St. Augustine....

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in the nation, settled in 1565 after first being discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513!  Such history in these few square miles.  Let me share some of it with you.

St. Augustine began its renaissance in the 1800‘s with the arrival of Henry Flagler, the railroad tycoon.  Flagler constructed several decadent hotels including the Ponce de Leon hotel (now Flagler College), the Alcazar Hotel (now the city offices) and the Casa Monica (recently restored and returned to its roots as a beautiful hotel).    

The picture is the Alcazar Hotel.  Flagler built it as an entertainment hotel for guests at the Alcazar and at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.  It had a bowling alley and an indoor swimming pool to name a few.  Today, in addition to serving as the city offices, it is the venue for many weddings!

Casa Monica remains a hotel today!  It is absolutely spectacular!  We didn’t find out what a room rate is for a night but I am sure it is more than the Hampton! 

By far the highlight of our sight seeing was seeing the Ponce de Leon hotel that now is part of the Flagler College.  It is the picture shown at the beginning of the post and here.  Today it is a girls dormitory.  How lucky are these girls to be able to call this home for their college years.  The wiring in the hotel was done by Thomas Edison himself.

Above is the dome in the entry.  Anything you see that is gold is really GOLD!

The dining hall that seats 600 served in its day as both a formal dining hall and ballroom. 

The windows were done by Louis Tiffany, you know that name.  It is said to be one of his first if not his first project.  As you can see the windows are magnificent!!!!!

Moving on to other sights in St. Augustine.......we visited the oldest jail where Ken was arrested and locked in the bird cage cell.  The jail was actually used until 1953.  Per the jailers wife above, it was hot, stinky and a horrible place to be .  Fortunately she let Ken off easy!

You will be happy to know we both drank from the Fountain of Youth!  We will be around for many years to come as a result.  The story is that the Tumucuan Indians were living well into their 60’s while living in St. Augustine.  The white men were only living into their 40’s.  They figured it must be the water!  
We  finished our two days of seeing the sights with touring the oldest store, the oldest school, the catholic cathedral, Flager’s church and finally wine tasting at San Sebastian winery!  Whew!  We are tired!

What a wonderful stop on our loop!  Here is a shot from the water of this beautiful city!

Pat