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Published: February 20th 2009
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St. Augustine
One of the many doorways in the Old Spanish Quarter, now a lovely maze of novel shops and storefronts. Friday, February 6, 2009
It dawned sunny and windy which, to our chilled disappointment, considerably lowered the temperature. But we persevered and wore multiple layers of jackets so we could peel off if it warmed up during the day, ... it didn't.
We drove the rental car north to St. Augustine, taking about an hour to get there. To our chagrin, we had to buy a disposible camera when we realized we had forgotten our own back at the camper. Then we had to find a place where we could locate a tour company and park our car while we rode the open-air trolly. Nathanael and I really enjoyed the descriptive dialogue from the tour guide about the old city. We learned many things regarding this ancient Spanish colony, the absolute first in the United States.
For example, ..... Florida was first discovered by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in April 1513 while searching for the famed isle of Bimini. He noticed that the Timucuan Indians of the region were surprisingly young looking for their age and attributed it to the waters of a local spring. He determined this to be the fabled "Fountain of Youth."
"Mission of Nombre de Dios"
The founding site of St. Augustine - September 8, 1565 - 434 years, to the day, before Nathanael was born. There is now a National Archeological Park on the site. One thing we found out that was really neat was that, as captain, Ponce de Leon was the tallest man on his ship and he was only 4' 11" tall. Spanish men in those days were measured from the soles of their feet to the top of their hat! There is a life-sized statue of Ponce de Leon in the town square and it is
really small!!!
Another example, ..... Not many people are aware that the first actual colonists in America were Spanish who landed at St. Augustine on September 8, 1565
(434 years to the day before Nathanael was born) and celebrated a "Thanksgiving" feast with the Indians of the region,
decades before the Pilgrims even arrived at Plymouth Rock. (Just think, if the government recognized that celebration, the Americans would be celebrating their Thanksgiving in September instead of the crazy month of November like they do now.) The Mission Nombre de Dios in now located on the point of land where they came ashore. In 1965, St. Augustine's 400th birthday, the city erected the "Great Cross" on the grounds of the mission. It is 208 feet
St. Augustine's City Gates
The original gates from the old city still stand. Made of coquina they are almost indestructible. tall, weighs 70 tons, and is the second tallest free-standing cross in the western hemisphere. We were told that many local residents claim St. Augustine has not been hit by a major hurricane since the Great Cross was erected.
St Augustine was a walled city and the original gates to the old Spanish quarter still stand. The oldest wooden school house of its era is situated in the town. The oldest house in all of the United States is also located here, built in the early 1700's. There is a Spanish fort, begun in 1672, called Castillo de San Marcos (St. Mark's Castle), which changed from Spanish, to English, to American hands over the many years it actually served as a defensive battlement . The fort is made of coquina, a local rock composed of tiny seashells concreted together beneath the sea. When it is mined and still damp, it is very maleable, but once it hardens, it is extremely impermeable, even to canon fire. We think we have found a sample of it for our rock collection at home.
Spanish rule in Florida came to an end on July 10, 1821 when American soldiers marched into St.
The Oldest Schoolhouse
This building is the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the United States. Inside there is a recreation of a class in progress with moving and talking statues. Augustine and were given the Castillo de San Marcos without a shot being fired. With the adoption of Tallahassee as Florida's capital, travelers, especially people suffering from tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments, came to Florida to escape the cold weather. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of these, as was Achille Murat, the nephew of Napoleon. I thought that was really neat.
There is an elaborately decorated home in St. Augustine called Villa Zorayda which is a scaled down version of the 12th century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. It is one of the first poured concrete homes in America and contains luxurious interior detail including tropical hardwood furniture and the "Sultan's Den" with a 2,300 year-old rug made from woven cat fur. It is now an intriguing museum and we wish we would have had time to tour it.
In 1884, a visitor to St. Augustine by the name of Henry M. Flagler (a co-founder of Standard Oil of New Jersey and one of the richest men in America), looked at St. Augustine as the setting for a business venture - the ultimate, American luxury resort. To turn his dream into reality, he invested mega-bucks into building
Castillo de San Marcos
This fort is made of coquina an amazing natural stone/shell substance. It even withstands the blast of canon fire. the Ponce de Leon Hotel. The hotel is built in the Spanish Renaissance style, its windows were created by
Louis Comfort Tiffany and the building was one of the first to have electrical lights. It is absolutely amazing and is now Flagler College. I wish we had been able to get a picture of this building. Mr. Flagler also built the Alcazar Hotel with one of the largest swimming pools in the world and a bowling alley. (It is now the Lightner Museum and Nathanael and I wish we would have had the time to tour it.) He bought a third hotel and renamed it the Cordova. He also built several magnificient churches, a hospital and the City Building.
Two of the sites we did get to tour as a part of our package were the "Old Jail" and the "Florida History Museum." The "sheriff's wife" gave us a tour of the jail. When the building was actually in use as a detention facility, the sheriff and his family lived in one half while the inmates were kept on the other side. The jail side of the building only had bars, no glass in the windows, so during the
Villa Zorayda
A distinctive building with exquisite moorish influences. Once a home it is now a museum. summer months all the bugs outside wouldn't be out there for long. And in the winter, it was a very cold place. They also used straw and Spanish moss, both full of biting bugs, in the mattresses so inmates would be covered with sores. Prisoners had to work twelve hours a day, ... women in the kitchen and men on the chain gang. I got to take a turn in the "cage" which was literally a cage that swung from a tree, for particularly difficult prisoners. The term "jail bird" came from this method of punishment. The bars and locking systems in this jail were formidable and there is no record of anyone ever escaping from it.
The Florida History Museum was interesting and told of the Timucuan Indians, the original Spanish settlers, the king's galleon ships, the "tin can" tourists and the Flagler era of wealth and industry. There is so much we didn't get to see, because of both time and budget. If you are going to visit St. Augustine, we would recommend you camp or hotel nearby and give yourself at least a week to tour the buildings and museums. A little bit every day. But
The Old Jail
Nathanael standing in front of the jail's garden yard. take the tour on the first day and pick out the things you really want to see. It is well worth while. We had a great day, it just wasn't long enough.
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Lynnette
non-member comment
St. Aug sounds great!
Hi friends - we have never been to this town but you have made it something I'd like to get us to Florida to visit. Thanks for all the hints and especially for the time and trouble to update this blog with the news and pictures. It almost feels like we are there with you! Your friends, Lynnette and Don Hupman