• Home
  • About Evelyn Kanter
  • Evelyn Kanter’s Books & Apps
  • In The News
  • Workshops
  • NYC on the Cheap

Evelyn Kanter ecoXplorer

smarter traveling, driving and spending

  • Green Hotels
  • Green Cars
    • Best Cars under $20,000
    • Test Drives
    • Diesel Cars
    • Electric Cars
    • Hybrid Cars
    • Hydrogen Fuel Cell
    • Luxury Drives
  • Travel Deals
    • Free
    • Budget Travel
    • Discount Tickets
  • Xplore More
    • Safety and Health
    • How To
    • Five Best
    • Travel Pioneers
    • Motorcycles
    • Vintage Cars
  • Scam Alert
  • Where to Go Next
    • Historic Travel
    • Epic Adventures
    • National Parks
You are here: Home / Adventure Travel / Happy 450th Birthday to St. Augustine, Fla.

Happy 450th Birthday to St. Augustine, Fla.

6 Comments

st. augustine 450th birthdayHappy 450th birthday to St. Augustine, the oldest city in what is now the United States. Even if you can’t attend the week-long celebrations in September 2015, this historic city is fascinating and fun any time.

My favorite spots on a recent visit were the Fountain of Youth, the Pirate & Treasure Museum, the beach (of course), and a tour of the Gilded Age grandeur of the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, now Flagler College.

The week of special annivsary events includes free concerts, free museum admission and more, capped by the visit of the Spanish royalty for the re-enactment of the landing in 1565 by Spanish conquistadors on September 8th, by Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles. His tomb is at the Mission Hombre de Dios, near the spot where he landed, 55 years before the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock.

That spot on the beach in St. Augustine is marked by a 208-foot tall cross, which you can see for miles when it’s lit at night, like a lighthouse beacon, and a park which includes archeological digs and a small historic chapel that dates from 1603.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

Speaking of lighthouses, the historic St. Augustine Lighthouse is said to be the most haunted spot in town, and there are after-dark paranormal tours.  Or, you can go on a ghost tour, as I did, and walk around the historic district with a guide dressed in period costume – my guide was in a Revolutionary Era soldier uniform.

We visited the Tolomato Cemetery to see if we could see the so-called “Ghost Bride” who reportedly roams around in her wedding dress, or one of the ghost children seen playing there, or one of the ghosts of the victims of the 1803 Yellow Fever epidemic that wiped out most of the town, at another cemetery a few blocks away. No such luck.

Outside of St. Augustine, most of us credit – incorrectly – Ponce de Leon or even Christopher Columbus for discovering St. Augustine, and Menendez de Aviles is pretty much overlooked. In town, Aviles is revered as the city’s founder, and the main shopping street is named for him.

Fountain of Youth St. AugustinePonce De Leon first visited here in 1513, named the coastline La Florida for its flowers, and left. That’s when he discovered the gurgling artesian spring now known as the Fountain of Youth, which is now in a park that’s half archeological site, half theme park and botanical garden. I drank a cup or two, but did not notice any sudden surge of energy or disappearance of wrinkles. Perhaps if I drank a couple of gallons.

More than 60,000 artifacts have been found in the park. Some are displayed in dioramas and other exhibits about the native Tumucuuan Indians, but most are at the University of Florida.

Flagler College St. Augustine

Railroad and Standard Oil millionaire Henry Flagler built the Hotel Ponce de Leon in 1888 for his wealthy friends, which helped kickstart Florida’s tourism industry.  These days, the sprawling Mediterranean-style complex is home to the well-regarded liberal arts Flagler College.

While rooms upstairs have been converted to classrooms and dorm rooms, the elegant Flagler Room off the lobby remains frozen in elegant Gilded Age time. Take the tour to see sparkling Austrian chandeliers, Victorian furniture and portraits, and a fireplace made of the largest single piece of onyx in the western hemisphere.

St. Augustine 450th birthday

Even if you don’t take the tour, the grand entry, with its soaring dome and intricate mosaic floors, will take your breath away.  It did mine.

Another must-visit is the Castillo de san Marcos, the historic fortress.

visit st. augustine

Go late in the day, so you can watch the ceremony of the lowering of the flag, by a National Park Service volunteer dressed as an 18th or 19th century soldier. I watched Mike Evans, US Air Force (Retired), who served in Afghanistan, lower and fold the flag.

The fortress is across the road from Old Town and the Pirate & Treasure Museum, the largest museum of its kind. You’ll see treasures from the Atocha, which was lost in 1622 and found by the same group that located the Titanic, and an original 1850 Jolly Roger flag, one of only two known to exist.

st. augustine pirate museum

I was also fascinated by the wall of newspaper clippings of important pirate news, including one from 1722 announcing the death of Bartholemew Robert, the pirate known as Black Bart. There’s also some gruesome displays of pirate punishment, but it  all ends on an upbeat note in the last rooms before the exit, with posters, costumes and videos of Hollywood pirate movies, from Errol Flynn (Captain Blood) to Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean).

Another kind of booty on display at The Players Club, home of the annual Players Championship golf tournament each spring, played on the Stadium Course with its world famous 17th hole Island Green. You don’t have to be a member to visit the clubhouse for a meal or a free guided tour of golf memorabilia, including the first trophy won by Tiger Woods.

island green 17th hole

St. Augustine is an easy 30 minutes from the Jacksonville airport. Since it’s along Florida’s northern coast, it’s cooler and less humid in the summer than at resort cities further south.

Find out more about St. Augustine and its neighbors, now being marketed as Florida’s Historic Coast.

Subscribe to ecoXplorer and get articles like this in your inbox every Friday.

 

Thanks for visiting ecoXplorer. Stay up to date with the latest news about green travel, green cars, smart spending and frugal living by subscribing. It's free. RSS feed.
Welcome back to exoXplorer. Stay up to date with the latest news about green travel, green cars and smart spending by subscribing. It's free. RSS feed.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Adventure Travel, Family Travel, Where to go Next Tagged With: Fountain of Youth, golf, Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine

Comments

  1. Kristin Henning says

    September 6, 2015 at 8:28 pm

    I’d love to visit St. Augustine, especially if there is a special ghost tour…:)

    Reply
  2. Anita @ Anita's Feast says

    September 3, 2015 at 2:24 am

    Menendez de Aviles, who knew? Thanks for setting the record straight, and for a super intro to St. Augustine. I love hearing about a US city with that much history behind it!

    Reply
  3. Suzanne Fluhr says

    September 2, 2015 at 5:32 pm

    I’ve taken several road trips up and down the Florida peninsula, but have never managed to have St. Augustine on the itinerary. (We were usually making a beeline to visit relatives in the Miami area). Your post has convinced me to add it to the itinerary the next time we’re in the vicinity.

    Reply
  4. Anita and Richard @ No Particular Place To Go says

    September 2, 2015 at 11:38 am

    St. Augustine sounds like a city filled with great architecture and history -exactly the kind of city we love to visit! We’ve visited many of the old forts on both the Central and South American Coasts as well as Portugal and I’d love to take a tour Castillo de san Marcos and watch the flag ceremony. Thanks for the virtual tour and hopefully, one day we’ll have a chance to visit this area ourselves.

    Reply
  5. Kay Dougherty says

    September 2, 2015 at 10:51 am

    I live on Marco Island in Florida (for the last 2 years) and have not yet made my way to St. Augustine. Just yesterday a friend and I were talking about taking a road trip over there so this gives me the info and oomph I need to make that happen. Thanks!

    Reply

What do you think? We value your comments and love hearing from you. Cancel reply

Most Popular Recent Posts

  • Scam Alert: Kars4Kids Car Donation Charity
    Scam Alert: Kars4Kids Car Donation Charity
  • Scam Alert: Mideast Peace Charities
    Scam Alert: Mideast Peace Charities
  • 2 Reasons to Avoid Jimmy John's
    2 Reasons to Avoid Jimmy John's
  • Lamborghini Stretch Limousine for Rent
    Lamborghini Stretch Limousine for Rent
  • Best Used Car Buys: 2005-2010 models
    Best Used Car Buys: 2005-2010 models
  • Foreign Cars Made in America
    Foreign Cars Made in America
  • Free Hotel Rooms for Cancer Patients
    Free Hotel Rooms for Cancer Patients
  • Scam Alert: Bahamas Free Cruise Fraud
    Scam Alert: Bahamas Free Cruise Fraud
  • Roam From Home: Virtual Travel
    Roam From Home: Virtual Travel
  • Best 2020 Green Cars & SUVs
    Best 2020 Green Cars & SUVs

ecoXplorer is your guide to smart spending and eco-friendly living

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and guidebook and smartphone app author – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.

Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.

Also follow my NYC website, www.nyconthecheap.com.

Search ecoXplorer by category

Translate ecoXplorer

© 2010-2020 EcoXplorer by Evelyn Kanter. All the stories and photos on our site are protected by US Copyright laws. Any unauthorized copying is strictly prohibited. Plus, it’s just not nice.

  • Home
  • About Evelyn Kanter
  • Evelyn Kanter’s Books & Apps
  • In The News
  • Workshops
  • NYC on the Cheap

ecoXplorer.com is an independent information service which is compensated by advertisers and sponsors. This site includes some links to other websites which are compensated for by our sponsors when you click them.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.