St. Augustine: Explore History

My last visit on this Labor’s day weekend was to the oldest city of United States- St. Augustine located in north eastern part of Florida. This city gives you an endless opportunity to understand the Spanish and English culture. The old city has been converted into a museum. If you love History, then St. Augustine offers you plenty of things on your platter to explore.

Check In

We stayed at Radisson, Jacksonville which is 30 miles from St. Augustine. This Hotel is located off to Interstate I – 95, a beautiful hotel with modern amenities and a outdoor pool side view worth to watch. The buffet breakfast was amazing.

Old Trolley Tour

We reached St. Augustine around 9:30 AM and went to Old Trolley Tour counter.  You will find various package available depending on day and night tours. This is the best way to explore the old city’s cobblestone streets, historical landmarks and pristine beaches. You can hop on and hop off at different sites depending upon your interest. The Trolley driver guides are very knowledgeable and friendly. They will give you each and every minute details regarding various landmarks.

Some of the major attractions of St. Augustine are as follows:

The Old Jail

This served as the St. Johns County jail from 1891- 1953. This building was financed by Henry Flagler so that he could control its look and location. This jail is only accessible by guided tour,  with costumed guides “processing” in the new prisoners. You will get the feeling of prisoner walking inside the Jail.

Next to the Old Jail is the Oldest Store Museum and St.Augustine History Museum,  where you can explore the 400 years old Florida’s history of life. If you want to buy refreshments or  souvenirs,  Gator’s Bob’s gift shop and Penny Arcade are nice places.

San Marco Hotel

On the property now occupied by the City Parking Facility once stood Florida’s grand hotel, San Marco. The main structure was 260 feet long and five stories high. The tower had its own theater, complete with stage, scenery loft and footlights. It was destroyed by a fire in 1897.

Potter’s Wax Museum

This is the first wax museum in United States. The Museum display over 160 wax figures. Portions of the Original House of Wax movie, starring Vincent Price, was shot here.

Oldest Wooden School House

This attraction is located on St. George Street. It offers a look into how children were educated in the 18th and 19th century as it involves educating girls and boys under same roof. This tiny building was built more than 200 years ago using red cedar and cypress and put together using wooden pegs and handmade nails. The schoolmaster and his wife lived upstairs, above the small classroom.

St. George Street Pedestrian Mall

This is the heartthrob spot of St. Augustine where you will find retail stores, pubs and restaurants, museums and full time lively entertainment.

Castillo De San Marcos

This is the oldest masonry fort in the United States, made of stone called Coquina authorized by Spanish Queen. Coqina is a rock which is naturally formed in the ocean from limestone and fossilized shells. Apart from fort, many structures are made from Coquina throughout the town.

Castilo De San Marcos construction started in 1672 and completed in 1695. This fort was built to protect treasures carried by the Spanish ships from pirate attacks. The bay-front view of the fort is amazing where you can sit, relax and feel the soothing gentle breeze.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum

You must not miss this museum full of many weird and unique stuff throughout the world.  Robert Ripley traveled all over the world and collected many different unusual artifacts and bizarre objects that are on display here. After he died his heirs purchased the Warden Castle Hotel and in 1950 opened the first Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum in the world.

Few of the stuff that fascinated me was portrait of Mahatma Gandhi made up of Rice Straw, Chinese Pagoda made up of Match Sticks and Million Dollar Man made by million dollars of macerated money.

At the entrance of Ripley’s Museum, you will find the replica of big statue of David sculptured by Michelangelo hidden inside bush. I hope you understood why..? 😉 

Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth is a must visit for any visitor in St. Augustine. This is the site of many archaeological discoveries of national historic importance. This property was once the home to the ancient Timucuan Indians and evidence of several early Spanish forts has also been found on the property. There is a planetarium which illustrates how the Spanish used the stars to navigate the seas. You can taste the water from a re-creation of what Ponce de Leon believed to be the Fountain of Youth and can walk over the 600 ft long observation platform over the marsh.

Re-enactors roam the property and cannon firings and demonstrations are ongoing throughout the day. You will get the feel that you are walking in ancient time and can experience the Spanish culture.

Magnolia Avenue

This street is in front of Fountains of Youth lined with Florida live Oak trees. National Geographic magazine called it one of the ten most beautiful streets in the country. The canopy of branches has formed over the street in response to contrast sea breezes blowing from the east.

Hotel Ponce De Leon

This grand hotel was the winter home of wealthiest soul. It had running water and electricity installed by Thomas Edison in every room. Some of the renowned guests visited here includes Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding and Lyndon Baines Johnson to name a few.  This hotel closed in 1967 and the property was re-opened as Flagler College the following year. Initially it was girls school but later in 1972, it became Co-ed. Presently they have an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The building is also open for daily tours.

Flagler Memorial Presbterian Church

This church was built in memory of Henry Flagler’s daughter, Jennie Louise Flagler who died after giving birth in 1889. Her infant daughter only lived for a few hours. This is Venetian Renaissance style building modeled after St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. The Venetian-style copper dome reaches 150 feet into the air. This church cost $200,000 to built, seats 600 and was completed in 1890. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside the church as it was closed that day.

 Villa Zorayda

This house was the first building in St. Augustine constructed of poured concrete. The Villa Zorayda was built in 1883 in a Moorish Revival Style. Franklin W. Smith was the architect and owner of Villa Zorayda. Guided tours of this museum is available.

Lightner Museum

Lightner Museum was earlier known as the Alcazar Hotel was built by Henry Flagler after he built the Ponce de Leon across the street, to provide unforgettable entertainments to his guests. It had Turkish dry heat, Russian steam bath, a gymnasium, a bowling alley, billiard tables, tennis court, a ball room and a movie theater where some of the earliest motion pictures were shown. The hotel also had the largest swimming pool of its time.  Today, relics of America’s Glided Age are elegantly exhibited on the museum’s three floor. You will get the glimpse of 19th century through display costumes, furnishings and other artifacts. Paintings from around the world are also on display.

St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum

This is a must visit tourist attraction of St. Augustine. It is a Spanish watch tower built in late 1500s.. It was converted to first Lighthouse in Florida in 1824. The old tower succumbed to the sea during a storm in 1880. The current tower was built in 1874. It is 162 feet high with a beam visible 19 miles over the water’s surface.There are 219 steps up to the top.

Some of the breathe-taking view from the roof top of the Lighthouse is worth to capture for every St. Augustine visitor.

San Sebastian Winery

San Sebastian Winery gives you an opportunity to explore American wines. It  offers a 45 minute free tour and Wine tasting. There is a small gift shop from where you can buy some of the premium hand crafted American wines and other souvenirs. And yeah in the end they offered us free ginger Mojito shots. That was refreshing.

The Old Senator

In the center of the Howard Johnson parking lot is the Old Senator, St. Augustine’s oldest living citizen. This large live oak tree is 13 feet around and more than 600 years old. It is called a live oak because its leaves are always green.

The Great Cross (Beacon of Faith) & Father Lopez Statue

The cross was erected by the Diocese of St. Augustine in honor of the 400th anniversary of the city. It is 208 feet tall and weighs 70 tons. It marks the landing site of Pedro Menendez and commemorates the first Catholic Mass. Father Lopez can be seen with outstretched arms, recreating the pose he would have used when he celebrated the first mass.

Oldest House

This is the oldest house in St. Augustine, not the United States. This Spanish Colonial house is known as Gonzalez- Alvarez house. The five flags hanging outside the oldest house represent the five periods of St. Augustine. It is open to the public.

Apart from few of these attractions, there are wonderful churches like Cathedral Basilica, Grace United Methodist Church, Ancient City Baptist Church, Trinity Episcopal Church. There is  St. Photios Shrine, Pirate and Treasure Museum , Wheatstone Chocolate Factory, Warden Castle, Abbott Tract Historic District and many more which I couldn’t visit due to time constraint. If you want to explore entire St. Augustine, then even two days are not sufficient depending upon my experience. So I will suggest you to plan at least minimum three days to explore each and every landmark of St. Augustine. And I bet, St. Augustine will not disappoint you.

Do share your memories with St. Augustine if you have visited or let me know if you have any queries, I would be happy to answer.

Happy Travelling !
Ana

**Please Note that this post has been transformed into an app by GPSMyCity and you can download it from here for your ios devices on iTunes App Store or the Android app on Google Play. The app works offline so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.