Good-bye St. Augustine!

I took the camera with me on my last walk thru the Campground.

Dow Museum of Historic Houses - St. Augustine, FL

This is a diagram of the property that I found online.

149 Cordova St,
Some background: Within the borders of the Dow Museum of Historic Houses, one city block contains more than 400 years of St. Augustine history. Among the courtyards and gardens, visitors can view archaeological records of a sixteenth-century hospital and cemetery, an eighteenth-century Spanish Colonial defense line, and the site of the 1863 reading of the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all of the slaves in Florida. Kenneth Worcester Dow was born in 1911. He first travelled to St. Augustine in the 1930s. Thoroughly enjoying his visit, he made St. Augustine his permanent home - and purchased the oldest house on the property, the 1790 Prince Murat House. By the early 1950s, Mr. Dow had acquired all nine historic homes on the block. Mr. Dow generously donated his entire collection of artwork, furniture and other antiques to the Museum of Arts & Sciences in Daytona Beach, FL, in 1989. The Dow Museum of Historic Houses was opened in late 2000 after 11 years of restoration. 
Link:  http://www.moas.org/dowmuseum.html 

Here are the pictures that we took:

The second-oldest structure on the property is the Dow House. This house was constructed by Antonio Canova in 1839, and was originally located where the William Dean Howells House currently stands on St. George Street.

In 1906, the Dow House was moved to its current Bridge Street location by Mary Hayden, the widow of a presperous hotel proprietor. She moved the structure so she could build the Howells and the Rose Houses as winter cottages for St. Augustine visitors.

Mr. Dow purchased the Dow House in 1941 from the oldest living resident in the city, Sarah McKinnon. At the time, Sarah McKinnon was 98 years old and the deal stated that Mr. Dow would grant her life tenancy in the house in exchange for ownership. The agreement was approved and Ms. McKinnon lived to be 103.

Dow House [1839] also above

See the face?

The Carpenter's House is characterized by its unique lean and mismatched building materials which were left over from the construction of the Spear and Worcester Houses. The tilt, however, is not a consequence of poor construction techniques; rather, it is a result of the house being detached from its foundation. This event most likely occurred during a hurricane and flood that struck the city in October 1944.

The house was built for Alberta Johnson, who was the sister of Marie Louise, wife of John Henry. Johnson's husband had passed away at an early age, leaving her with their two young daughters. John Henry arranged to have the house built for them to provide care for the family.

I popped my head inside and took this picture [Carpenters House]

and this one [Carpenter's House]

In 1906, the Worcester House was the second house constructed on the property by John Henry. When originally built, a large one-story porch wrapped around the front of the house but it was partially removed by Kenneth Dow in 1949. Shortly after the house was divided into apartments; one of which was occupied in the 1950s by Susan Alice Worcester, who was Mr. Dow's Aunt.

1906 [Worcester House]

[Worcester House]

St Augustine Historic District

Here are a few more pictures taken while we walked the Town

St Augustine: The Town Wall, The Public Burying Ground & Zero Milestone of Old Spanish Trail

The city was nearly 150 years old when the
Spanish military and local residents finally
decided enough was enough and began the
process of fortifying the entire town. St.
Augustine had been attacked a number of
times over the years, but an English assault
in 1702 was the "straw that broke the camel's
back."

Led by Governor James Moore, the large
English force and looted and sacked the city.
Even though he was unable to capture the
powerful Castillo de San Marcos, where
1,500 residents took shelter, Moore
devastated the old city.

Two years later in 1704, the Spanish began
construction of the Cubo line, a powerful
earthen wall backed by palmetto logs. From
the outworks of the Castillo de San Marcos,
the wall extended west across the northern
end of town to the San Sebastian River.

Along this line were the main gates to the city
and several larger fortifications called
redoubts. The redoubts added extra power to
the line and provided locations for artillery
emplacements.

During the yellow fever epidemic of 1821, this half-acre plot was set aside as a public cemetery for non-Catholics. It is also known as the Huguenot Cemetery. Many Protestant pioneers to the new Florida Territory are buried here. Often such burials, made at public expense, went unmarked. The Presbyterian Church has owned and maintained the cemetery since 1832. Interments were discontinued in 1884. The cemetery is not usually open to the public, however it is easily viewable from the street.

19th Century Mill, built in 1888

The Old Spanish Trail (the OST) was an auto trail that once spanned the United States with a full 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of roadway from ocean to ocean. It crossed eight states and 67 counties along the southern border of the United States. Work on the auto highway began in 1915 at a meeting held at the Battle House Hotel in Mobile, Alabama, and, by the 1920s, the trail linked St. Augustine, Florida, to San Diego, California, with its center and headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. The cities in between boasted a shared heritage of Spanish missions, forts and Spanish colonization.

Zero Milestone of the Spanish Trail

Visitor Map 11/15 - 11/18/12

Our blog is now a database of sorts, with visitors from around the world, searching for Campgrounds and information. Thanks for coming by, everyone is welcome!

Visitors since November 15, 2012

Historic St Augustine

You wouldn't believe Jim's surprise when he found his brother Bob sleeping on a bench in downtown St. Augustine...

Lightner Museum

Flagler College

Flagler College

City Hall