On the Road - St. Augustine, FL

When we bought our condo we did it knowing we would still be RVing through most of the summer and fall. We already had a big picture travel plan for 2019 including a wedding in Kentucky in June and a three month stay in WashPA. After buying a place, that three month stay will include last time visits to our various doctors in Pennsylvania and making plans for all our records to be forwarded to Florida when we get new doctors there. In September while in WashPA we are going to Europe for a river cruise. When we head south in October we are going to the Outer Banks where we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary. From there it will be back to Florida for the winter.    

Since June 1st was the start of hurricane season, we felt this sign was appropriate as we headed out. One good thing about our condo, it was built under Florida's newer, stronger construction standards. We wanted an easy drive the first day so we went only 215 miles to St. Augustine.

We have been here a couple times and did many of the oldest city in the country's attractions. One place we had not toured was the Ponce de Leon Hotel that was built between 1885 and 1887 by Henry Flagler. We wrote about touring Flagler's home, Whitehall, in Palm Beach a couple posts ago. The hotel, which was built in the Spanish Renaissance style, was the first major building in the country constructed with poured concrete. 

In 1968 the building was turned into Flagler College. Lawrence Lewis, a great nephew of Henry Flagler, was the driving force behind the renovation of the hotel and its conversion to a college. The campus today covers 19 acres and the rooms of the old hotel now serve as the freshman women's dorms.

The courtyard entrance of the hotel. When it opened in 1887 it catered to wealthy Northerners who wanted to escape winter weather. People paid $4,000, about $300,000 in today's money, to stay here for three months. 

The murals in the rotunda and dome were painted by George W. Maynard. It is very impressive as you walk in and look up.

Statues around the rotunda were carved from one piece of wood that was set in place and then carved. While they all depict a woman, each is a bit different.

In the main dining hall, now under renovation, all of the windows were done by Tiffany & Co. It was the largest collection of his work in any privately owned building. Most of the windows had clear glass because Flagler wanted the room to be filled with natural sunlight. 

There was a balcony at each end of the main hall were bands would play to entertain the dining guests. When the band at one end took a break the other immediately started to play. The murals here were also done by Maynard with the theme of Spanish galleons.

Painted around the windows are the shields of each Spanish state.  

The ladies parlor was the gathering place for all the women. It was a grand hall with beautiful chandeliers. As in the dining hall, the ceiling was painted with amazing pictures. The face of the ornate clock above the fireplace is one large piece of quartz.

Shown above are gowns worn by the ladies at the time and the menus of the meals served each day. I guess this must have been like the all-inclusive resorts we have today with every need of the visitors being taken care of by the staff. 

This is a wedding portrait of Henry Flagler's third wife, Mary Lily. For her wedding gift he built Whitehall, which is now the Flagler Museum that I wrote about previously. She was 38 years younger than Henry so he had the artist paint her with an older looking face on her actual, much younger body.

There are two of these towers at the hotel. Originally they each held 4,000 gallons of water to supply all the rooms with running water. During WWII the Coast Guard used the hotel as a training facility and the tanks were used as the brig.

Across the street from the Ponce de Leon Flagler had the Alcazar Hotel built in the same Spanish Renaissance Style. This hotel had a steam room, massage parlor, sulfur baths, gym, the world's largest indoor swimming pool and a three story ballroom. Guests from the Ponce could use all these amenities, while the guests from Alcazar were not allowed in the Ponce.  One of Flagler's unique ways of letting people know where he felt they stood on the social scale. These hotels were both part of his plan to make St. Augustine the go to winter destination for the wealthy. That changed a bit when one winter day it was only six degrees warmer than in New York. That is when he decided to build his first hotel in the Palm Beach area.

One of St. Augustine's interesting narrow streets. We have always liked this area and it looks like it will be a regular stop as we move in and out of Florida.

We stayed at the Elks Lodge in St. Augustine and the weekend we were there was the grand opening of their new outdoor patio. The entertainment was really good and the patio makes this an even nicer place to stay.

As we write we are in Berea, Kentucky for a wedding and then we'll be heading slowly back to WashPA for a three month stay.