A Confederate marker was removed without much fanfare Tuesday in St. Petersburg.

  • Stonewall Jackson Memorial Highway marker had been in place for decades
  • It was removed Tuesday at request of Mayor Kriseman
  • City workers will try to find the marker's owners

The Stonewall Jackson Memorial Highway marker sat at the corner of Central Avenue and Bayshore Drive for almost 80 years.

The marker says, "This marks the terminal of the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Highway erected by the Dixie Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy." It is dated Jan. 22, 1939.

The marker faced toward the street, away from the sidewalk, so many people may not have known it was there.

City officials had not received complaints about the marker, and Mayor Rick Kriseman had just learned about it. He had it removed Tuesday.

"Even before what happened in Virginia, and you had the debate in Hillsborough County, and that's been going all around the country," Kriseman said. "It's a debate that I've never really quite understood."

"There's a difference between history and recognizing history and celebrating it," he continued. "I don't think you celebrate things that represent bigotry and hatred, and that's what these monuments often times do."

Residents shared a range of opinions with us regarding Kriseman's move to remove the marker. Terry Anderson, for one, said he's glad it's gone.

"I don’t think there’s any place for it in our society, they [sic] really don’t," Anderson said. "This brings back old memories of slavery and we won the war on slavery. It’s part of history, we can’t get rid of that but we really just need to get past it."

Resident Nancy Hupert expressed a different view.

"That’s something you’ll just have to live with, because it’s still part of history," Hupert said. "Everything isn’t good in the world, so maybe it was put there for a good reason and they just look at it in bad way, in a negative way, and it’s not fair to other people who don’t see it the same way."

The mayor said the marker is now in a city facility, and workers will try to find its owners.

If they don't locate the owners, the marker could be given to the Museum of History.