(April 10, 2012)
(March 07, 2012)
(Ladies tee-off in 1902 at the historically challenging Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine.)
With a name like Florida’s Historic Coast, it’s not surprising that nearly every
attraction has a long history. Golf is certainly no exception. Today, history is
made each year at THE PLAYERS Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach and the
ultimate shrine to the game and its greatest contributors is the World Golf Hall of
Fame in St. Augustine. But golf’s beginnings here go back much further to a time
when Henry Flagler transformed sleepy, little St. Augustine into a winter getaway
for the superstars of the Gilded Age. The 1888 opening of his magnificent Hotel
Ponce de Leon brought folks of incredible wealth and fame to the Oldest City to
enjoy the mild winter weather and an occasional round of golf. First, the grounds
of the historic Castillo de San Marcos were “modified” for challenging golf in a
memorable setting – including a 17th century moat as a trap. More courses were
to follow to set the stage for the area’s current status as one of the world’s great
golf destinations -- a place where even golf is not the same old story.
Not only does the 10th annual Florida’s Birding and Photo Fest offer great opportunities for capturing award-winning wildlife photos, it is headquartered at the University of Florida’s Whitney Lab in Marineland – the smallest municipality in Florida (pop. 10). For decades, Marineland was the number one tourist destination in Florida because it was home to “Marineland” the world’s first oceanarium. In fact, the word “oceanarium” was created there to describe the attraction.
It opened in 1938 under the name Marine Film Studios -- 30,000 people showed up the first day. In its earlier days, the oceanarium was the set for Tarzan movies, a favorite drinking spot for Ernest Hemingway, a set for Revenge of the Creature From the Black Lagoon (featuring the very first on-screen appearance by Clint Eastwood) and later was the setting for numerous episodes of the TV series Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges and ABC’s Benji. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, Marineland has become part of the Georgia Aquarium and is known as the Dolphin Adventure at Marineland. Instead of the stadium-style performing dolphin shows of old, the “new” Marineland is strictly a swim-with-the-dolphins experience. For more information, go to www.marineland.net
The city may look like Spain, but every once in awhile, the breeze seems to be blowing from the Emerald Isle. That’s not unusual because throughout the 250 years when St. Augustine was part of the Spanish Empire, many of its leading citizens were as Irish as the Blarney Stone.
Admiral Pedro Menendez, who founded St. Augustine in 1565, was from the kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing Asturias region of Spain and his red hair and blue eyes were among his most distinguishing features. Five of St. Augustine’s Spanish mayors were Irish, several of the military governors of La Florida were Irish officers and Irish units of the Spanish Army were frequently stationed at the city’s Castillo de San Marcos.
Father Miguel O’Reilly supervised the construction of the city’s Cathedral (1793-1797). His predecessor was Father Miguel Crosby. Father Richard Arthur was the parish priest from 1598-1606. Of course, he was known around town as “Padre Ricardo Artur”.
So the next time you visit St. Augustine, be sure to celebrate the town’s Irish heritage with a nice pint of Guinness or a pitcher of Sangria -- either is certainly historically correct.
For nearly two centuries, lovers have strolled hand in hand atop St. Augustine's historic seawall. It's the perfect pathway to romance, especially when the walk occurs at dusk when the stars begin to sparkle and the rising moon reflects on the dark waters that happily splash against the wall's ancient coquina stones. Extending from St. Francis Barracks, site of a mission established by the Franciscans in 1577, northward along Avenida Menendez to the Castillo de San Marcos, the seawall provides a solid barrier between Matanzas Bay and the low-lying historic center of old St. Augustine.
Although various Spanish versions of the wall stretch back into antiquity, much of the current seawall was constructed between 1833 and 1844 as an engineering project for recent graduates of the United States Military Academy. Despite its no-nonsense military construction, the four young lieutenants who designed the wall did so with romance in mind.
At that time, young men and women went on dates accompanied by a chaperone, usually an elderly lady whose primary role was to quickly and thoroughly extinguish any spark of romance that might occur on her watch. In the name of love, the frustrated officers designed a seawall that was only wide enough to accommodate two people walking side by side: the two young people, with the annoying chaperone trailing behind. Unfortunately, after the wall was completed, the officers of the town quickly found they had sadly underestimated the tenacity of chaperones. The strolling couples atop the seawall were composed of a young lady and a chaperone – with the young man left to shuffle along behind!
Today, Henry Flagler’s former Alcazar Hotel is the home of the magnificent Lightner Museum and its world-class collection of late 19th century Americana. Although the museum now has the hushed atmosphere of a library, in its heyday as the Alcazar it was far from quiet. The Alcazar was a place for fun and rooms at a more economical rate that at the opulent Ponce de Leon Hotel across the street. In fact, 123 years ago this month workmen were feverishly putting the finishing touches on one of the Alcazar Hotel’s many amenities -- a health center complete with Russian baths, Turkish baths and a steam room to be enjoyed by some America’s wealthiest men.
Combined with the world’s largest indoor swimming pool, casino, bowling alley and archery range, the Alcazar was perfect for entertaining the well-heeled gentleman of the Gilded Age. Although preserved just as it was when it opened on February 22, 1889, the health center is often overlooked by museum visitors. Those who do wander in can’t help but be amazed by the array of bizarre devices that apparently were part of the “treatment”. There are tubs that seem less than inviting, a metal scaffolding that emitted steam and the control box for a Russian bath complete with an array of valves, faucets, gauges and hoses with a variety of probe-like instruments attached.
Some of the uses of these seemingly medieval devices have been lost to history. It’s obvious, however, that the marble benches arranged on three levels were perfect for relaxing or recovering from the “treatment”. Make sure the Lightner Museum is on your “must see” list for a visit to St. Augustine. And don’t forget to see the steam room – you’ll be enlightened, amused and perhaps a little disturbed.
As you would expect, St. Augustine’s Lightner Museum is a quiet place. For visitors, the experience of coming into close contact with artifacts attesting to the heyday of America’s Gilded Age is one that is almost silently reverential. What a difference 100 years have made!
Prior to becoming the Lightner Museum in 1948, this building was the Alcazar Hotel, built by Henry Flagler and opened to his guests in 1888. The Alcazar offered a lively and often noisy alternative to Flagler’s magnificent and formal Ponce de Leon Hotel located just across the street. Business tycoons and royalty came to the Alcazar for fun at its bowling alley, archery range, steam baths, cinema and perhaps most appealingly, its huge indoor swimming pool – one of the largest in the world at the time.
Long-since drained, the pool today is the location of antique shops and a place where diners can sit at tables in what was formerly the pool’s deep end. Until the Alcazar closed in 1931, the waters of the deep end were the setting for an unforgettable New Year’s Eve tradition. At the stroke of midnight, dashing young men attending the hotel’s annual ball and dressed in their finest tuxedos, top hats and tails would dive headlong into the pool – some from an overlooking balcony or from a rope swing. Accompanied by the orchestra’s rendition of Auld Lang Syne and the cheers and laughter of female spectators, the “performance” of the elegantly-clad divers was a major topic of conversation for both participants and onlookers for weeks to come into the New Year.
When it comes to attractions in St. Augustine, it's difficult to find a visitor to the oldest city who hasn't walked along St. George Street, the nine-block, pedestrian-only thoroughfare that's famous for its shops and restaurants. But few visitors walk the street southward from the Plaza de la Constitucion. If they did, shortly after they pass the distinctive Villa Flora at 234 St. George Street they would see a small marker that shows the location of the first hospital in the United States - Nuestra Senora de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude).
Established in 1597, the hospital served the needs of the military forces and civilians of St. Augustine for many decades. Because of St. Augustine's remote location, the hospital often had no doctor. When it did, the doctor was usually a "barber-surgeon" in the Spanish navy or army or a doctor who had been captured or shipwrecked nearby. More often than not, the hospital staff consisted of elderly soldiers, convicts sentenced to the town and female black slaves.
Although the hospital has long since disappeared, just a block east of the site at 3 Aviles Street is the Spanish Military Hospital Museum that depicts the recovery room for a hospital that stood on that same spot in 1791. Surprisingly, records show the recovery rate for surgery patients here was about 70 percent at a time when the best the British could achieve was 30 percent. Why? Because the Spanish washed their hands and sterilized their instruments before performing surgery - they had learned that essential technique from the Moors two hundred years earlier!
Visitors to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum not only enjoy the magnificent view from the top of the distinctive black-white tower, they learn about the important role played by lighthouses in the nation’s maritime history. What they don’t often learn about are the spirits that reportedly haunt the keeper’s house and tower. Maybe that’s because visitors are on the site in the bright Florida sunshine. But after darkness falls and everyone has gone for the day, the permanent “residents” begin to roam the grounds – at least until the sweeping beam of the tower’s light high above snaps off at dawn. Then, only faint traces of their presence are left to greet the staff as they arrive. Sometimes it’s the wet footprints on a wooden floor where three young girls played – before they were drowned in a tragic lighthouse accident in 1874. Sometimes it’s the strong odor of tobacco smoke when the door to the tower is unlocked for the morning – a reminder of a deceased keeper and his pipe. Sometimes the evidence is provided by visitors who arrive later in the day. For example, visitors have remarked that, not knowing the Lighthouse was locked for the night, they had come by the previous evening and while there had spoken with a very friendly family seated in a large swing on the front porch. When questioned, they describe the family as being very authentic re-enactors dressed in 19th century clothing. Lighthouse staff is there to talk about maritime history, not ghosts, so they never mention the swing was removed decades ago or that the archives include a photo taken in about 1880 that depicts the family in the swing just as were seen the night before.
Its view overlooking the ocean and centuries-old town nearby is unrivaled. It reaches 280-feet skyward as a symbol of history, tradition and spiritual power. It is the Great Cross of St. Augustine.
In 1565, a Spanish admiral named Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed along the shoreline where the Great Cross stands today. After sending soldiers to fortify the area, Menendez himself came ashore, planted a wooden cross and celebrated the first actual Thanksgiving on American soil. And it was there he would establish a city, thriving still today, that we call St. Augustine.
When the Great Cross was erected in 1965, coinciding with St. Augustine's 400th Anniversary, it was built to last. Assembled from concrete, stainless steel panels and inscribed granite slabs, the structure weighed in at 70 tons. Such stalwart construction was required both because of its height and the region's tropical weather.
For those of faith, the Great Cross represents Christianity's beginnings in America. For history buffs, it marks the founding of America's oldest city. And for all of us, it towers overhead as the tallest freestanding cross in the Western Hemisphere.
So, on your next visit to Florida's Historic Coast, glance eastward to the coast and look for a gold cross rising above the tree line. Then head to the foot of the Great Cross, and imagine the scene of Menendez's landing. It's just one more reason why our history is not the same old story.
Well here's a Red Couch Chronicle story you won't hear on any tour. It all happened in the beautiful rotunda of the Ponce de Leon Hotel, now Flagler College. It was the funeral of one of America's most influential entrepreneurs, Henry Flagler. As the tale goes, during the May funeral, a strong and totally unexpected wind suddenly slammed shut the huge wooden entry doors and windows of the hotel. At that moment, a white puff or smoke ascended from Flagler's coffin and climbed to the top of the rotunda where it swirled about before diving headlong into the floor in front of a crowd of stunned mourners.
Upon inspecting the area of the floor where the smoke disappeared, the witnesses were amazed to discover that one of the tiny mosaic tiles that comprised the floor bore a remarkable resemblance to Henry Flagler himself. It is believed by many that his spirit, having no escape because the doors and windows were closed, made its home in the tile floor of his beloved hotel forever.
Today, you can take a tour of Flagler College and the rotunda. However, it's doubtful you'll get much if any detail about what really happened that day in 1913, or an explanation for why that tiny piece of tile looks so remarkably like Henry Flagler. No, stories from Florida's Historic Coast can only be found here, in the Red Couch Chronicles, which is all-together appropriate when you consider that our history is not the same old story.
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