St. Augustine

St. Augustine is steeped in history: at age 444 it has the longest history of any city in the United States. It was founded September 8, 1565, and named for the saint whose feast was that day. Under the control of Spain the settlement grew on this land that was first discovered by Ponce de Leon. In order to protect his settlement, Admiral Menendez had to fight off the French, Sir Francis Drake, hurricanes, fire, the British, piracy, and illegal trade. After control passed back and forth between countries, St. Augustine finally became part of the United States in 1821.

We were very fortunate to have E & B hosts there, but outside of town a few miles in the International World of Golf. This was a very interesting place where there is a big golf museum, streets dedicated to golfers, some retail stores dedicated specifically to golfers, and several world class golf courses, including Saw Grass. Our new friends Bill and Anita lived in a development close but not attached to the golf complex, for they were sailors, not golfers. Their home was built along a decorative lake and had a nice view out their family room. Their home still had that “new-just-built” smell, and better yet, a guest room with a new bed and its own bathroom. We slept like the weary travelers we were. We really enjoyed Bill and Anita as well as a dinner with them at a very fashionable and excellent restaurant on the bay.

Our visit of the historic town included most of the first buildings in the country. First we visited the Castill0 de San Marcos, an early fortress started in 1739 for defense. More than once the settlement hid behind the walls made of coquina, a soft limestone which contains pieces of shells and coral fragments. We saw a small wooden building built in the 1750's which is probably one of the oldest school buildings.

In addition to the first settlement artifacts, there are fantastic remains from the Henry Flagler era.

Flagler was a partner with Rockefeller in Standard Oil who looked for a warm winter resort for an ailing wife. (He had several wives.) After falling in love with the St. Augustine area, he built a beautiful hotel there, added a railroad, invited all his rich New York friends to spend a season there, and then added other hotels, churches, and services. The Ponce de Leon Hotel has beautiful Tiffany windows, Tiffany chandeliers, and beautiful carved woodwork. He later built the Alcazar Hotel, which had a 19^th century spa in it and a huge pool the size of a gym with a floating platform for a band to entertain diners on the surrounding decks. In 1948 Otto Lightner, publisher of Hobbies magazine, bought the building and turned it into a museum of his collections of collections. We enjoyed displays of Tiffany windows and glass, cigar wrappers, purses, toasters, as well as other objects. Then we visited the Cathedral and Basilica of St. Augustine built in 1887. All in all, it was a delightful visit to a town crammed with tourists and clanging tourist trains.