Wednesday – Saturday, April 10-13, 2019
There is so much to do and see and say about St. Augustine that we don’t know where to start! In fact there is so much there that we decided to stay an extra day!
And so, we’ll start with a history lesson…
Florida’s indigenous people, (Muspa, Calusa, Timucua, Ais, Apalachee, Tequesta, and many, many more...) lived here for thousands of years before Florida was “discovered” by Juan Ponce de León for Spain 1513. What about Columbus? Well, we all know that in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but he was looking for the Indies and did not even realize these continents existed, therefore he “discovered” the West Indies. Ponce De León was actually with Columbus on one of the 16 ships during the second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, but decided to stay in Hispaniola (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) when Columbus returned to Spain. He eventually led several small expeditions for the King of Spain from Hispaniola and (what is now) Puerto Rico, where he established the first European settlement and became its governor. While he was searching for gold (and possibly the Fountain of Youth) in 1513, Ponce de León claimed “La Florida” (thinking it was an island) for Spain, during the first official European expedition to North America. He disembarked in the area of what is now St. Augustine. Legend has it that he thought he’d found the Fountain of Youth, a spring that he’d been told about time and again by many islanders. Although he drank from the spring, it had no effect, much to his disappointment.
Moving ahead 52 years to 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine for Spain at La Florida, where Ponce de León had first landed. The city is now the longest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental U.S. and recently (2015) celebrated its 450 years of existence! When we went through Pensacola on the panhandle of Florida last December, we learned that they would like to lay claim to the “oldest city” distinction except their settlement, established in 1559, was abandoned after two years and not re-established until the late 1600s. Between founding St. Augustine and the revival of Pensacola, all of Spain’s attempts at settling the coast from South Carolina, Georgia and all around Florida were unsuccessful.
[History lesson concluded.]
We arrived on choppy seas that had just picked up over the last hour of our trip. The crew at the marina was excellent and on-hand to help us dock in the wind. We found at least three more AGLCA boats there and one was our friends from The Journey, Dale & Merna! Like us, D & M are former sailors, but unlike us, they’d sailed here several times in their pre-loop life. They showed us the ropes with cocktails and appetizers at the A1A Ale House across the street from the marina. Afterwards, they took us to O.C. White’s outdoor patio to experience the live music and after-appetizer drinks. (Something was missing – dinner maybe?) A fun time was had by all!
They (& others) had suggested taking the hop-on / hop-off trolley to see many of the places around St. Augustine, so that’s what we did the next morning. Out of the many things we observed during our visit, here are a few of the standouts. (Be prepared, these will also include historical information and maybe more than you want to read. Nevertheless, it will be a way for us to remember years from now… since the Fountain of Youth is really just a legend after all! :-) )
1. The “Senator”
A live oak tree that is over 600 years old (verified by specialists) which means it was here well before the Spaniards arrived! Now, it actually sits on the property of a Howard Johnsons Hotel. The average life span of the Southern Live Oak is 200-300 years, so it is really old, though there are some in America that are said to be close to 1000 years old. The trolley driver told us they named the tree the old “Senator” because it’s old, crooked and shady! Ha! …those crazy trolley drivers!
2. Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Youth_Archaeological_Park)
(https://www.fountainofyouthflorida.com/)
We also spent some time at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. After learning about Ponce de León and the fountain of youth legend, we drank from the spring said to be the actual spring he drank from. We, too, were disappointed just as Ponce de León was many years ago. Even more interesting were the exhibits of the Timucua Indians and Spanish settlers’ lives, tools, equipment and processes. Since the 1990s, there have been archaeological excavations on the grounds which have unearthed remains of the first Spanish settlement in St. Augustine, including a graveyard of Indians who had converted to Christianity.
By the way, as we were heading through town on a trolley, the driver was describing a tour group up ahead in the next block as “the group from the retirement village that had just come from the Fountain of Youth Park” - naturally when we got closer, we could see it was a group of school kids about 10 years old! Those trolley drivers were a hoot!
3. Villa Zorayda https://villazorayda.com/
The Villa Zorayda is listed on the US Registry of Historic Places. Though no photography was allowed inside, we went on a self-guided audio tour of this three-story home built in 1883 for Franklin Smith. He based much of it on parts of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Smith wanted to bring part of Spain to St. Augustine, considering its Spanish heritage, and to educate his visitors about different cultures from around the world. Having seen the amazing Alhambra in Spain, we were impressed with some of the intricate patterns within the home and learned that some walls were made in Spain from the original Alhambra traceries and shipped here for this home!
The museum has had a variety of uses since it was built: the Smith family residence, a restaurant and social club, sold to Abraham Mussallem (Lebanese authority on oriental rugs and Egyptian artifacts) in 1913, gambling casino and speak-easy, Mussallem family home, turned into a museum in 1933, after restoration from 2000-2008, it reopened and is still under the guardianship of the Mussallem family/heirs for over 106 years now.
The house is built around a central atrium (the Court of Lions) and filled with many antique and museum quality pieces gathered over the years from around the world by Smith and the Mussallem family. One piece, which was borrowed by the Egyptian government to display at the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, is the “Sacred Cat Rug.” It is over 2400 years old and made from the hair of ancient cats that roamed the Nile River, as proven through modern analysis. It was found wrapped around a mummified human foot. (Eeeuuuww!) Naturally this rug came with a curse – anyone who carelessly sets foot on this rug will die soon afterwards. It is also rumored that during the rug’s last restoration, a dead cat was found stretched out on the front steps of the museum! (Oooooo – spooky!)
4. Flagler College
https://www.flagler.edu/about-flagler/history/hotel-ponce-de-leon/
http://easytolinger.com/flagler-college-florida-ep-14-notes-pictures/
We were going to skip the tour of Flagler College until we learned that viewing the original Tiffany windows was not to be missed.
The college is named for Henry Flagler, an industrialist, railroad pioneer and entrepreneur who partnered with John D. Rockefeller to found the Standard Oil Company. Flagler built the Hotel Ponce de León from 1885 to 1887, opening in January of 1888. It is the first major poured-in-place concrete building (a mixture of cement, sand and coquina) in the United States, which Flagler learned from a friend’s (Franklin Smith, see #2 above) use of the technique at Villa Zorayda as a way to prevent the destruction of buildings from fire. It’s also one of our nation’s first electrified buildings, with steam heat and 4,000 electric lights powered by his friend’s company - the Edison Electric Company. Louis Comfort Tiffany is credited with the building’s interior design including the stained glass windows and mosaics.
Among other Tiffany items, there are 87 Tiffany windows surrounding the dining hall which are (only!) insured for $100 million, due to the repetitive design. To preserve them, bullet-proof glass was installed outside and some kind of plexiglass on the inside. They are beautiful! The hotel, which catered to the wealthy as a winter resort, stopped operating in 1967 and reopened as Flagler College in 1968 for women only, until it became coed in 1971. The hotel itself is now the college’s centerpiece and is called the Ponce de León Hall. There is much more to the former hotel, but we will leave that to our photos.
5. Castillo de San Marco
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/florida/articles/a-brief-history-of-castillo-de-san-marcos-florida/
The first several Spanish forts at this site were created out of wood and destroyed by fire. The fort that exists today was built from coquina, a semi-rare stone composed of ancient shells from shellfish, ground and compressed over time, giving the material a compressible nature. Because of this, it would absorb the blasts of cannon balls rather than explode into pieces. It’s status as a military post began along with its construction in 1672, though it was not completed until 1695. It is the only 17th-century military structure in the nation and the oldest US masonry fortress. Although it’s been occupied by various cultures (Spanish, British, and the US), the fort has never been invaded, most likely due to its unique walls. It was said that the fort occupants would go out at night to retrieve cannonballs stuck in the walls, repair the wall so the hole was not visible, then shoot the enemy’s own cannonballs back at them the next day!
We watched the firing of a Spanish cannon, both in drill-mode and actual fighting mode, by men who dressed the parts of a Spanish cannon team in the 17th century. During the drill, following the old Spanish drill commands, it took over 5 minutes from beginning the process to firing. Then to complete the process, they pull the cannon back from the wall and wipe down the surfaces – inside and out - to prevent stray gunpowder or pieces of metal from causing injury - though that didn’t always work back in the day. That part of the process took another 3-4 minutes. Through the use of drills, the process became automatic for the cannon teams to carry out their duties during battle. When the steps were performed as if in battle, it took about a minute or so to fire the cannon and a little less to finish the post-firing steps. Yes, it was really loud! In fact, they inserted an extra command, in English, shouted by the entire team to the crowd just before lighting the gunpowder: “Cover your ears!”
6. St Augustine Distillery http://staugustinedistillery.com/
We were pleasantly surprised toward the end of the day to find a distillery along the trolley’s path. So, we hopped-off!
The St. Augustine Distillery is a new business created by a focused and fun group of people interested in craft spirits and the use of local sustainable products (grains, citrus, etc). They found a location for their distillery in the old Florida Power & Light Ice Plant that was built in 1907, which “was the first of its kind to make commercial block ice in Florida over 100 years ago.”
During the free tour, our host Amber, provided us with both interesting and informative background about the company and the process. The tour ended with tastings (shot glass size) of 4 drinks made from their own Gin, Vodka, Rum and their main product, Bourbon. Then you could choose to try each of their most popular bourbons neat (1/4 of a shot glass) in the store that was connected to the distillery.
Naturally, we bought a bottle of their really smooth bourbon, as well as their Old Fashioned mix and Florida Mule mix. It was a relaxing way to end the day … and then we hopped-on a trolley and headed back to the boat for an Old Fashioned docktail with our new supplies. :-)