Published in Florida Gardening December 1997

Freshly cut palm fronds and fragrant gardenias decorated each cloth covered table. Heliconia and flame ginger flanked the right side of the head table where Joe Allen addressed the intimate crowd on this warm night in May, 1996. Antelope Dendrobiums blossomed in the overhead canopy of Shaving Brush trees and Lignum Vitae and Royal Poincianas.

In the glow of candlelight, the former Florida State Representative chuckled with family and friends attending his 50th wedding anniversary celebration in West Martello Tower’s courtyard: “Everybody said, Joe, you’re stupid. You can’t grow trees and flowers that close to the ocean.” But almost 50 years after Rep. Allen saved this old Civil War fortress from the brink of ruin, trees and flowers not only grow in the formal garden of the Key West Garden Club, they flourish at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, where the tropics begin.

West Martello Tower was built in 1863, an outpost for Fort Zachary Taylor, which is located about two miles away at the southernmost tip of Key West. Like other forts in the defense system that started up before the Civil War, this “star fort” and its two beachside martello towers never fired a cannon in battle, but they are historic reminders of 19th century architectural prowess...prowess borrowed from Roman designers 1,600 years before.

Although West Martello Tower’s vaulted brick chambers housed Federal troops or supplies for every U.S. War -- right up to the Bay of Pigs encounter in 1962 when HAWK missiles and concertina wire sprouted like weeds on the beach behind the tower -- it primarily served as a “pest house” for shipwrecked waifs and other indigents. Fact is, during its construction in the 1800’s, workers were spooked by the discovery of human bones: The site had been a burial ground for almost 300 Africans unfortunate enough to be caught in the slave trade.

When West Martello Tower became a target for Fort Zachary Taylor’s gunners in 1873, nobody much cared; its sister tower, East Martello, out of range further up the beach, was still in good condition. Mules, pigs and other livestock were stabled periodically in the ruins of West Martello, and during the Spanish American War in 1898, it was cleaned up a tad for troops who were quartered there.

By the time Key West’s first Atlantic beach-front resort was built in 1921 (Casa Marina Resort), all the new fangled missiles and projectiles being tested by the U.S. Military were no longer being lobbed at the old tower: Fort Zach’s gunners were afraid tourists might get in the way. But many of its Romanesque arches had fallen. Demolished, the south side of the reinforced steel and concrete mortar wall, which was laced with coral. And the watchtower was leveled. Rubble and bricks and slate flooring littered the beach behind the casemates.

West Martello Tower was an abandoned eyesore, and in the mid-1940’s, Monroe County wanted it gone: County Commissioners figured an expanded beach for tourism was the answer.

Then-County-Commissioner Allen, a Key West native, said “That’s no way to treat an historical site.” So in 1949, he proceeded to sway the Powers That Be from leveling the martello. He hired a prison guard to patrol the old fort at night to stop vandalism, and he arranged to have seaweed and street sweepings dumped onto the already fertile grounds.

“I started planting trees, Key limes of course,” said Rep. Allen. “Like every Conch, I wanted lime at my disposal. But my garden was hit ‘n miss. The tower deserved something more formal.”

In 1955, Allen negotiated with the Key West Garden Club, and West Martello Tower became the club’s official home in 1959. It was named a Florida National Historic Site, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Then, at the Key West Garden Club’s 25th anniversary ceremony in 1984, the grounds and tower were formally dedicated as West Martello Tower, Joe Allen Garden Center.
“I don’t think any other state garden club claims an historic site as homebase,” said Virginia Cotter, the club’s current president. “Of course, the location is beautiful and it works, but being right next to the ocean does present its saltwater challenges.”

Years with considerably less vigor than 1995’s non-stop hurricane parade invariably take their toll on plants here, even some that are highly tolerant to saltwater. Storms with massive winds and saltwater spray roll in and out regularly, and while no direct hits affected Key West in ‘95, Hurricane Opal’s spin off seared native lantana and Bahama cassia growing on “the berm”, an ocean-front, dune-like hill that shelters the garden’s less saltwater tolerant plants from heavy easterly weather.

Cotter and Patricia Rogers, the garden center’s chairman, developed and expanded the variety of plants growing on the berm in 1994.

“We made it a project to illustrate how to use natives plants in landscape design,” said Rogers. “Fire bush, for instance, dies back each winter, burned by the strong easterly winds and saltwater spray, but it grows back and blossoms beautifully in the summer.”

By planting Spanish stopper, golden creeper, blolly and other plants native to the Florida Keys, Key West Garden Club members polished the rough, rear edge of the garden with flora that withstands the ocean’s natural onslaught. The Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc. recognized this xeriscaping effort with its 1995 award for “Native Plant Landscaping”, and in 1996, its overall programming received the “Award for Excellence”.

Dancing just this side of the berm with his wife Margie, where henna and frangipanni fragrances mixed it up on a gentle ocean breeze, Rep. Allen laughed with friends and watched moonbeams bounce off Royal palm fronds. On this particular night in May, he was certainly looking smart, and very possibly feeling a bit like a visionary.

By Barbara Bowers, © 1996

For "Peter's Tropical Palm Garden" by Barbara Bowers, CLICK HERE