Historic Walks in St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine was the Spanish Empire's bastion against the expansion of British colonial America throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  It became British in 1763, Spanish again after the American Revolution, American after the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819 which made Florida a territory of the United States, Confederate during the Civil War, and American once again when the war was over.  In the late nineteenth century, St. Augustine became a destination for Gilded Age titans of industry such as Henry Morrison Flagler.  This charming city has preserved many of its historic buildings and makes for wonderful walks for lovers of history and architecture.

The city of St. Augustine runs a parking garage close to the visitor information center.  The parking fee is $10 (flat fee per entry).  I would recommend this if you are going to remain in the city all day.  There might be more convenient options for those who are wanting to see some of the city during the day and then go out to the beaches in the afternoon, but parking is a bit of a challenge in the historic district.  

On my visit, rather than spend the money on one of the trolley tours, I decided to purchase a book for $2.95 at the visitor center which offers five different self-guided walking tours with color photos of the various points of interest.  The tours in the book include the following: (1) the Castillo San Marcos, (2) St. George Street, (3) the Plaza area, (4) the Flagler buildings, and (5) the neighborhood south of King Street.

The Castillo de San Marcos is one of the oldest surviving structures in the United States.  It is well preserved and has several informative exhibits in the rooms of the fort.  It is maintained by the National Park Service and requires a $7.00 fee to tour the grounds.  The walk up along the top of the fortress provides some amazing views of St. Augustine's harbor and the surrounding areas.

After touring the Castillo San Marcos, I walked through the old city gate and down St. George Street.  My self-guided tour book pointed out the historic homes along its stretch and descriptions of some of the past residents of the area.  Plaques on the buildings often provided additional information.  The street is lined with one to two story houses, with architectural designs dating from the first Spanish era to the antebellum period.  Some of the homes are reproductions and not original structures.  Most of the buildings now function has tourist shops, giving the area a bit of a kitschy feel.  You will even find some people walking around in colonial garb.

During my tour of St. George Street, I ate a baja style burrito at A1A Burrito Works;"The Taco Shop," which provided a tasty and inexpensive lunch.  Since it was hot outside, I also bought a gourmet popsicle from Hyppo, a peanut butter and banana flavored one called the "Elvis."

The Plaza tour covers several historical buildings in the center of St. Augustine such as the Government House, the Seth Wakeman House and the First National Bank Building.   The Plaza tour also goes through the park, which includes historic markers discussing the The Saint Augustine Movement, demonstrations which took place during the Civil Rights era. The guide itself does not say anything about the demonstrations, possibly because the monuments were added after the guide's publication.

Standard Oil magnate Henry Flagler built three hotels in St. Augustine during the Gilded Age.  The first was the Ponce de Leon Hotel, which is now the campus of Flagler College, the Alcazar Hotel (which now serves as the Lightner Museum) and the Casa Monica Hotel. These buildings were designed by Carrere and Hastings, the New York architectural firm the designed the New York Public Library.

As is usual with summertime in Florida, the grey clouds were threatening an afternoon downpour, so I decided to take the tour of the Flagler College buildings.  The tour is $10 and shows you the magnificent architecture of the Ponce de Leon Hotel, the Tiffany windows, the ornate dining room, the ladies sitting room and the lavishly manicured grounds.  After the tour, I followed my guidebook's walking tour of the surrounding buildings and residences which had been associated with the hotel.

The final walking tour goes through a primarily residential area south of King Street and provides some fine examples of architecture, including colonial, antebellum and Victorian homes.  

Overall, St. Augustine impressed me with its array of historic architecture.  Those interested in colonial America or the Gilded Age should be attracted to its many buildings from those eras of American history.

Traveller's Rest, Nashville, Tennessee

I lived in Nashville for nearly six years, two years in the late 1990s and nearly four in the mid-2000s. As an avid historian of the antebellum South, I have visited several of Middle Tennessee's antebellum homes such as the Hermitage, Belle Meade Plantation, the Belmont Mansion, Rattle & Snap Plantation, Rippavilla, and Carnton Plantation. Somehow, in all of these weekend excursions, I had missed Travellers Rest, probably one of the most important homes in early Tennessee history. Recently, I decided finally to pay a visit.

The house is one of the oldest surviving structures in the state of Tennessee. Built in 1799 by Judge John Overton, an attorney and a native of Virginia of Scotch-Irish extraction who had settled in Middle Tennessee around 1779. Judge Overton has a important place in Tennessee history. He was one of the state's first supreme judges, close friend and advisor to Andrew Jackson and co-founder of the city of Memphis.

The original house was designed in Federal style and contained a room where young men would read law with Judge Overton. It was expanded for the first time in 1808 and again in 1828. The style of the rooms is somewhat spare, although there are several interesting items of furniture. Some items are original to the house while others are original to the time period.

Judge Overton played an instrumental role in assisting Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson with navigating the legal issues surrounding their marriage. Rachel had been married to Captain Lewis Robards, a Kentucky land speculator. The marriage had not been happy and they separated in 1790. Believing she had obtained a divorce, she married Andrew Jackson in Natchez, Mississippi. However, after finding out the divorce had not been complete, she remarried Andrew in 1794. While the couple believed the issue had been laid to rest, opponents of Jackson brought up the affair in an attempt to smear him and his wife during the election of 1828, which Jackson lost.

Judge Overton remained a bachelor until he was 54 when he married Mary McConnell White, daughter of General James White of Knoxville. Mary had three children by Judge Overton and five from a previous marriage. Remarkably for the times, all of her children survived to adulthood. Tradition holds that Mary was skilled at herbal medicine. This could have been from her interactions with Native Americans.

Unlike other Civil War battlefields that have been preserved and made into national parks, the Battle of Nashville can only be seen through some scattered historic markers and earthworks. One portion of this battle was fought near Traveller's Rest in the peach orchard. However, one cannot determine where this took place on site. While I thought the tour guide I had at Travellers Rest was very knowledgable, I would have liked to have learned more about what happened on the site during the course of the war and during the battle.

The site of Traveller's Rest also in an important prehistoric site as well. When Judge Overton built the house, he discovered several skulls while digging out his cellar. He initially called the place Golgotha, the site identified in the Bible as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and translated as "the place of the skull." Archeologists believe that the site was a Mississippian village and the house contains some artifacts discovered on the property.

Overall, the tour of the grounds was informative and full of stories about prominent individuals with whom Judge Overton had contact. The guide possessed a detailed knowledge about the several items of furniture and artifacts in the house. Travellers Rest is highly recommended for history lovers.