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St. Augustine was more than three centuries old when tourism awakened the sleepy Spanish village. Soon after Standard Oil partner Henry Flagler brought the railroad to town in the 1880s, well-heeled visitors began flocking to Flagler's luxury hotels as St. Augustine became known as the "American Riviera." Tourists walked the quaint, narrow streets and visited the city gate, the old Spanish fort, the alligator farm, the Fountain of Youth, and the four houses all claiming to be the oldest in the country. Postcard History Series: St. Augustine in the Gilded Age depicts the oldest city in the United States from the beginning of the picture postcard era to 1914, when a fire destroyed several downtown blocks. The volume presents more than 200 images from the archives of the St. Augustine Historical Society and the author's personal collection.
The 1920s was a time of unprecedented growth in the nation's oldest city. Fueled by a land boom that began in South Florida, St. Augustine was inundated with land speculators and new subdivisions. The city floated a million-dollar bond issue to construct the Bridge of Lions, and D.P. Davis filled in a marshland to build the magnificent subdivision of Davis Shores. A new coastal highway linked the town with beaches to the north and south and opened up St. Augustine's beautiful shoreline for development. All of this activity halted when the land boom collapsed in the late 1920s. St. Augustine in the Roaring Twenties details the roller-coaster events of the city in this exciting decade.
Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Florida Nonfiction Florida Historical Society Charlton Tebeau Book Award Arguably no man did more to make over a city—or a state—than Henry Morrison Flagler. Almost single-handedly, he transformed the east coast of Florida from a remote frontier into the winter playground of America’s elite. Mr. Flagler’s St. Augustine tells the story of how one of the wealthiest men in America spared no expense in transforming the country’s “Oldest City” into the “Newport of the South.” He built railroads into remote areas where men feared to tread and erected palatial hotels on swampland. He funded hospitals and churches and improved streets and parks...
Historic St. Augustine Research Institute William L. Proctor Award Henry Flagler's opulent Hotel Ponce de Leon drew worldwide praise from the day its elaborately carved doors opened in 1888. Built in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style, the architectural and engineering marvel featured the talents of a team of renowned artisans, including the designs of architects John Carrère, Thomas Hastings, and Bernard Maybeck, electricity by Thomas Edison, and interior decoration and stained glass windows by Louis Tiffany. Hotel Ponce de Leon is the first work to present the building's complete history and detail its transformation into the heart of Flagler College. Leslee Keys, who assisted in the restoration, recounts the complicated construction of the hotel--the first major structure to be built entirely of poured concrete--and the efforts to preserve it and restore it to its former glory. The methods used at Flagler College have been recognized as best practices in historic preservation and decorative arts conservation, and today the campus is one of Florida's most visited heritage tourism destinations.
Vilano and the North Beaches are perhaps most known as small, eclectic beach communities within sight of St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city. For centuries, people have flocked to this coastal playground by horse-drawn trolley, ferry, and more recently Florida's Coastal Highway, State Road A1A. They came for recreation, jobs, and sunny weather in the late 1800s, when Henry Flagler attracted Northerners to his "new and novel" hotels. Visitors were excited to learn the ocean was just across the bay. Tourism provided jobs for settlers, like the Minorcan, Usina, and Capo families, offering fun excursions. Nowhere else were horse-drawn trolleys delivering beachgoers across sand dunes to the sea. Like Ponce de León, who was smitten with the pristine beaches, the area's story is one of developing the land along an isolated coastline. Road and bridge construction after World War II encouraged migration as well as visitors to the beaches, fish camps, and Art Deco motor courts. This nostalgic 1950s look remains today, attracting those curious about the region's multicultural history.
St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States, founded in 1565. Through the use of watercolor and black and white drawings and evocative, informative text, St. Augustine: Sketchbook Journal takes the reader on a journey through the historical neighborhoods with stops at landmarks and other points of interest. The book is an artistic celebration of the city’s famous Spanish-style architecture as well as the Mediterranean Revival and British Colonial. Beyond the famous architecture, the artist captures the personalities and wildlife of St. Augustine through her delicate work and loving eye.
St. Johns County and St. Augustine are some of the earliest settled areas in the United States, and both are home to fascinating history. The area's story is filled with tales from Native Americans, early European settlers and modern-day Floridians. In some places, the habitants of those historical moments have remained. From the Castillo de San Marcos to the Huguenot Cemetery and the authentic old drugstore, the city and the county are filled with fascinating and terrifying stories of lingering spirits. Join photojournalist couple Elizabeth and Bob Randall as they recount the stories of the things that haunt one of America's oldest regions.
Tampa's Davis Islands has long been among the most desirable places to live on Florida's west coast. Built from mud dredged from the bottom of the Tampa Bay, it's possible few thought the project would amount to very much, with the exception of its creator, David P. Davis. The developer and Tampa native Davis purchased the dredged land in the 1920s during the Florida land boom; the gamble paid off in dividends, as the Davis Islands made him wildly rich and nationally famous. He followed the Islands up with a subdivision twice its size in St. Augustine, which he named Davis Shores. Davis sold his Tampa development in August 1926, but he slipped into debt and died under mysterious circumstances while en route to Europe aboard a luxury liner only months later. Though their creator did not live to see it, work on Davis Islands continued, and the development ultimately became an unmitigated success. Join author Rodney Kite-Powell as he examines the history of one of Florida's most famous neighborhoods.
St. Augustine, America's oldest continuously occupied city, is a unique and enchanting travel destination. This book presents more than 70 sites in their historical context. From the famed Fountain of Youth to the Castillo de San Marcos, from the Old City Jail to Henry Flagler's three beautiful hotels, from the Oldest House to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, St. Augustine has 500 years of history waiting to be explored. Arranged in chronological order, this book offers a digestible description of each of the city's main time periods, from 1513 to the present, and then describes associated attractions you can visit today. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series