Fridge Henge, the assemblage of abandoned refrigerators at Wall and Division streets, is supposed to make an artistic statement. But some Parramore neighborhood leaders see it as nothing more than another racist insult.
"When I first saw that, I thought, ‘Someone's having a rummage sale,'" says Gerald Bell, an Orlando NAACP vice president. After realizing otherwise, Bell says, "I got a little incensed."
The appliance-store version of Stonehenge -- the prehistoric monument believed to have been built in 1500 B.C. in England -- was originally slated for Loch Haven Park, but this plan was rejected by the mayor's office. It was erected in late March in Parramore by artist Dan Erminger on a lot owned by Carolina-Florida Properties, the company in the process of demolishing the West Church Street business district to make way for an undetermined development.
"They did it because they could get away with it," Bell says. "Once again, people are dumping their stuff over there."