Our 3rd Day in included a tour of Flagler College and another thunderstorm that seemed to last forever.
Flagler College opened as the Ponce de Leon Hotel in 1888. It was one of three Flagler hotels in the city. His other hotels, the Alcazar, which is now City Hall and the Lightner Museum, and the Casa Monica, which was once the county courthouse and is now again a hotel, both stand within a block of the Ponce.
The building was the country's first poured-in-place concrete structure, and was one of the first to have electricity. In 1968, Flagler College opened in the former hotel. The campus now spans 15 buildings, all designed in the style of the Ponce, which remains the main building on campus.
On to the pictures!
This is the view immediately after crossing the Bridge of Lions, and what a great view it is! Plaza de la Constitucion, the main town square, sits adjacent to the bridge. In the plaza towards the center of the picture is the Old Market, where slaves were sold after getting of off ships. On the right is the Wachovia/Wells Fargo building and the Basilica, with the two towers of Flagler College at the end of the street.
The blue sky tricked us into thinking it would be a nice day.
The main cafeteria of the college is located in the former hotel's dining room. It is a giant room with a huge vaulted ceiling and big rotundas on either side featuring original Tiffany stained glass windows. The 79 windows are worth around $25 million each, and obviously are protected by thick glass both inside and outside. The dining room also features the original wood chairs and tables carved from Austrian wood for the hotel in 1888.
Not the greatest picture, but a look at the beautiful ceiling. I wouldn't mind eating in here once in a while!
However, the ceiling in the lobby is even more amazing!
The rest of the lobby is not too bad either. And what's even better is that the lobby is open to the public! The cafeteria, however, can only be seen on tours.
Supposedly, like many other things in St. Augustine, Flagler (well, just the Ponce) is haunted! It seemed like almost every student we talked to had a story to tell about a ghostly encounter!
Heading out of the lobby and into the front courtyard, the rapidly approaching storm can be seen. The trees and ferns and other tropical plants in the courtyard started to blow in the wind, and we began to head back to the car.
Outside of the courtyard along the street, Henry Flagler stands in front of the Flagler College arch. The black castle-like gate actually seemed like it still worked, as all the chains and pulleys were still there. Luckily, there's a door in the gate directly behind the statue of Flagler to let the public and students in and out!
The former hotel rooms on the upper floors operate as girl's dormitories, while the hotel spaces on the first floor operate as classrooms and support facilities. When the college opened, boys and girls were housed in the old hotel rooms, which had no air conditioning. That must've been fun in the humid Florida weather! Luckily, A/C was added soon after. 2013 was also the Ponce's 125th anniversary, as you can see.
The building is really beautiful, and the campus is a really nice one in a great location. The students here are really lucky, and seem like they know it.
Again not a great picture, but the Casa Monica can be seen straight ahead, with the Alcazar (City Hall/Lightner Museum) to the right across a plaza. I visited the Casa Monica last trip, and it is definitely 5-star (accommodations and price!), but a bit too old (smaller rooms, very small pool).
We then began to drive up to Vilano Beach. On the way, we took a short detour onto one of the coolest streets I've seen, Magnolia Avenue. Along the right is the Fountain of Youth, a big tourist trap & archeological dig. The wall surrounding it is notable for being made of coquina, a local construction material once quarried on Anastasia Island. It's a mix of broken up seashells and is easily moldable before hardening in the sun. Coquina is only used in construction at two places on earth: Northern Florida and Western Australia.
Vilano Beach is a small beach village to the northeast of St. Augustine, situated on the southern tip of the barrier island north of Anastasia Island. The village first came to existence as the oceanfront play area for the wealthy guests of Flagler's hotels. During the post-war boom of the 50s, many houses and motor motels sprung up. The closing of the drawbridge and the opening of the causeway in the 90s funneled drivers away from the main street and killed many of the motels and stores. The new Town Center streetscape, opened in 2010, is an attempt to revitalize the old downtown.
One of the last remaining (closed) motels along the main street. The street now ends at a pier, the last remaining portion of the former drawbridge, stretching over the intracoastal waterway.
From the top of the Causeway you can see the entire area. St. Augustine is in the center, with Anastasia Island and St. Augustine Beach to the left and the 208 ft tall stainless steel cross of the Nombre de Dios Mission to the right. The cross is the tallest in country, while the mission is the oldest mission and first Catholic church in the United States. A nice thunderstorm sits overhead too!
This is quite off the beaten path, in the middle of a Howard Johnson motel a little bit north of downtown St. Augustine, close to the causeway. But it is pretty cool. This tree, name "Old Senator", is over 600 years old, and stood here when Ponce de Leon discovered St. Augustine nearly 400 years ago.
After our quick driving tour, we went back to the condo. St. Augustine Beach was founded in 1959, and is mainly a resort community, containing many, many condo complexes and hotels along with a lot of newer housing development. However, with all the development, it still is pretty forested, and the beaches are awesome.
Back into town, this plaque marks the former location of an early five and dime store whose lunch counter was the location of a sit-in that sparked the local civil right movement. More St. Augustine's civil rights movement is coming soon!
This newly-opened British Pub on St. George Street is part of the recently renovated Colonial Quarter, a small but nice living history museum in the center of the town detailing life in Spanish, British, and early American St. Augustine. I've never been, but it's gotten pretty good reviews in it's new incarnation.
Here is St. George Street, the main tourist area of the town. It is usually pretty busy, but as you can see, the rain pushed many away. The street was closed to auto traffic in the 50s, and contains many cool and delicious restaurants, some cool stores, and the typical tourist stuff - a couple t shirt shops, an Old Time Photo. The various restaurants are definitely the reason to come to this street, and bar-hopping is very easy!
This would have made sense in the beginning of the photo thread, but I didn't get a good picture until the end of Day 3, so here it is. Apparently we went back and forth between the city and the condo on this day, I guess due to rain.
Back in the city, here's another view of the fort. We'll go up to it and inside later on.
A wall of palm tree trunks and a moat used to extend from the fort all the way to the intracoastal waterway to protect the city. These stone gates were the only way in and out of the city back then. The gates originally had a drawbridge, but that was later replaced with a permanent one. Part of the moat still remains just in front of the gates.
A better view of Flagler's Memorial Presbyterian Church. The church was built the same way as the Ponce, Alcazar, and Casa Monica (concrete poured-in-place with terra cotta detailing). I've never gone inside, but now I realize I probably should next time.
Heres a nice view of the back of Flagler College with Kenan Hall on the left. Kenan was the original staff quarters with the kitchen on the first floor. The art rooms now take up the kitchen space, with classrooms on the upper floors.
The city is very nice at night, with a cool breeze usually coming in off the ocean and live music from the many restaurants giving it a nice, calm feel. The city also offer two different ghost tram tours, one run by Old Town Trolley, and the other run by Ripley's. There are many different walking ghost tours, and I'd recommend those over the tram ones, as they are usually smaller and more intimate. There's even a Segway ghost tour, which is probably pretty fun! The Old Town Trolley ghost tours (left) have cool black bus-trolleys with purple LEDs underneath. The horse and buggys (right) that run all day also have LED lights at night.
Here's a close up of the Castillo de San Marcos at night. I love the way the yellow floodlights look on the coquina of the fort. Tomorrow we go inside!
Thank you all for looking and reading. The second to last day, Day 4, is coming soon!
Look forward to more pictures.
Linear Mode
