West Martello Tower

As a complement to East Martello Tower, this West version is located on Higgs Beach but this one isn’t a museum. It’s home to the Key West Garden Club. It makes the perfect, most absolutely beautiful spot for a garden club because the crumbling brick serves as the perfect backdrop for Banyan trees, dripping vines, and lush tropical foliage. The crumbling state of the tower, by the way, is due mostly to the fact that soldier from Fort Zachary Taylor used to use it for target practice back in the good old days. Oh yes, and people used to ransack the abandoned fort for its bricks, from which they made garden walls and pathways. However neglected its history may sound to you, today it’s really lovely and rambling with 92 plant species and a small exhibit of books. It’s free to visit, but hours are not quite standardized so you’re never sure they’ll be open when you get there.