St. Augustine Florida, A Great Place To Visit!. Review on Florida

My husband and I recently went to St. Augustine Florida for a couple of days while he was on vacation, just to get away from home for a little bit. You see we are only 45 minutes away from St. Augustine and we can go at anytime. However, we don’t, but I sure do wish that we did. This is a wonderful place to go!

A Little History

St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States. For 235 years it was the political, military and religious capital of the Province of Florida form which Spain exercised jurisdiction over a vast region.

Now the old streets of St. Augustine are narrow because the Spaniards believed that the sea breeze would help keep things cooler with a narrow street, which it did, but they also believed the narrow streets would make it harder for the enemy to get down into the city. There are several houses that you will see that have no doors opening out into the streets. The Spaniards designed the houses like this to keep the enemy out as well.

Ponce de Leon name Florida, “La Florida” in 1513 a few years before St. Augustine was founded by Menendez. Menendez built the Castillo de san Marcos Fort, which was never and has never been taken. And in 1821 Spain cedes Florida to The United States. And that is when St. Augustine became a part of the United States of America.

The Old Jail and St. Augustine’s Florida Heritage Museum

The Old Jail was completed in 1891 and housed prisoners for over 60 years. It is massive Queen Anne style stucco on brick building and on the National Registry of Historic Places. It is one of the few surviving 19th century facilities in the state and is the oldest government building in St. John’s County Florida. When you take this tour will see the inside of the jail in which you will see the sheriff’s quarters where he and his family lived adjacent from the prisoners. You will also see cells for both male and female. You will also learn about the Justice System during that time period. And you can get your picture taken with Big Joe, the last Sheriff on the Old Jail. He was 6’8” and weight 320 lbs.

St. Augustine’s Florida Heritage Museum is the history of civilized men on the continent, which began here at the Oldest City in the United States. At the Heritage Museum you will see a timeline of St. Augustine where you will learn how the city grew and prospered under the Spanish, British, French and American rule. These events shaped the State of Florida over 4 centuries. This was also the building of Flagler’s Railroad that started here and ended up in Key West Florida.

Flagler College

The Flagler College use to be the Ponce de Leon Hotel. Henry Flagler built it as a hobby, he thought it would be fun to own a hotel. When he got through with it, he had dumped more than 2 million dollars into it and only the wealthy could afford to stay there. The hotel is the first to have working water and lights. Thomas Edison came and designed the lights and water system for the hotel. The hotel is lined with 24 carat gold overlay through out. To build the hotel today it would cost over a billion dollars. The walls are 12 inches thick and were poured one foot at the time. As were building during that time because that was the only way. You can see the lines in the walls on each of the block poured buildings, which indicate that they were built during that time period. Built in 1887/88.

The dining room seated over 800 guest and has stained glass windows by Tiffany, which are still there today. Those windows are worth over 25 million dollars today. They are surrounded by bulletproof glass to protect them, they are still in their original origin and are over 100 years old! The dinning room is still used today by college students around the world. Some of the original chairs are still used as well. This dinning room is to die for! There are 16 points in the dinning room that your conversation can be heard, even a whisper! Flagler designed it this way because he was nosey of people’s business.

The college now allows you to tour certain parts. We first got to see the “lobby” of the hotel. The ceilings in each room are magnificent! I can’t even describe them there are so beautiful and breathtaking. The tile on the lobby floor was laid by 50 men working 8-hour shifts around the clock, totaling 150 men. When the floor was completed Flagler was told it was the most perfect floor ever seen. Well he would not have that! because to be perfect was to be like God, and he said that no one is like God (and we are not!) So, he changed two pieces of tile in the floor to make the floor imperfect. (Perhaps one day you can see which two pieces were changed)

The hotel rooms are now dorms for the students and you must have at least a B average to attend the college. Liberal Arts only! It houses around 1800 students year round. Each room has it’s own fireplace as well. Flagler believed that when people came to stay for the winter months, which was Jan. to April, that they should have their own attendant. The hotel held 700 or so guest at one time and each one of them had their own attendant for the duration of their stay. This attendant took care of each need of the family they were assigned, even in the middle of the night!

The Lightner Museum

This was once a hotel as well. Flagler had it built so that those who could not afford the Ponce de Leon Hotel would have a place to stay. William Lightner bought it from the Flagler family and later it was turned into his museum where you can see wonderful, old, expensive items from all over the world that he purchased or things that were given to him as gifts. This is one of the most expensive displays of items in the country. It is highly guarded. The world’s oldest and largest pool is here. There is a ballroom on the top floor and you can look down and see the old pool. The pool area is now covered with shops. The pool was a block long. There are weddings held there today on the outside grounds. And Lightner is buried on the grounds. In the time Flagler built it you could stay there for $4.00 a day. The Ponce de Leon would cost you $25.00 a day, payable in advance and no refunds! You have to remember in 1887, when the Ponce de Leon was finished, that was a lot of money.

How I feel

We really enjoyed walking down St. George Street. And it was great to hear about the history once again. The churches that Henry Flagler had built or helped to build are just beautiful. He had a church built in memory of his only daughter and granddaughter, who died. The baby 2 days after the birth, and the daughter within 2 weeks of childbirth. The Presbyterian Church was built just under a year and is still used today. Flagler paid over 1 million dollars to have it built, and he gave the men a big bonus for building it just under a year. There were 10,000 men who worked around the clock 24/7.

Flagler and his daughter and one of his wives are buried there inside the church. So is the baby. There is a place for his estranged son. The church has the oldest Organ with over 10,000 organ pipes in the States. And to hear it is just simply one of the best things you will ever hear. The inside of this church is one of the most beautiful that I have seen in the States.

I hope that this has helped in some kind of way.

God Bless!

©LKD 2002