So, if you read yesterday's entry, on Saturday we set out to see just who this Flagler guy was
and what on earth he was up to.
Henry Morrison Flagler was a Gilded Age oil baron and tycoon
and a partner with John D. Rockefeller in founding Standard Oil. But his true
passion, it turned out, was for St. Augustine, Florida and to say that he left
an imprint on this city is the grossest of understatements. His hand prints are
all over town, from churches, to the jail to a series of hotels.
The crown jewel of his hotel empire was the Ponce de Leon.
You did not simply drive up in your coach and check in for a few nights,
residency, which was for three months, was by invitation only and cost $4,000,
cash. For that guests got treated to a degree of opulence that is hardly
imaginable today.
The hotel, itself, with about 300 rooms was built over an
eighteen month period with workers on the job around the clock. The building
was designed by Carrère and Hastings of New York, wired and outfitted by Thomas
Edison with stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. I could go on.
The hotel operated until the 1960s and in 1968 became campus
to the newly established Flagler College which today seems to be a little known
but respected regional school.
Beyond that, I’ll let the place speak for itself, though my
images, any images, cannot do it justice.
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| Originally Ponce de Leon Hotel, today Flagler College |
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| Twelve frogs represent the months, hours; four turtles, the seasons. Go figure |
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| They claim the largest collection of Tiffany anywhere |
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| Thomas Edison's clock |
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This gives you a sense of the size of the dining room and I show only 2/3s of it here
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| Note the detail piled on top of detail |
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| A nook |
After the tour, stunned, we wandered over to the city’s original
landmark, the Castillo de San Marcos. The fort protected the city from 1672
onward through occupations by the Spansih, French, English, Americans and
Confederates. As an historian I am ashamed to admit it, but I cannot keep
straight for the life of me who owned Florida when. It bounced around, not by
conquest so much as by treaty. Today the castle is conserved by the National
Park Service, which does such a superb job of preserving and interpreting
America’s material heritage wherever you go.
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| The fort from the city side |
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| Sharon at the first entrance |
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| At the portcullis |
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| The early city that the fort protected |
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| The city that the fort protects today |
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| Facing the harbor |
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| The dry moat would have housed livestock when the city was under attack |
One final note. We are staying in a Wingate Hotel while here. Why does that matter? Because most guests seem not to tip housekeeping at this low-end corporate hotel. We do, and houskeeper Viktoria has expressed her thanks. Rosa feels she has a friend.
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| On successive mornings a crab |
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| And swans |
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