the Civil War (almost all of them of yellow fever). More on that below.

But here’s the thing - all the city releases and press coverage and I’m afraid to think of how many official documents refer to this area as Clinton Square. But that’s not its name. It’s Clinton Place.

If you doubt me, I refer you to “Key West: The Old And The New” by Jefferson B. Browne, the 1912 book considered Key West’s first comprehensive history. On page 52, he details how different streets and sites were named, including “‘Clinton Place’ after DeWitt Clinton of New York.” Referring to the dedication of the obelisk on page 62, he refers to it as “Clinton Place, the small triangular plot at the intersection of Front, Whitehead and Greene Streets… ”

Today In Keys history column, produced by the Monroe County Public Library’s Florida Keys History Center, as it appeared in the Key West Citizen on July 25, 2024.

“Triangular” is the key word here. Besides not being its actual name, “Clinton Square” is an embarrassing error of basic kindergarten-level geometry. When the state acquired the Custom House in the early 1990s and the Art & Historical Society took on the restoration, then-Executive Director Susan Olsen pointed this out to me: It’s not a square. It’s a triangle.

This may seem like a small nitpick, but facts matter. This is true in journalism and it’s true in history. We are a place that purportedly cares a lot about our history and for good reason. For a small island with a relatively small population, a lot of interesting stuff has gone down here. Our small size and geographic isolation helped keep a lot of the historic fabric intact and now it’s a major component of our multi-billion-dollar tourism and real estate economies. It matters on many levels.

And Clinton Place is, perhaps, the best examplar of Key West’s strange and interesting history when it comes to the Civil War and how it’s memorialized. We’re in Florida, the third state to secede, and the island was home to many enslavers (including U.S. Senator-turned-Confederate Naval Secretary Stephen Mallory, whose mother’s boarding house was also in that neighborhood - but who was not, it turns out, the person for whom Mallory Square was named). Key West stayed in Union hands because an enterprising Army captain occupied still-under-construction Fort Taylor soon after secession but there were a lot of Confederate sympathizers in the local population. And in the 1920s, at the height of Jim Crow, when many notable citizens were in the Klan, the United Daughters of the Confederacy put up a pavilion in Bayview Park, with full honors from the mayor and local dignitaries.

In the 1930s, the state of New York donated a memorial nearby, to honor the dozens of soldiers who were stationed here and died of aforesaid yellow fever. That pavilion has recently been renamed with the city’s official motto, One Human Family. And in 2016, the city added a statue honoring the Black Union soldiers recruited here, right in front of the pavilion.

Clinton Place in 2015. Photo by Nancy Klingener

Clinton Place might have the most interesting memorial evidence of all, though. That obelisk, memorializing the Union troops who died here is surrounded by a low fence with a plaque proudly claiming that it was “ERECTED BY J.V. HARRIS, CONFEDERATE VETERAN.”

Just as the Stephen Mallory Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is still engraved at the base of the One Human Family pavilion at Bayview Park, I hope that fence and its plaque also remain through the improvements to Clinton Place.

Just like Clinton Place’s real name, the real history of Key West’s role in the Union victory - and the backlash afterwards - is part of our island’s history and our residents and visitors deserve to know the truth.

Here are a couple more images of Clinton Place from the Florida Keys History Center’s photo archive, just because they’re cool.

Clinton Place in front of Custom House ca. 1918. The Heritage House Collection, donated by the Campbell, Poirier and Pound families. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Custom House on postcard by Frank Johnson, Key West. The DeWolfe and Wood Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Reporting away again in Margaritaville

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Meagan Bryon of Hoboken, N.J., added a shaker of salt to the memorial at Jimmy Buffett’s Shrimp Boat Sound studio in the Key West Bight on Saturday. Photo by Rob O’Neal.

Ten years ago, on Sept. 2, 2013, I unexpectedly found myself on All Things Considered, reporting on Diana Nyad’s successful swim across the Florida Straits, from Cuba to Key West.

Two days ago, on Sept. 2, 2023, I unexpectedly found myself in the New York Times, reporting on how Key West was coping with the loss of Jimmy Buffett.

I was flattered when first contacted by the Times editor, but I initially tried to turn down the assignment. I had JUST been texting a friend about how I felt relieved not to be a journalist when I heard this news. I am not a Parrot Head - I don’t mind his music and I get the appeal but it just wasn’t the soundtrack of my youth or one of the reasons I moved to, or stayed in, Key West - as it was for so many. I will admit I have always found it more than a little ironic that someone who built an empire from the Margaritaville ethos said he left Key West because it was “too commercial.” And I just felt like now was not the moment to gripe about that.

But someone talked me into it, so I made sure my camera had a battery and a card in it, threw a notebook into a backpack and rode my bike downtown to check out the scene and talk to some people. I also called up others I knew for some added context and color. Every single person I approached was generous and open about sharing their experiences, feelings and thoughts about JB and his impact on them and on the island. The journalism gods smiled on me even more, when I saw the great Rob O’Neal had already filed the perfect photo for the story.

I was glad to include the detail about the special locals-only shows that JB added when he was here in February - fittingly, his last Key West gigs and a real service for all of those who were heartbroken when they couldn’t get into the amphitheater shows. I’m kind of sorry now that I didn’t line up for tickets and see one of those shows, but I felt then like I’d be taking a space from someone who really REALLY wanted to be there. I did see him play once, in the early ‘90s, at Margaritaville when he just popped up on stage (my friend Amy Woods, a reporter at the Key West Citizen, was a hostess there and would let us know when JB was in town and might play). I appreciated more the other acts he brought into town, especially one called Evangeline that he produced on his record label. (Note to self: see if they’re on Spotify and/or go up into the attic and dig up that CD.)

I don’t hold him single-handedly responsible for Key West becoming “too commercial.” The new, wider Overseas Highway bridges (completed in 1982) with the bigger freshwater pipeline had a lot to do with that. So did the creation in the 1980s of the Tourist Development Council, funded by taxes on tourist lodging and used mostly for promotion - a feedback loop of astounding force in a place with limited supply and high demand - leading to some of the highest room rates and year-round occupancy rates in the country.* I’d rather not join the incessant chorus of people declaring the island is ruined because it has changed from how it was when they first got to know it. I recently wrote a whole essay about that - you can read it for yourself in a couple weeks in a new anthology called Key West Sketches: Writers at Mile Zero (pub date: Sept. 19 - please buy a copy if you’re interested; proceeds benefit the restoration of the Elizabeth Bishop House).

Sometime late Saturday or early Sunday, I realized my Facebook feed filled with tributes and memories and personal reflections and the big coverage this news got nationally were a testament to not only the allure of trop rock and the idea of an easy life in a sunny place but, I think, to how badly people want to belong to a community. Whether it’s Deadheads or Beyonce, Red Sox Nation or MAGA, people are so happy when they feel like they are part of an affinity group. Loving the Keys - and, especially living here - sometimes feels like an affinity group, even if one that can be more accidental than intentional. And the Internet and social media, for better and worse, have made finding your affinity groups so much easier. People used to make fun of Trekkies, now it feels like there’s a con in every city with a space big enough to hold one.

I never interviewed Jimmy Buffett. I’m not into celebrity stuff or stories that hundreds of other people are also reporting (also part of my initial reluctance). I much prefer to tell stories that people DON’T already know. But I was glad to make sure Key West was as authentically represented as possible in national coverage. And to convey the voices of people from here about the impact of someone who will be an island icon forever.

*I know this will never happen because it would require a change in the guiding legislation but if I were suddenly given superpowers and could change ONE THING about the Keys, it would be using a big chunk of the lodging tax money to fund a really good public transportation system here. I grew up with a free bus system that covered a lot of territory in western Massachusetts (the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority). It was funded by the local towns but also college students. In the Keys, public transit would help solve SO MANY problems. Affordability - especially for the workers who staff those hotels and restaurants and attractions. Traffic. Parking. Drunk driving. Golf carts and scooters all over the damn place. And it’s so much greener than all those cars and other vehicles taking us around. Sorry! End of rant.

Summer reading recs: English court intrigue, Papal court intrigue, dragons meet Napoleon in Russia and literary noir close to home

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[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1552,1550,1555,1551"] Four novels, all set to be published this summer. All four are probably not to most people's reading taste but they all were to mine.

Queen's Gambit is the story of Katherine Parr, the final and surviving wife of Henry VIII. She's got an interesting story and it's told well both from her perspective and that of a servant, Dot, whom she brings from her own household to serve her when Katherine (reluctantly) becomes Queen. Even if you think you've read or watched everything you need to about the Tudors, this is worth a read, especially since it covers a relatively unexamined person and part of the story. Its perspective on Elizabeth is especially interesting, both from Katherine's view and from Dot's. As everyone who knows anything about Elizabeth knows, she and her final stepmother were close -- until Katherine caught her last husband, the ambitious, vain Thomas Seymour, playing some sort of naughty bed game with the young adolescent Elizabeth. While Katherine was pregnant with his child. I was dreading that part of the story even though I knew it was coming -- but Fremantle handles it with an interesting approach. A debut novel by Elizabeth Fremantle, who appears to be a worthy addition to the Tudor-writing historical fiction ranks. The book is scheduled for release on Aug. 6.

Blood & Beauty is about the Borgias, another telegenic Renaissance-era family (also the subject of a pay-cable drama from the same folks who brought us The Tudors). Sarah Dunant sets her books in medieval and Renaissance Italy and the Borgias offer incredible scope. I knew little about them, beyond their historical reputation as a bunch of depraved poisoners -- this book provided a much better rounded portrait especially of Lucrezia, daughter of the ambitious Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI). Even her ruthless brother Cesare is understandable, if not necessarily sympathetic. I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to the next installment -- though it led me to some confusion over the dramatic choices in the Showtime series. But hey, I knew from watching the Tudors that the guy behind those shows is not all that concerned with historical accuracy so I'm going to assume Sarah Dunant's sticking closer to the record until I learn otherwise. Dunant is probably best known for In the Company of the Courtesan; she may go stratospheric (into Philippa Gregory-like sales levels) with this one. Blood & Beauty publishes July 16.

Blood of Tyrants is speculative/alternative/fantastic historical fiction -- the latest and apparently penultimate volume in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. I've blogged about this series before -- the previous entry, Crucible of Gold was one of my favorite books from last year -- and this is a worthy successor. As it opens, our hero Will Laurence has been shipwrecked on the shores of Japan and has amnesia. So even though most of his shipmates and fellow aviators think he's dead and "his" dragon, Temeraire, desperately wants to find him, Laurence thinks he's still an officer in the British Navy and has no memory of the last eight years, ie. the time he's spent with Temeraire and learned a hell of a lot about dragons (and encountered Napoleon personally, and been court-martialed, and been made a prince in China and nearly died in both Africa and Australia and ...  well these are adventure books, OK?). The series is often described as Patrick O'Brian with dragons and that works -- it's set in the British military during the Napoleonic wars. And it is cool to imagine military aviation coming into play a few centuries before it actually did, and how that might have altered things and worked in the culture of the time (few know it outside of the aviation corps, but there are a number of female officers because one particularly valuable breed of dragon, the poison-fanged Longwings, will only abide women as their captains). But the true appeal of the series, for me, is the way it fulfills an animal lover's fantasy of bonding with intelligent, emotional beings who can, in this world, speak and express their opinons, sometimes irrational as they may seem (all dragons covet treasure and want to see their humans kitted covered in the Regency-era equivalent of bling whenever possible). I found myself, when reading this book, thinking of the relationship I've had with dogs and horses and how it often feels like you are holding conversations with them -- and how you feel a responsibility for their care and happiness that goes far beyond mere ownership. It will be interesting to see how Novik winds up the series -- this book ends with Napoleon on the march in Russia but she has previously shown no problem with materially altering history (Napoleon is currently married to an Incan princess) and kudos to her for the last line, which I won't spoil here but which has to be a nod to that other dragon-loving fantasy writer, George R.R. Martin. Blood of Tyrants publishes on Aug. 13 -- if you haven't read the previous seven entries in the series, that would make an excellent --and fun! -- summer reading project. I will be sorry to see this series end but will try to view it as I do my favorite TV shows when they go away after a few seasons -- better to go out with quality than trail on forever just because someone is willing to pay you to do so.

One of these books is not like the others, as the old Sesame Street ditty goes. Men in Miami Hotels is a contemporary noir, set in Key West but it's a wholly different creature from the usual subtropical mystery/detective novel -- it has more in common with the work of Thomas McGuane than Carl Hiaasen or James Hall. Cot Sims is a journeyman gangster for a Miami crime lord. He returns to his hometown of Key West to help his mother, who has been kicked out of her hurricane-damaged home by code enforcers and is camped out underneath. It is recognizably Key West in a lot of keenly observed ways, though a smaller less transient -- and more violent -- island than the real one (it appears to be a Key West inhabited entirely by Conchs and visiting Miami gangsters). Sims quickly gets himself into serious trouble by stealing a bunch of emeralds from his Miami crime boss and is basically on the lam from then on, throughout Key West, mainland South Florida and eventually Havana. I particularly liked the action in the cemetery, where Cot spends some time hiding out in a friend's family crypt. I'll admit that I admired this book but didn't find it captivating the way some crime fiction that is considered genre can captivate me (most recently, Lyndsay Faye's Gods of Gotham). But for those who prefer their crime with a more literary approach, or who read in order to admire language, this is a great read and I hope it finds its audience. It deserves to. Men in Miami Hotels will be released July 2.

Summer in the subtropics

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My fourth Letter from Key West ran today on WLRN's Under the Sun program. Special thanks to Trina Sargalski and especially to Alicia Zuckerman for her always deft editing -- and for contributing, in the studio while we were about to record, what turned out to be my favorite line in the whole piece (In summer, there's more light and more time.) Alicia gets special extra triple credit, along with Dan Grech, for creating Under the Sun and helping South Florida realize its radio potential. It's been a real pleasure to listen and to take part. Besides Alicia's line, my favorite part of the piece might be that photo -- because it really does say summer to me, which is why I shot it with my iPhone a couple weeks ago and posted it to Facebook -- all while walking the dog. The other photo illustrating the piece, of some mangoes on a table at The Studios of Key West, also came from my iPhone. Both of them were total punts because last week, when I should have been collecting photos to illustrate summer in Key West, was a washout from what would become Tropical Storm Debby. But I think it worked out.