St. Augustine, FL

Thursday, Jan. 17th

It was about an hour and a half drive to St. Augustine. Founded in 1565, it’s the oldest city in the U.S. Somewhat unfathomable that a city in the U.S. could be that old. It was originally under Spanish rule and there’s plenty of historic charm in this city…. gobs of it!

We arrived late morning and parked at the Days Inn in the historic district and then walked into town to find lunch… preferably outdoors. We found a cute outdoor restaurant “The Backyard at Meehans.” I had great fish tacos. Gary did not have fish tacos. Gary does not eat fish. He doesn’t know what he’s missing. After lunch we wandered around town visiting St. George Street (the city’s famous historic pedestrian walking mall), Spanish Street with it’s quintessential historic homes, Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine (gorgeous church), Flagler College (more on that later), Castillo de San Marcos (the old fort), Plaza de la Constitucion (town square really) and some other churches.. there’s always churches to wander into. Then after lots of walking, we meandered back to the hotel to chill out before catching the Nights of Lights tram around town.

There are 3 million lights lighting up the historic center of St. Augustine beginning around Thanksgiving and going until the end of January. It’s considered one of the 5 best holiday displays in the U.S. So pretty with lights on the palm trees, live oak, Flagler College, Lightner Museum, all the B&B’s, historic homes, town square, etc. We viewed it via tram and then wandered around town for a bit on foot. Finally getting a late dinner at a pizza place sitting outside on their deck under a heated lamp. We eventually walked back to the hotel. After walking about 6 or 7 miles over the course of the day, my Apple Watch said we had 10 minutes of exercise. My Apple Watch is a heartless witch (substitute the letter b). If my heart rate isn’t elevated enough, it doesn’t register as exercise. She’ll be the death of me. 

Friday, Jan. 18th

Today we had lined up two tours…. one at the old City Jail and the other at Flagler College. 

The Old Jail Museum tour was fascinating! A beautiful building that looks nothing like a jail. Built in 1891 for $10,000. It was financed by Henry Flagler because he wanted a new jail to be built far away from his fancy downtown hotel. The new jail was so “good looking” that tourists coming to town used to think it was a hotel… except for the bars on the windows and a hanging noose in the back yard it did indeed look like a hotel. 

It was built to house 72 prisoners but frequently housed way more than that… both men and women… in separate quarters, of course. There were no toilet facilities unless you call one bucket per 4-person cell a toilet. Any bathing was done in a bath tub once a month out in the back yard. Apparently the bath tub was filled up once and all 72+ prisoners bathed one at a time in the same water. Eeeeeeeuuuuuwwwww. Women bathed last one at a time… after all the men… same tub of water used for both sexes. Double eeeeeuuuuuwwww. 

I asked what offenses the women could have committed to be imprisoned. Our jailer/tour guide said it could be something like thievery or something really bad like exposing your ankles in public…. or not being completely covered when you went swimming at the beach. Of course if a woman wore everything she was supposed to wear to cover herself at the beach, I think she would drown from the sheer weight of it all. 

A woman’s job in prison was to cook for the men. A man’s job was being farmed out as a day laborers to the locals. Meals for the prisoners consisted of grits for breakfast and beans for lunch and dinner. Any meat for dinner came from what the prisoners caught, either in prison with the occasional rat coming in through the open barred windows or a stray rabbit, squirrel etc. which they killed when they were working out in the fields. 

Not surprisingly, prisoners lasted about 3 years then died off. Conditions were deplorable and that’s being kind. Indoor plumbing didn’t arrive until 1914 and then there was only one or two showers in the whole facility and just about as many toilets. Plus the prisoners weren’t allowed time to use them. The warden simply had them installed because the government mandated it. The prison finally closed in the early 1950s. Eventually the building was sold to an enterprising individual and converted into a tourist attraction. 

We caught our breath after that tour and sent a prayer up to those poor souls who landed in this prison back in the day!

After that, we stopped in at Mission of Nombre de Dios. A beautiful mission featuring a 204-ft. cross & a shrine to the Virgin Mary made in the late 1500s. It’s an outdoor oasis of serene beauty on the river meant for meditation and reflection. We could see the cross, but we couldn’t walk up to it. It’s closed off because the workers are putting in a new walking path. It will be lovely when it’s done. I even saw a peacock on the grounds. 

In the afternoon we had a tour at Flagler College. Our tour guides were two adorable college students. They said tuition is around $30,000 a year which includes room and board. There are about 2,700 students and class sizes are small. Flagler is considered one of the 100 best “college buys” in the country. 

Flagler College started out as the Ponce de Leon Hotel. It was built in 1888 as a luxury hotel by Henry Flagler, 2nd richest man in America and partner to John D. Rockefeller. Flagler had the idea to make St. Augustine a mecca for tourists in the winter months when it was cold in the north. The hotel was only open in the winter months and people would stay for months at a time and had to receive an invitation to stay. It was for the rich and famous. Tiffany designed the stained glass windows appearing in the hotel’s dining room and the chandeliers in the ballroom. All of which are still in place. Murals in the rotunda and dining room were designed by a well known artist who later had his work appearing in the Library of Congress. They, too, are still present. The hotel was one of the first in the country to be wired for electricity by Edison, who was a personal friend of Henry Flagler. 

The hotel eventually fell into decline. Funds were raised by a Flagler descendent and the old hotel was converted into a college. The students eat in what was once the hotel’s dining room and sleep in dorms that were once hotel rooms and listen to lectures in what was once the ballroom. Outlying newer buildings house other classrooms and the library. The college is a marvel!! The original hotel building is magnificent! Absolutely beautiful. The dining room looks like something out of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. 

After our Flagler College tour it was later in the afternoon and time to walk back to the hotel, pile into the truck and head back to Brunswick and our tiny home and plan the next mini adventure.