Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509150009
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: G-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEVE SILK THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. LENGTH: Long
Resourcefulness has been the key to its survival, and the town has learned to grab hold of anything that might help. Over the years it has been a military outpost, a center for evangelism, a tourist mecca and a fishing village.
Now it has a new shtick - history.
St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is the oldest continuously inhabited town in North America, a fact you'll be reminded of constantly during a visit. As a result, it has plenty of history - which you'll also be reminded of constantly.
In St. Augustine - for an admission fee - you can see everything from Bonnie and Clyde's bullet-riddled getaway car to the nation's oldest fort. There's Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth, a copy of Elvis Presley's will and one of JFK's limousines.
But for my money, some of the best things in St. Augustine are free. Historic, but free.
Take St. George Street. This quintessential St. Augustine byway is lined with centuries-old one- and two-story stucco buildings hung with wrought-iron balconies groaning under hibiscus and entered via gateways secured by big wooden doors. Most of the street is closed to traffic, so it's a stroller's paradise - especially with all the chichi shops lining its length.
Or stroll along Matanzas Bay at the city's edge, past the palm trees and the long queue of horse-drawn carriages. Nearby, the bright and graceful span known as the Bridge of Lions carries traffic from Anastasia Island into town. Also nearby is the Castillo de San Marcos, a diamond-shaped fortress that has guarded the town since Spanish galleons sailed past with cargoes of gold and silver from the New World.
The fort, the ninth on this site, is now a national monument. For a few dollars' admission you can explore its thick, mildew-mottled walls, its cannon emplacements and the dank rooms that have housed soldiers over the centuries. Or stroll up to one of the distinctive sentry boxes, aligned so defenders could harass would-be invaders with a withering cross-fire.
For a more peaceful stroll, retire to the shady streets across the plaza at the foot of the Bridge of Lions. This smallish grid of brick byways features pale Easter-egg-colored houses old as anything in town. Here, in fact, stands the much-hyped Oldest House, which dates back to 1727 and is more than 150 years younger than the oldest city itself. Earlier houses, little more than huts constructed of palm trees, burned down centuries ago.
This part of St. Augustine is every bit as old as the more touristy stretch of St. George Street, but the volume is turned down, way down. The tourist traffic in the narrow lanes has thinned, but the ubiquitous sightseeing trams, carrying a full freight of rubberneckers, roll through with regularity.
Although St. Augustine was founded and settled in 1565, it's worth noting that the French had already settled just up the coast at Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Fla. One of the reasons the Spaniards settled St. Augustine was to rid the area of interlopers and to protect the sea lanes to Spain. St. Augustine was the last port of call before treasure-laden galleons set sail on the long trans-Atlantic haul.
Long before the first huts went up by Matanzas Bay, St. Augustine was a Timucuan Indian village known as Seloy. Back then, in 1513, it was visited by Don Juan Ponce de Leon, adventurer, governor of Puerto Rico, reputed discoverer of the North American continent and a longtime seeker of the fabled Fountain of Youth. According to local lore, he found it at Seloy.
Today the site is home to a kitschy, melodramatic replay of some of the pivotal moments of early Augustinian history. After paying your way, you can watch a giant blue globe spin slowly through a dark void, all the while listening to a deeply sonorous voice explain the voyages of discovery. Or sit in a tiny planetarium for an introduction to the rudiments of stellar navigation.
And don't miss the chance to knock back a paper cup full of water drawn from the storied Fountain of Youth. Water from the fountain (which looks rather more like a puddle) tastes kind of brackish and is loaded with sulfur, iron and calcium. It's less rejuvenating than a glass of Coca-Cola, but at least you can say you've sipped the waters said to confer eternal youth.
Perhaps the best thing about visiting the Fountain of Youth complex is the trip up Magnolia Avenue to get there. This street, lined with scores of massive, moss-draped oaks, has been called, by National Geographic, one of the prettiest in the country.
Back on the trail of the city's no-cost sights, you can head to the center of town and the huge tile-roofed towers that proclaim St. Augustine's proud past as the ``Winter Newport'' of the late 1800s.
The towers spring from sprawling castle-like buildings that were once hotels representing the pinnacle of elegance. The Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar were built in a Spanish Renaissance Revival style that oil millionaire Henry Flagler thought complemented the city's historic ambience. He spared no expense in creating these pleasure palaces, and the response of the Eastern elite turned St. Augustine into one of Florida's first tourist hot spots.
by CNB