East Martello Tower: Key West's Silent Civil War Fort

East Martello Tower has stood on Key West's South Roosevelt Boulevard for nearly 160 years without ever seeing combat or carrying weapons, despite its original purpose as a Civil War defense fort.

The U.S. Army began constructing the tower in the mid-1860s. Military planners had surveyed Key West harbor sites for defense forts since 1822. Col. Joseph Gilmore Totten and French military engineer Col. Simon Bernard designed nine forts in 1836, but costs forced the Army to scale back to one large fort, Fort Zachary Taylor, plus two advanced batteries: East and West Martello Towers.

In 1950, the Key West Art & Historical Society restored the East Tower and opened it as the Fort East Martello Museum, establishing the first museum in the Florida Keys. The National Register of Historic Places added the site in 1972.

The museum now houses works by Cuban folk artist Mario Sanchez and Robert the Doll, a doll that belonged to artist Robert Eugene Otto and has attracted visitors drawn to its reputation as a haunted object.