We started the day by talking a AAA Tour Books self-guided walking tour of the Old City, beginning at the City Gates. This was the only way into the walled city in the 18th Century.
The wall was built by the Spanish in 1739 for defense. It was made of palm logs, dirt. cacti and a soft limestone containing shell and coral fragments, quarried locally on Anastasia Island (called coquina). These pillars were added in 1808 and were also made of coquina.
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| Coquina limestone (internet photo) |
We walked through the gates and along St. George Street, which is pedestrians only in this section, where more than 50 houses and craft shops have been restored or reconstructed.
First up was the "Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse" in the USA, which served as a guardhouse during the Seminole Wars.
The downstairs served as a one room school and the upstairs served as living quarters for the teacher and his family.
There was a lovely garden behind the schoolhouse, which you would never know was there, unless you went through the attached store to the back.
We continued to walk along St. George Street, where there are numerous courtyards and gardens.
I would have gotten closer but the garden is surrounded by a wall.
Although there were a number of historical buildings along here, I didn't take photos of them...
We exited St. George Street and entered the Plaza de la Constitución, which was established in 1598 by an edict from King Phillip II and was the hub of the original settlement. This center monument was dedicated to the Spanish Constitution of 1812.
Across the street is the Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum, dating to the 1700's. It served as the headquarters for Spanish, English and territory governors from 1595 - 1821. I thought the exterior construction was very interesting.
Next, we came to the Casa Monica Hotel, one of three hotels owned by Flagler.
It was opened in 1888 by Franklin W. Smith and sold to Henry Flagler soon after it opened and renamed the Cordova Hotel. It was abandoned during the Great Depression and later turned into a courthouse until sometime in the 1990's. Richard Kessler brought it back to life and restored it's name.
This beautiful piece of furniture was in the lobby, it must weight a ton.
Along with a number of other interesting pieces of furniture and art, there were two of these mosaics.
Around the corner and down the street is the well known landmark, Flagler College.
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| Henry Flagler statue in front of the college entrance |
One of two lions guarding the entrance, just behind the Flagler statue. They can be seen in the photo above.
"In 1888, Flagler built the Hotel Ponce de León, his first in a series of luxury resorts along Florida’s east coast. A masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture and the first major poured-in-place concrete building in the United States is now known as Ponce de Leon Hall. A National Historic Landmark, it serves as the centerpiece for Flagler College."
Construction on The Hotel Ponce de Leon began in 1885. The college was founded in 1968.
Interesting fence along the street in front of the college. We were looking forward to touring this beautiful piece of architecture, however...there's a damn pandemic...no tours. The dining hall features 79 Tiffany glass windows, 8 Tiffany crystal chandeliers and many pieces of artwork. It's unlikely we will return to St. Augustine in the near future, so I was really disappointed.
Oh well...moving on. The Lightener Museum is located across the street, in front of Flagler College.
This was originally another Flagler hotel, the Alcazar, built in 1888. In 1948, it was purchased by Otto C. Lightner, a Chicago publisher and editor of Hobbies magazine. He converted it into a museum to house his vast collection of art and antiques. We did not tour the museum itself, but did enjoy the center garden. There's a lovely water feature, surrounded by lush gardens and crossed by a stone bridge.
This sculpture was located in one corner of the garden, titled "Ex Nihilo" (Out of Nothing) by Frederick Hart.
In the other corner is Otto's final resting place. There are a few shops located around the perimeter of the garden. When it was operating as a hotel, there was a huge indoor swimming pool, which now operates as the Cafe Alcazar. All this walking made us hungry, so we stopped at the Grilled Cheese Gallery, located not too far from the Lions Bridge. Lunch was delicious and served like pieces of art. From here we walked back to the fort, along Rt. 1, then back to St. George Street where we got ice cream at Tedi's Olde Tyme Ice Cream. We enjoyed our ice cream sitting on a bench and people watching.
We walked some more and finally headed back to our AirBnb, stopping for iced coffees at Choco-Lattes and sat in the small garden in the back for a few minutes.
We didn't appear to be alone...In case you don't recognize Brad Pitt spying on us.
Cracked me up when I saw this ;o)
We got back around 3:45 after walking 5 miles, tired and our feet hurt. We read and napped till 6:00, then walked back to The Bull and Crown for dinner, which we chose because we could sit outside. We did a little shopping, bought a pirate ship Christmas ornament and got home around 7:30.
It was a warmer-than-expected beautiful day and we're not done yet. Tomorrow's another adventure!
Thanks for stopping by...
;o)
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