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St. Augustine As an old town laid out in Spanish style around a central plaza and with waters flowing here and there, St. Augustine may be a hard-to-fathom city for the visitor. Many streets, or portions thereof, are one-way. Parking can be difficult at peak periods. Your best bet may be to park at the visitor center ($3 all day) or at the sightseeing tour depots (free), and set out by trolley or foot. To get your bearings, take a sightseeing tour first. Both the red St. Augustine Sightseeing Trains, 170 San Marco Ave., and the green St. Augustine Historical Trolley Tours, 167 San Marco Ave., follow roughly the same path and pass the same sites on narrated, hour-long tours of the old city. How informative they are depends on the driver. You will see a lot that looks worth going back to, and a lot that’s not. At least you’ll know which is which among all the attractions seeking your attention and cash. The tour ticket ($12) is particularly good for long-term visitors, since it allows on-and-off privileges at leading attractions and is good for three consecutive days. Historic Attractions. Many are privately owned or owned by the city and not-for-profit organizations. That may explain their charm, which some find amateurish and others find refreshing. The attractions tend to come in clusters. One cluster is at the north end, outside the city gates. The Spaniards built Castillo de San Marcos, the largest coquina stone structure in the world, in 1672. The fortress, moat and all, squats along the bayfront, its cannon still perched along the sea inlet to defend the city. Although attacked more than once, it never fell in battle and endures as the nation’s oldest fort. The nearby Mission of Nombre de Dios, a peaceful shrine where Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed in 1565, marks the beginning of Christianity in the United States. Follow beautiful, out-of-the-way Magnolia Street, canopied by towering live oaks, to the 21-acre Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. The site where Ponce de Leon landed in 1513 contains the eternal spring reputed to be the Fountain of Youth. . The heart of the old city is found beyond the City Gate (1808) in the area centering along the eleven pedestrian-only blocks of St. George Street. Plaques mark 18th-century Spanish Colonial structures that are now historic attractions or shops. Within the restored area lies the Spanish Quarter Village, a city-run representation of the original military garrison community. Visitors stroll from house to house and meet costumed interpreters busy at pastimes of the 1740s. The highlight is the twenty-minute tour of the de Mesa House, offered four times a day. The ticket-taker tipped us off to the fascinating story of the Minorcans, “my ancestors,” as detailed in the Peso de Burgo-Pellicer House. (Village open daily, 9 to 6 or 7, weekends to 9; adults $6). The Spanish Quarter holdings also include the Spanish Military Hospital and the Government House, a museum tracing the history of St. Augustine, opposite the Plaza de la Constitution. Another historic cluster is in the oldest residential neighborhood in the south end of the old city. Here the focus is the Oldest House complex, on a site occupied since the 1600s. The 1727 house, the area’s oldest surviving Spanish structure, portrays the lifestyles of owners through three centuries and three cultures. Within the complex are ornamental gardens, the St. Augustine Museum of History and the Museums of Florida’s Army. (All open daily 9 to 5, adults $5). The Ximenez-Fatio House at 20 Aviles St., built in 1789 and long a boarding house, is of interest to those who want to see how early inngoers lived. Old St. Augustine Village, 250 St. George St., St. Augustine. A block-size collection of nine historic buildings was being painstakingly restored for opening as a microcosm of the oldest city in 2000. The properties were assembled by Kenneth W. Dow, St. Augustine resident and heir to a Dow industrial fortune. One of the more recent structures was home to novelist William Dean Howells. Others date to 1790. Costumed interpreters and craftsmen will be on site for visitors to take self-guided tours in the manner of Colonial Williamsburg. Also on site is Ken Dow, a pony-tailed octogenarian who lives on the property and serves as consulting curator for the sponsoring Museum of Arts and Sciences. (904)
255-0285. Open daily 10 to 5. Admission, $7.50. Flagler Landmarks. The west central part of the historic district focuses on the Ponce De Leon Hotel. The fabulous masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture was built in 1888 by Henry M. Flagler as the first of the grand hotels intended to make this the American Riviera. The 400-room luxury hotel looks much as it did when Flagler catered to the Who’s Who of the turn of the century with Tiffany glass, gold-leafed Maynard murals and electricity by Thomas Edison. It closed in the 1960s and became the home of Flagler College, a private liberal-arts college which – unlike its namesake – is known for value (all-inclusive yearly cost is $9,630). The sounds of student flip-flops punctuate the halls where well-heeled guests once tread. The mezzanine with windows by Lewis Comfort Tiffany, the interior decorator for the hotel, is off-limits to visitors. It’s now a student lounge area. Visitors can view the great rotunda and steal a peak at the baronial arched dining room, where the hand-carved Austrian oak chairs original to the hotel flank red-clothed tables for four. Surely this must be the fanciest college dining hall anywhere. The multi-course prime rib dinner for $4.25, shown in an early menu in a display case in the rotunda, stands in contrast to the day’s blackboard menu, which listed a waffle bar, chicken fajitas and pepperoni pizza for Wednesday dinner. Free guided tours are offered May-August daily on the hour, 11 to 4. Behind the hotel is Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1890 by Henry Flagler in memory of his daughter Jennie, who died giving birth. He spared no expense and moved part of Venice to St. Augustine to create another monument to the Golden Age. Built in the Venetian Renaissance style in the shape of a cross, it is equal in size and grandeur to some of the great churches of Europe. This has a huge copper dome overhead and ornate terra cotta frieze work done by Italian artists. The woodwork is all hand-carved Santo Domingo mahogany. The kneeling benches beneath each pew are there because of the European tradition, a guide advised. Buried in the round mausoleum attached at the side of the church are Flagler, his first wife, his daughter and granddaughter. Also of interest nearby is Grace Methodist Church, another Flagler beneficiary, part of one of the most elaborate cohesive architectural complexes of the late 19th century in America. Across from the hotel is the old Alcazar Hotel, which Flagler built a year later to attract the middle class. Not quite so tony but equally interesting, it’s now home of the Lightner Museum (see Extra-Special). You’ll understand why St. Augustinians, though they were proud of the Ponce DeLeon, loved the Alcazar. Beside the Alcazar is the old Cordova Hotel, purchased by Flagler after the original Casa Monica went bankrupt. The Cordova, which had served lately as the St. Johns County Courthouse, was being restored for reopening in 1999 as the Casa Monica Hotel. On the west side of the old Alcazar is Zorayda Castle, built in 1883 as his home by millionaire Franklin Smith, builder of the Cordova Hotel. The castle is a replica of the Zorayda tower of the Alhambra, Spain’s most famous castle in Old Granada. The castle shows how Moorish kings lived, entertained and ruled Spain. It’s open daily, 9 to 5; adults $5. World Golf Village, 21 World Golf Place, St. Augustine. St. Augustine’s biggest new attraction is quite a sight for arriving visitors along I-95, just north of the city. The 6,300-acre development rivals those of the Disney area southwest of Orlando. Here the main tourist attraction is the World Golf Hall of Fame, which expected to attract more than a million visitors in its first year. The hall and its IMAX Theater combine historic artifacts with interactive technology. Visitors walk across a replica of the famed Swilcan Burn Bridge from the 18th hole at St. Andrews and log on to survey highlights from golf action around the world. It’s the first time all international golf organizations and pro tours have united in support of a single project. The first IMAX golf film shows the past, present and future of the sport through the eyes of two Scottish golfers. Built around Lake Kelly, the village also features a resort hotel, a convention center, a golf academy, an eighteen-hole championship golf course with two more on the way, shopping centers and residential communities. (904) 940-4000. Open daily, 10 to 6. Hall of Fame, adults, $9. IMAX
Theater, $6. Extra-Special The Lightner Museum, 75 King St., St. Augustine. This is “the gem of St. Augustine,” as proclaimed by no less an authority than our trolley tour driver, a know-it-all native. And so it is, for anyone with an interest in the Gilded Age and certainly for those into collections of the Victorian era. The museum was a gift to the city from Otto C. Lightner, a Chicago publisher and collector, who had crammed two fading mansions with relics of a bygone era. Moving here because of ill health, he bought the abandoned Alcazar Hotel to house his collections in the spirit of his idol, Henry Flagler. The old hotel and adjacent casino have their own fascinating story to tell as they showcase what’s best described as a collection of collections. One of the country’s most complete repositories of 19th-century life, it’s been called the Smithsonian of the South. For connoisseurs, the major emphasis is on fine and decorative arts, with other collections of natural science, industry and anthropology. But some of the most fascinating are the oddball items from Lightner’s original amateurish museum of “hobbies:” salt and pepper shakers and trivets, candles and keys, wooden nickels and cigarette lighters. One four-sided glass case holds a montage of shoes and boots. Matchbook covers and walking canes are displayed under the same roof as an 1873 Chickering piano from opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci. Winston Churchill’s stuffed African lion and a 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummy occupy a room next to a collection of rare mechanized musical instruments. The lately restored Ballroom Gallery overlooks the old indoor swimming pool, now an antiques mall and cafe. Priceless vases and glassware are shown in what used to be the hotel’s Turkish baths. Tiffany glass edifies an old massage room. Walk into the old Roman baths and come out to face an eight-foot-tall green malachite urn and pedestal from the Russian Czar’s palace. You could be entranced for hours here. (904)
824-2874. Open daily 9 to 5. Adults, $6. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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