Fort East Martello was part of a federal defense system planned for Key West after Florida became strategically important to the United States. Construction began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union forces retained Key West even though Florida joined the Confederacy. Engineers designed two coastal Martello-style towers to protect approaches to the island and Fort Zachary Taylor. East Martello combined thick brick walls, arched casemates, a central tower, and positions for heavy guns intended to resist naval attack.

The fort was never fully armed or completed as originally planned. Changing military technology, supply problems, wartime priorities, and the end of the Civil War reduced the urgency of construction. Its massive masonry nevertheless remained a federal military property. Later alterations and intermittent use never produced the active combat role envisioned by its designers. Salt air, storms, vegetation, and neglect damaged the structure, while residents came to regard its unfinished rooms and tower as an unusual landmark on the island’s Atlantic shore.

By the mid-twentieth century demolition appeared possible as development and airport expansion changed eastern Key West. The Key West Art & Historical Society, organized in 1949, worked with local officials to save and restore the fort. Under the guidance of architect and preservationist Martello Gallery director Jeanne Taylor and other community advocates, the museum opened in 1950. It became the society’s first museum and one of Key West’s early large-scale preservation successes, showing how an obsolete military ruin could serve public culture.

Collections expanded beyond military history to interpret the Florida Keys through folk art, maritime life, wrecking, cigar making, local families, and changing island communities. The fort became especially associated with the work of Mario Sanchez, whose painted wood reliefs portray Key West street life, and Stanley Papio, whose welded metal sculptures transform industrial scrap into satirical figures. It also houses Robert the Doll, an early twentieth-century toy surrounded by later legends that became part of the museum’s popular identity.

The Key West Art & Historical Society continues to operate Fort East Martello as a museum and gallery. Its preservation requires constant attention to masonry, moisture, hurricanes, and the marine environment. The building now tells two connected stories: the federal effort to defend a vital harbor during the Civil War and the local movement that rescued historic Key West in the twentieth century. Exhibitions inside the fort place military engineering beside art, folklore, labor, and community memory, reflecting the island’s layered and often unconventional character.