A Confederate statue that had been standing at Lake Eola Park for a century was taken down Tuesday morning and is being moved to a new location.

The "Johnny Reb" Confederate memorial statue has stood at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando since 1917. But in May, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer ordered the statue be removed.

"Some people view it simply as a historical marker, but to others, it’s a very offensive symbol of white supremacy at a time when slavery was the law of the land and here in the South," Dyer told News 13 on Tuesday. "Maybe historical markers are better suited for other places than at the entrance feature of our signature park.”

City workers who started the removal process early Tuesday found a time capsule in the base of the statue. The United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned the statue be built in 1911 but it was relocated at Lake Eola in 1917.

The time capsule, a small metal box, wasn't opened but taken away for preservation. The contents remain unknown — they're possibly some notes and pictures — but the city hopes to commission a restoration of its contents in the near future.

"We'll open it at an appropriate time and make sure we do it in a manner that it needs to be done so we don't break any of the items that might be contained in it," Dyer said.

The Confederate statue, meanwhile, is being moved to Orlando's historic Greenwood Cemetery, where there's a Confederate soldier section of about 30 graves. There's also a Union section at the cemetery that already has a statue.

"We have all that history here. What a better place for it?" Greenwood Cemetery caretaker Don Price said Tuesday. "We will actually have scholars coming in who will have boards that will teach people about the Civil War and teach people about what Florida went through, and try to educate on what happened," Price said.

The removal of the statue was something Orlando blogger David Porter had been looking forward to. He had lobbied the Orlando City Council to remove it.

“That statue in downtown Orlando, particularly at our iconic Lake Eola, was an inappropriate location for that statue,” he said. “Between 1877 and 1950, 34 black men were lynched in Orange County, Florida. That is what that statue was all about.”

People at Lake Eola Park were split on the move.

“I think it’s about time, a change of venue," said Ralph Briscoe, of Orlando. "I think this is indicative of something we kind of want to put in the past.”

Said Earline Blumhagen of Orlando: “Personally I don’t have a problem with the statue being there. Whatever represents for whatever people, that’s perfectly fine with me, because I don’t find it injurious.”

The city will build a base, reassemble and re-erect the statue at Greenwood, where a panel near the monument will help explain its historical context. The cost of moving the statue and rebuilding it at its new home will be around $120,000, the city said. The statue will be put in storage for about three weeks as the cemetery constructs a permanent base for the monument.

Nationwide, Confederate statues are being moved, some seeing them as reminders of a time when the country was racially divided.

Meanwhile, Porter is hoping his push to get action is a call for others to get involved in calling for change.

“The other thing I’m hoping is it will also inspire people to show that your voice does count. You can fight City Hall," Porter said.


Sky 13 was overhead Tuesday morning as a crane put the statue on a flatbed truck. (Sky 13)