Key West’s schooner fleet glides past Mallory Square as a crowd gathers to watch the sun sink into the Gulf of Mexico. Crowds have gathered at Mallory for decades for the sunset celebration. *Nancy Klingener, Miami Herald File
You can still take in the sunset at Key West’s iconic Mallory Square, but at least for a while, you’re going to have to watch farther back from the water. The City of Key West held an emergency meeting Friday and decided to close the outer 45 feet of the popular tourist spot to all traffic, including foot traffic, because inspectors found structural deterioration on parts of the seawall.
“We don’t want to risk a collapse,” Alyson Crean, spokeswoman for the city, told the Herald. The issue should not impact cruise ships visiting the Southernmost City, since a ship isn’t scheduled to berth at that particular dock until November, Crean added. The city plans to hire structural engineers in the coming days to see what is needed to fix the problem. City officials are looking into grant money to fund the repair project, Crean said.
Marks on an aerial view of Mallory Square in Key West show where officials have blocked off because of deterioration found in the structure of the sea wall.
The City made the decision Friday, April 11, 2025. Effective immediately, the area will be barricaded from where the planters are to the end of the dock. But, the closure is not expected to impact shops, vendors and entertainers.
“Residents and visitors can still enjoy our beautiful sunset and the vendors that make up the celebration. However, it will be moved back from the water’s edge,” Crean said.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 2:29 PM. David Goodhue Miami Herald 305-923-9728
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
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