Petersontravels

Our guide on our first day advised that Flagler College offers tours of the main building that are led by students, so we booked this on our last day.  We were a bit early so I took a few photos of the impressive former Ponce de Leon Hotel, built by Henry Flagler in 1888.  Flagler made his riches as the co-founder of Standard Oil (along with John D. Rockefeller).  That’s Henry right up front!

This is the ceiling inside the lobby known as the rotunda.  It was like something you’d see in a cathedral!  Flagler spared no expense building the hotel, including having the place wired for electricity.  This was one of the first buildings to do so, all under the supervision of his friend Thomas Edison.  This was such a new technology that that the hotel had staff that would go up to guests rooms and turn the lights on and off, as the guests were afraid they were going to get electrocuted by the light switch.

When Henry’s guests arrived the men went to check in and pay their bill, while the ladies were taken to the gorgeous Women’s Grand Parlor, a reception area where they were served tea and crumpets.  The chandeliers throughout the hotel were created by the famous Louis Comfort Tiffany, and his work here was instrumental on his path to fame.

Thomas Edison also installed this massive clock for Flagler.  It’s unfortunately no longer working, and they don’t want to try and fix it and take a chance on destroying the intricately carved white onyx surrounding it.

We were then taken to the Dining Room which served 300 seated guests, each table with their own waiter.  The more than 40 windows in this room were all created by Tiffany.  The exterior of these windows are all covered by bulletproof glass to ensure they aren’t damaged by a hurricane.

Tiffany also created this unique chandelier in the middle of the dining room, as well as the sconces that line the wall around the room.  This is now the dining room for the students at Flagler.

The final part of our tour was in the outside courtyard.  These ornate depressions in the wall of the courtyard were filled with water and served as ashtrays.

This fountain in the middle of the courtyard is also a working sundial, and the frogs that surround the fountain work as the hour markers.  The four turtles in the middle represent the seasons.

This statue is fairly new, depicting Henry with his beloved German spitz, Delos, which was constantly by his side in his later years.  Anybody who loves dogs can’t be bad!

One last look of the courtyard.  Be warned, this is a favorite spot for Instagrammers!

Directly across the street from Flagler College is Henry Flagler’s second hotel, which at the time was known as Hotel Alcazar.  It now houses the Lightner Museum, and while we didn’t visit the museum, we visited the site of Flagler’s giant swimming pool, which he completed in 1889.

This photo shows what the pool looked like in 1889.  At that time it was the largest indoor swimming pool in the world!  More than just for swimming, the pool was used for entertainment, with high dives, swings hanging from the rafters, water polo and bathtub races.

This bell on the grounds of our hotel was used in January of 1863 to call people to this site to announce President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all of the slaves.

This beautiful building is The Treasury, which opened in 1927 as the area’s central bank.  It is now used primarily as a wedding venue.

This is the entrance of the previously mentioned oldest street in America, Aviles Street, taken from the central plaza.

On our last night we walked to a restaurant in the Lincolnville Historic District, where many civil rights demonstrations were held in 1964.  This house is owned by Cora Tyson, who hosted Martin Luther King several times when he stayed in St. Augustine, and made it his local headquarters.  The home was once firebombed and King himself was assaulted here.  Cora Tyson is 102 years old and still lives here.

Up next, our final stop on Amelia Island, Florida.

 

 

 

 

To round out our first day we visited Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the United States.  Construction of the fort started in 1672 and was completed in 1695.  It’s design is similar to the Spanish fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico, although much smaller.

The interior of the fort was unfortunately closed due to the “Schumer Shutdown”, but you could still walk around the exterior.

The current fort replaced the original wooden fort that was burned down by the English in 1668.  The fort was constructed with “coquina”, a local sedimentary rock that is composed of crushed seashells compressed over thousands of years.  This made for a much stronger fort that couldn’t be burned down.  It was also able to withstand cannon shots, as the cannon balls would just sink into the walls, rather than shatter them.  Many of the buildings in St. Augustine from the 1600’s up to 1930 were also built with coquina.  Here is a close up photo of the wall of the fort, with what is likely a hole created by a cannonball, as this fort was attacked several times.

Adjacent to the fort is the “Old City Gate”, which is at the entrance to St. George Street, the most popular tourist street in St. Augustine.  It’s kinda like Bourbon Street without the sleaze.  Note the gate is constructed of coquina, just, like the fort.

On our second day we decided to take a Trolley Tour, which makes a stop at Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth!  The trolley is a good way to get around to the various St. Augustine attractions, particularly if you only have a day or two.

The Fountain of Youth is a mystical spring which supposedly restores the youth of anybody that drinks or bathes in it.  Such a fountain has been legend since the 5th century BC, and became prominent in the 16th century when Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon traveled to Florida from Puerto Rico.  Legend has it this is the spot where he landed, discovering this still active spring in 1513.  You can drink from the spring today!  This is the oldest attraction in Florida, with guest books dating back to 1868.

Next to the fountain is this cross made of coquina, which was discovered during some construction in 1916, buried 3 feet underground.  This cross is 15 stones high and 13 stones across , indicating the date of 1513 and is thought to be a religious marker from Ponce de Leon’s expedition, making it the oldest known European artifact in the United States.

Adjacent to the building housing the spring is the Navigator’s Planetarium, with a short show describing how early Spanish and Portuguese explorers navigated  across the Atlantic using the night sky.

Another exhibit is the Discovery Globe, a 30 foot tall globe that depicts Columbus’ voyages by using navigation and the trade winds.  This giant lit up globe debuted at the park in 1959, and was considered an incredible use of technology at that time.  Pretty cool from a nostalgic standpoint!

A short walk towards the bay is this statue of the famous explorer Ponce de Leon.  Gotta admit he looks kinda short!

They have an hourly display of old weapons as well as a cannon firing.  This guy was showing the mechanics of a period crossbow, which was often used at the time as they could be loaded and fired more quickly and worked effectively when it was wet.  The cannon they load with powder is a replica of the cannons that were first brought to this site.  It was plenty loud, and they only used a fraction of the powder that would have been used in the 15th century.

There is a replica Spanish Lookout that provides a good overview of the grounds.  The area in the foreground is the actual first location of St. Augustine, where Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles established a settlement in 1565.  This was 55 years before the Pilgrims arrived and 78 years before the founding of Jamestown.  The park has conducted archeological excavations here since 1934.

This is the view of Matanzas Bay from the lookout.  Matanzas mean’s “slaughter” in Spanish, and it’s so named as in 1565 the Spanish murdered French settlers who attempted to settle in the same area as the Spanish city of St. Augustine.  It’s quite odd to know there is a winery in California called Matanzas Creek?

Back at our accommodation, The Collector Inn, I took this photo at this historic site where it was announced in January 1863 that slavery was over by the ringing of this bell.

On our way to dinner that night I took this photo of the Treasury Building, one of the most iconic buildings on the St. Augustine skyline.

After dinner, this being Halloween night we saw several bands playing music, this one in the front yard of their house.

Then this one in a popular bar on St. George Street.

Coming up, we tour Flagler College and visit a couple more famous sites in St. Augustine!