9/11 Memorial Arch in Downtown Pensacola Vandalized

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

4 1 minute read

9/11 Memorial Arch in Downtown Pensacola Vandalized

A 9/11 memorial arch in downtown Pensacola, seen by hundreds of people every weekend at the Palafox Market, has been vandalized and a piece of the arch is missing.

Authorities do not know when the damage occurred.

The ceramic arch called “America's 9/11 Tribute” in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza is located near the prominent intersection of Palafox and Garden streets.

A section of about three feet of the base of the south side of the arch is completely missing.

Jason Wheeler, Pensacola's public information officer, said the city was unaware the memorial had been damaged when contacted by the News Journal Thursday.

Wheeler said parks and recreation crews will assess the damage to the sculpture.

It is unclear exactly when the damage occurred and where the missing pieces of the memorial are located today.

Dan Lindemann, owner of the nearby A&J Mug Store, noticed the damage last week while walking his dog in the square and reported it to the city.

The memorial arch has stood in the square for 20 years as a public memorial to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The 3.6-metre-high ceramic arch was created by artists Peter King and Xinia Marin, a married couple, in the aftermath of the attack. The work briefly toured art museums before being donated to the city by the artist.

According to News Journal archives, the play is intended to celebrate tolerance, diversity and peace.

The abstract nature of the sculpture is filled with symbolism, including the Alpha and Omega symbols, a depiction of an eternal flame, helping hands, wings carrying the lost to heaven, and writings in multiple languages that represent all the nationalities present during the 9/11 attack.

“It’s an honest article,” King told the News Journal in 2004, when the piece was offered to him. “We felt compelled to respond to this attack. The perpetrators of the World Trade Center attack thought they were attacking the United States, but they made a grave mistake. They were attacking the human race.”

Efforts by the News Journal to reach King Thursday and Friday were unsuccessful.

Lina Portman

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