Sculpture inspired by Gerald Ensley hopes to illustrate Cascades Park, Tallahassee roots

A decade ago, when Cascades Park debuted and became the crown jewel of the city's parks, a newspaper column by the late Gerald Ensley followed and inspired a grand idea.

He thought a statue of John Lee Williams, one of the city's founding fathers, should be erected in the park, steeped with its own unique origin story.

"Tallahassee needs a statue of John Lee Williams," Ensley wrote. "And there is only one place it should go: Cascades Park."

He made a persuasive case on its merits and gave credit to Jean McCully, a longtime Tallahassee volunteer and one of the founders for Big Bend Hospice, who lobbied for community help. City department officials gave early support but also stated a project of this scale would require substantial private funding.

It was a novel idea then and remains so, thought Elizabeth Emmanuel, executive director for the Downtown Improvement Authority. She read Ensley's column with great interest and the native Tallahassee resident kept it tucked away in her mind — waiting for the perfect moment.

Timing would be everything. So is preparation, and Tallahassee's bicentennial anniversary this year seemed to be the ideal time to see the idea come to pass, Emmanuel said.

The idea is to construct a sculpture that illustrates the history of Cascades Park as Tallahassee celebrates its 200 year anniversary.

For two years, she wrote grants in pursuit of making it financially feasible. So far, she has secured funding from various sources, including a Knight Grant from the Community Foundation of North Florida.

"It's really been a wonderful experience," Emmanuel said. "To have over $100,000 raised for the project and to be able to implement it in the bicentennial year, it's really incredible."

History behind Cascades Park

Ensley, a deft storyteller and historian, loved reaching back in time to capture the told and untold tales that shaped Tallahassee.

His column about John Lee Williams, published Jan. 7, 2017, was no different. He wrote that Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821. Plans called for the territorial council to alternate meeting sites between the only two cities in the territory: St. Augustine and Pensacola, some 400 miles apart.

But, Ensley wrote, after the first meetings of the council in Pensacola in 1822 and St. Augustine in 1823, it became clear a more central location was needed: East Florida legislators took nearly two months to reach the first session in Pensacola.

"So in 1823, territorial Gov. William DuVal appointed two commissioners to locate a new site: John Lee Williams of Pensacola and Dr. John Simmons of St. Augustine," he said. "DuVal had already expressed his preference for a capital in the area of the “fowl towns,” which was a cluster of Seminole Indian villages, located between Lake Miccosukee and the Ocklockonee River – roughly the east and west boundaries of present day Leon County."

He mentioned historian Cliff Paisely's work in “The Red Hills of Florida, 1528-1865” that said, "It was a foregone conclusion the commissioners would select a site at or near present-day Tallahassee, which they did less than a week after they met.”

Ensley said Williams was the "chief architect of the decision."

"The two men met at St. Marks and traveled to a Gadsden County plantation, owned by William Ellis, who served as their guide (William Ellis Street in Myers Park is presumably named for him)," he said. "Simmons left from Gadsden County to explore the northern part of Leon County."

Williams was struck by Tallahassee's verdant landscape and predicted it would become an "agricultural paradise – which it did, attracting cotton planters from all over the South. He loved the rolling hills, the thick forests, the numerous springs and he counted 109 lakes, ponds, creeks and rivers in the area."

It was Williams, too, who charmed by what is now called Cascades Park, saying, "The seat of government is fixed about a half mile north, northwest of this spot.”

While the term cascade was often associated with Williams' musing of area, Ensley said Williams never used the word “cascade” in his writing.

Rather, Ensley wrote, it applied early to the waterfall, including an 1825 Pensacola Journal article about Tallahassee.  The waterfall was destroyed by railroad construction in the 1860s; the remaining sinkhole was a popular Tallahassee swimming hole until the early 20th century when it was obliterated by use as a garbage dump.

Financial support needed to finish

Many partners have joined in the effort to see this idea become a reality: the city of Tallahassee, Knight Foundation through Community Foundation of North Florida, Bicentennial Steering Committee, Florida State University Master Craftsman Studio, Capital City Bank Group, Tallahassee Historical Society and more.

Another partner in the project was Ensley's daughter, Amanda Karioth Thompson. She serves as an art consultant on the project and is helping to guide the public art components.

"It was sort of a full circle moment," said Thompson, founder of AKT Artful, an artistic consulting firm. "Knowing that the piece itself had been inspired by the work of my dad and so many other historians and community leaders and people who are the keepers of our collective memory."

An early rendering shows one possibility: An artistic imagining of the namesake cascades, one that can be illuminated at night.

Thompson said the renderings are "very conceptual" and the final plans have not yet been solidified. The project is meant to be a creative approach to illustrate Tallahassee's diversity and history and shine a light in a public space meant for all people.

Standing at about 16 feet tall, the sculpture is slated to include some of Ensley's storytelling and Williams' diary entries, including: "A more beautiful land can scarcely be imagined. It is high, rolling and well watered."

The Downtown Improvement Authority is spearheading the project and said the estimated cost is about $240,000. So far, $110,000 has been raised through fundraising and grants.

Emmanuel said there's an August deadline to secure all funding needed to complete the project. The project, she said, will need public and private support. A presentation of the project was slated to go before the Community Redevelopment Agency on Jan. 18 but the meeting was postponed due to a lack of quorum.

Emmanuel said if the CRA supports the project with site preparation and professional service fees, that would leave a remaining $39,000 left for fundraising.

"We're hoping that some of our other private businesses will come to the plate to be a part of this to help drive that home," she said.

Contact Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New sculpture planned to illustrate Cascades Park, Tallahassee roots