Historic St. Augustine FL [April 27 – May 1, 2016]

Castillo de San Marcos seen from the water

St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565.  Those of us educated in Virginia in the 1960’s were left with the impression that Jamestown VA was the oldest European colony, founded in 1604.  We were misled.  St. Augustine changed hands between Spain, the British, and the newly founded US quite a few times.  Residences and businesses in the old town reflect different architectural styles and different building materials as a result of these changes.

Castillo de San Marco seen from the land

Here are some of the things we did as we explored historic St. Augustine...

The moat around the Castillo could be drained and used to house livestock during a siege.

Castillo de San Marcos is a huge fort built with 400,000 blocks of locally quarried coquina stone.  Construction started in 1672 (107 years after the town was founded), making it the oldest masonry fort in North America.  It is the 11^th fort that defended the town from the sea.  After the first 10 burned down, they decided to build this massive fort of stone.  It was never defeated in battle or siege, though it did change hands through treaties.

Interior of the Castillo

The fort is now part of the National Park Service.  They have done a nice job with interpretive panels telling about the history of the town and the fort.  One sad time in the history of the fort (when it was called Fort Marion) was when Native American leaders like Oceola, members of Geronimo’s family, and other prisoners of war were imprisoned there.  You can see the remains of some of their drawings on the walls of a room.  A Native American art form called Ledger Art flourished here when the fort commander gave them paper and art supplies.

Preparing to fire the cannon.

On Fridays and Saturdays they shoot a cannon off the ramparts, using the process and commands (in Spanish) that the Spanish would have done.  There were tons of school groups there, and they really enjoyed the noise.  

View from the ramparts.

St. Augustine Gold Tour is a private tour company that takes you around in a 5 passenger (+ driver and tour guide Peter) electric golf cart.  The tour was fascinating, focusing on the history of the town, architectural styles, and archaeology of the town.  

Present-day Flagler College, former hotel built by Henry Flagler

We saw Flagler College, which is housed in a huge hotel that industrialist Henry Flagler built to attract tourists to St. Augustine.  Flagler is famous for building a railroad down the east coast of Florida all the way to Key West.  In fact, many of the bridges that connect the Keys are on the foundations of that original railroad.  We were tickled because a week or so before, we had visited Tampa University with Dana’s friend Linda.  Tampa U is housed in an enormous hotel that was built by Henry Plant who built a railroad down the west coast of Florida.  Both former hotels are enormous, and ornate in the style of the late 19^th century and have been converted for use by a college/university.  So much fun!

This was once an indoor swimming pool.

Flagler also built what was the largest indoor swimming pool for his guests in another hotel, Hotel Alcazar, which now houses the Lightner Museum.  The pool is now a restaurant with antique and other specialty shops along the side.  The floor still slopes from the shallow end to the deep end.

The oldest house in St. Augustine, lower level Spanish pueblo style, the upper level added after town became part of US.

Where a cannon ball hit a house during a siege.

The old city gates

St. George Street

After the tour we walked back through the old town and recognized architectural elements that Peter had pointed out to us.  It really made the town’s history come to life for us.  St. George Street is a pedestrian mall packed with tourists and shops selling all kinds of things of interest to tourists.  It also has ice cream shops, which we sampled several times.

A quiet residential street in old town.

Treasury Street is 7 feet wide, so that 2 men carrying a chest of gold could not be ambushed by a horse drawn carriage.

Scenic Cruise of St. Augustine gives you a nice 1 ¼ hour tour around St. Augustine harbor pointing out historical and current points of interest from a watery perspective.

Lion Bridge connects the town to Anastasia Island and the beaches.

St. Augustine Lighthouse is on Anastasia Island, the island that forms the seaward barrier forming the harbor for St. Augustine.  The lighthouse and light keeper’s homes were very lovely and well restored.  We didn’t walk up this lighthouse (a first for us) because we visited at the end of a long, foot-sore, hot day.  Interestingly, the lighthouse organization sponsors underwater archeology digs.  They have a very interesting exhibit in the basement of the light keeper’s house about what they have discovered.

The lighthouse viewed from the harbor.

Lighthouse and light keepers quarters