Post Construction and the Gilded Age 1879-1900
Growth of the St. Johns County School System
In 1879, Mill Creek School (full history) was started by the 4th Superintendent of Schools Thomas A. Pacetti. By 1881 the St. John’s County School system was firmly established. Compromises had been made with the Catholic Church and nuns were paid for teaching through county taxes. Twenty-five schools had been established across the county by this time, although not all of them were in operation in the 1881 school year. (List of teacher’s names and a page from the account book)
In 1882, it grew further. (See list of teachers and another page from the 1882 account book.) In 1883, the trustee list for the schools is included. 1884 marked the return of the American Missionary Association to St. Augustine. They worked as teachers at Public School #2. For most of the decade it was Emma Caughey and Helen D. Barton. (List of teachers 1884-1885)
John Papino
John Papino served as town Marshall in 1885. He served as St. Augustine councilman from 1891-97, 1899-1901, and 1902-1903. His being shot by the town Marshal Charles Benet in a City Hall meeting (where the marshal was not charged) marked the end of reconstruction in St. Augustine.
Communications
The city became connected to the world-at-large with the telegraph, railroads, and finally in the 1880s the telephone.
Presidential Visits
Two U. S. Presidents took the St. Augustine tour. First U. S. Grant took a tour of St. Augustine after leaving office. He was followed by President Chester Arthur. President Arthur was the first sitting president to visit St. Augustine.
The 1880’s
By the 1880s the population was 4535 for St. Johns County. There were only a few other towns in the county: Carterville, Fruit Cove, Switzerland, Matanzas, Moultrie, Orangedale, Picolata, Racy Point, Remington Park, and of course, St. Augustine. It had two railways: the St. John’s Railway and the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax River Railway. If one took the St. John’s Railway to Tocoi they could take a ferry to West Tocoi and the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway. There were also steamers and stages. The newspapers consisted of The St. Augustine Press J. P. Whitney (established 1870), The Florida Press J. W. Whitney, editor (established 1873), St. John’s Weekly, C. M. Cooper, editor (established 1879) and The Naturalist in Florida, a bimonthly with C. J. Maynard, editor (established 1884). The Bank of St. Augustine was the only bank; it was started by the capital of G. W. Gibbs and John T. Dismukes. Surprisingly, besides the public schools, there was a kindergarten school. The Newport of the South begins before the Flagler Era with Franklin W. Smith, Kingsland, Lorillard, Edgar, Howard, Alexander Wilson and others.
Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church (Grace United Methodist)
In 1881 George L Adkins owner of the Florida House decided to help start a Methodist Episcopal Church. The church started in the Government house with Rev. Samuel D. Payne as its first pastor. They first met in the black Methodist Church on St. George Street (this congregation later became Trinity United Methodist Church located on Bridge Street today. The white Methodist Episcopal Church was organized as Olivet Methodist Episcopal and the building was located on King and Tolomato (now Cordova) in 1884. When Henry Flagler needed land for the Alcazar Hotel he purchased the Olivet Church and built in exchange Grace Methodist Episcopal Church (see picture) (located on 8 Carrera Street as Grace United Methodist Church today). The church opened its doors for worship on January 1, 1888. The new building was designed by Carrere and Hastings and erected by McGuire and McDonald.
Founding of the St. Augustine Historical Society
The St. Augustine Historical Society started in 1883 in the old Presbyterian manse on St. George Street. The original members included Dr. Milton Waldo, the Presbyterian minister, Dr. DeWitt Webb, and Charlie Johnson. The society was originally named The St. Augustine Institute of Science and Historical Society.
Restoration of the Castillo
In 1884 President Chester A. Arthur signed into law an appropriation of $5,000 for the restoration and preservation the Castillo de San Marco. More appropriations were made in 1888 and 1909.
Fire Department
In October 1885, the fire department was established. W. Milford Ingraham was the chief and H. Dewell was the assistant chief. Flagler started the subscription for more fire equipment and began the PDL Steam Fire Engine Company with J. C. Tosbach foreman. An African-American fire company was organized with James Morris as foreman with a Mansfield fire engine.
Apache Indians Come to Fort Marion (partial list of captives)
In 1886 members of the Apache Nation were held at Fort Marion including one of the wives of Geronimo and son. Geronimo (autobiography) did NOT stay in St. Augustine. There were over 447 prisoners at the fort. The first child born at the fort was Geronimo’s. His wife christened the child “Marion,” (letter about Apache Indians) after the fort, and a silver tag reading “Marion Geronimo, September 13, 1886,” always hung from the babe’s wicker cradle. This medal was given by the War Department. It is located on the Apache reservation today at Mascalero Rez. Chihuahua’s daughter was also born in St. Augustine and given the name “Coquina.” His son was named “Osceola”. With the Apaches came one African-American named “Indian Dick”. He stayed when the Apaches left and changed his name to Dick Hicks.
Col. Pratt came to Fort Marion and chose 62 of the older Apache children to go to Carlisle. Included in this group was Asa Daklugie, the sons of Chatto (the scout who convinced Geronimo to surrender) and Geronimo’s son, Chappo. 1/4 of the Apache children died in Carlisle. (Description of Cha-ja-la Dance held at Fort Marion). Chappo, himself, later died at Mobile Bay and be buried in the National Cemetery with 12 others (including Larry Fun the cousin of Geronimo.)
American Period - The Flagler Gilded Age - The Poured Concrete City.
1887 Fire
In 1887 a fire swept St. Augustine and destroyed the Cathedral. The fire started in the paint room of C. F. Hamblen’s store. Even the fire department was burned out. The cathedral is rebuilt with the help of the architect James Renwick who added a tower. The first marriage was held July 19, 1888 Mr. Emanuel Capo and Miss Lillian Monson.
William G. Warden
William G. Warden another Standard Oil associate, built Warden’s Castle (picture). His contribution to St. Augustine was The St. Augustine Improvement Company organized in 1885.
Isaac Cruft Brings a Quality Hotel Experience to St. Augustine at the San Marco Hotel
Isaac Crufts could be viewed as one of the first and much underrated developers of Florida. The San Marco Hotel, opened in 1885, was the main competition to Henry Flagler’s hotels. Henry Flagler and his second wife, Ida Alice Shrouds, spent their honeymoon in this hotel. In part, this beautiful new hotel convinced Flagler that St. Augustine had possibilities. The hotel was unique for St. Augustine in that it sat on twenty acres of land and created its own environment.
Mr. Isaac W. Cruft of Boston built the San Marco. Originally a ship builder, Mr. Cruft was an established hotel owner when he built the San Marco. His first hotel was the Maplewood in the White Mountains of New York, and in March 1882, he built the Magnolia Hotel on the St. Johns River near Green Cove Springs. It could be said that Cruft was the “first” person to transform St. Augustine from a backwater town.
Six stories high, the San Marco was built on the highest ground in St. Augustine, next to the Castillo de San Marcos. It had a view of the bay, ocean, and surrounding country. The San Marco’s towers could be seen 15 miles out in the ocean. There were roughly 275 rooms in 1885 and the hotel could hold about 600 guests. The cost was $2.50 to $6 per day. Corridors extended the entire length of the hotel, with guest rooms on both sides. Guests could use the large elevator or the stairs to access the upper floors.
The office, parlors, reading and writing-rooms occupied most of the first floor. The dining-hall was west of the main hotel and was a large, lofty room with windows on three sides. A theatre was attached to the hotel where dances and entertainments were held. The hotel offered a newsstand, barbershop, billiard room, private docks, and a café in addition to tennis and croquet courts.
For a guest at this hotel the week started with a sacred concert on Sunday evening and end with a card party on Saturday night. One unique opportunity in the hotel was that the guests were able to pick their own vegetables from the hotel garden for their meals.
As the competitor to Flagler’s hotels, the San Marco advertisements used “built on natural ground,” “high and dry,” and “large and airy” to capitalize on the Flagler Hotels being built on a former tidal area.
Henry Flagler stole the hotel manager Osborn Seavey and the builders McGuire and McDonald away from Cruft for his new hotels.
Villa Zorayda and Franklin Waldo Smith
The architectural rebirth of the city started in 1883 with the building of Villa Zorayda by Franklin Smith. This is the second house in the United States built of poured concrete. He modeled it after one of the wings of the Alhambra Castle in Granada Spain. He chose the name Zorayda from Washington Irving’s book on the Alhambra. Over the front door is the inscription in Arabic letters: Wa La ghalib ill Allah--” There is no conqueror but God.” This house incorporates features such as coquina (resembling the Castillo) and Moorish architecture for the Spanish heritage of the city. There were to be more Moorish concrete poured houses. (picture)
The coquina mixed with Portland concrete technique that Smith used in his house is the foundation of the Flagler era building in St. Augustine. Flagler used the technique to build the Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar. Smith then used it to build the Casa Monica.
Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
Thomas Hines Coleman and Governor W. D. Boxham worked together to establish the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. In December of 1884 the Florida Deaf and Blind School was completed. The school’s first graduation was held in 1898 with Artemas W. Pope and Cora Carlton as the first graduates. One former student that almost everyone knows is the famous Ray Charles.
Ponce de Leon, Alcazar, Sunnyside Hotel
The crown jewels of the Victorian Era in St. Augustine are the Ponce de Leon Hotel with it’s sisters: the Alcazar (picture)and the Casa Monica (architect and built by Franklin W. Smith, builder S. B. Mance). 1888 was the year of the great Spanish revival in large St. Augustine buildings. Henry Flagler started his hotel chain in St. Augustine and railway from Jacksonville to this city (in 2000 he was listed as a great Floridian.). When the Ponce de Leon was built a small hotel already existed in a corner of the lot. This hotel was moved to the Casa Monica site and was sold to Franklin Smith. Today one piece of that hotel is the oldest hotel left in St. Augustine - The Sunnyside Hotel.
Rotunda
In 1883, Henry Flagler attended the first Ponce de Leon Day. The Ponce de Leon Festival was the recreation of St. Augustine’s and Florida’s history; real or imagined. Flagler was impressed with the Spanish lore and the name and idea for the new hotel came from this experience. (The first Ponce de Leon Day)
This formal hotel opened January 10 of 1888. Because it was a winter hotel it was open only from January through April. The closing time varied depending on the amount of business to the hotel. The hotel attracted famous people from all over the world in its early years, but as the Flagler system moved further south, it became only a stop instead of a destination. The Ponce de Leon Hotel is one of the most unique hotels in the world: Designed by Carrere and Hastings (who also designed Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, Grace United Methodist Church, the Alcazar Hotel and Kirkside). The inside was completed by artisans including the architect Thomas Hastings, Tiffany, Maynard and Schladermundt. Visitors to the Ponce de Leon Hotel include: Grover Francis Folsom Cleveland, Harriet Lane, Mrs. U. S. Grant, Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, Levi Parsons Morton, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding and Lyndon Banes Johnson. Business leaders were also part of the hotel life including: General Horace Porter, John Jacob Astor, John D. Rockefeller, George M. Pullman, and Henry Dexter. It had shops in Peacock Alley - where people watched while the rich shopped including art studio, gift shop gown shop, newsstand, linen shop, and barber. While guests had the use of the Alcazar Casino they also had two daily concerts , weekly dances , a library , smoking rooms, writing and billiard rooms , playrooms for children and a large men’s only bar. Later distinguished managers included Clarence B. Knott and Robert Murray.
The Alcazar
The Alcazar Hotel opened in December of 1888. The Alcazar was designed to be a less formal hotel than the Ponce de Leon and slightly cheaper. Originally it was the overflow hotel but its popularity exceeded that of the Ponce de Leon. Besides the informality it contained the casino. Not a gambling casino, but an entertainment center. The courtyard of the Alcazar Hotel was used for businesses including Greenlief & Crosby, Jewelers. It had its own band, informal dinning room, and grand parlor. The swimming pool was 120′ long and 50′ wide and covered by a glass roof that spanned 32 feet. The water from the artesian well drilled by Daniel Dull of New York to 12 inch diameter produced water at 7,000 gallons per minute and maintained a constant 86 degree temperature. The hotel advertised Russian and Turkish baths, electric baths, cold plunge, tropical gardens, bowling, tennis courts, cafĂ©, concert rooms, music, and bicycling beyond the swimming and the casino. One could also have alcohol, salt, or cologne rubs. There was a gym available with pulleys, weights, parallel and horizontal bars and punching bags. The one guest that always preferred to stay there rather than the Ponce de Leon was Thomas Alva Edison. One of the most popular managers associated with the Alcazar was Joseph Pearson Greaves
Flagler had some unexpected competition from his associate, Franklin Smith. (and was in competition with others —see Flagler Competition. In arranging the land acquisition, Flagler gave Smith land and the Sunnyside Hotel, which was moved across the street to the site of the Casa Monica Hotel. Flagler encouraged Smith to fix up the Sunnyside, but Smith had much bigger plans – he moved the Sunnyside Hotel and built a 250-room hotel on its site.
The beautiful new building was concrete, with less coquina than the Ponce de Leon or the Alcazar. Deep river sand was used, which made the color of the building more dense and uniform than the Ponce de Leon or Alcazar. Advertising for the new hotel focused on its Spanish-Moorish structure, Artesian sulfur baths, French cuisine, and Table d’hôte.  All of the suites in the Casa Monica were equipped with closets, gaslights, gas heat, and electric bells to call for service. Baths were located on each floor. With its cottages, the hotel could accommodate four hundred guests.
Smith had trouble completing the hotel; a plumbers’ strike in January of 1888 sent all the plumbers back to New York (The Florida Times Union, January 7, 1888) and a fire at the Nelson, Matter & Co. factory in Michigan delayed a shipment of furniture. The building opened on January 17, 1888, a week after the Ponce de Leon. The opening was not a success. Smith was plagued by low occupancy and was unable to compete with the Ponce de Leon.
The hotel officially opened on January 30, and by March 28 Smith was cutting back expenses by closing off two floors and laying off two or three dozen people. The hotel was sold in April to Henry Flagler for $325,000. On July 16 the name of the hotel was changed to the Hotel Cordova. In the coming years Flagler kept the manager of the Hotel – E.N. Wilson. However, in the summer of 1889 with the assistance of O. D. Seavey the interior of the hotel is renovated especially the kitchen area.
Opening and dedication of Grace Episcopal Methodist Church
The church was started in 1881 by George L Atkins and Sons hotel proprietors from Asbury Park NJ. They came to St. Augustine and purchased the old Florida house. At that time, there was no Methodist Church serving white people in town. The church was organized in the fall of 1881 in the Florida House Liberty Hall in the Governor’s house. The first pastor was Rev. Samuel D. Payne. For a while they met at the Black Methodist Church on St. George Street in the mornings while the black church met in the afternoons.
The building of the original church, Olivet Methodist, was located on the present site of the Alcazar Hotel at the corner of Tolomato and King. In 1888 Flagler made an offer to build a new church and parsonage. On the exchange of land from Flagler the offer was accepted and Carrere and Hastings designed the Spanish Renaissance, poured concrete building and McGuire and McDonald built it at a cost of $85,000.
The terra cotta work on the building includes flumes, griffins, and fish swimming in rippling water. Of course, the two striking connections to the Ponce de Leon Hotel are the cherub on the pulpit and the chandelier that resembles the old chandelier from the Ponce de Leon dining room.
On January 1, 1888 the first services were held in Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. The Pastor, Reverend Charles C. McLean and his family occupied the parsonage the previous month. On December 29, 1886 the church voted on the name Grace Episcopal Methodist Church. Dr. McLean and his family moved into the new parsonage in December 1887. Bishop Mallalieu dedicated the church on January 15.
McGuire and McDonald, Dr. Anderson, and Osborne Seavey
McGuire and McDonald were the builders of the Ponce De Leon, Alcazar, Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, Memorial Presbyterian Church (picture), Kirkside (Henry Flagler’s St. Augustine home (remains), Seavey’s house,today the Union Generals House (picture) and the Ingraham house among other buildings. Franklin Smith provided the means of building the hotels (poured concrete), Dr. Andrew Anderson became the loyal friend that helped put together the property, and Osborne Seavey was the manager who helped the architects design a working hotel. Seavey also contributed by the selection of the hotel furnishings.Â
Hotel Life
The hotel catered to the rich and famous with fine dining and entertainment. Besides the bands that played in the hotels, there was the Casino across the street. A large baseball diamond built not far from the train station was designed to keep everyone entertained. The 3rd manager for the hotel was Robert Murray. He managed the hotel for 35 years. Behind the Ponce de Leon was the Artist studio (picture). Artists came from across the country to paint for the guests. Fort Marion was used as a golf course (this was through the St. Augustine Golf Club that had Flagler people as members.) One visitor to the Cordova Hotel was Archibald Clavering Gunter (1847-1907). He was the writer of Florida Enchantment (later to become a St. Augustine movie) and a book about Susan Turnbull.
Technical Innovations
Flagler brought many technical innovations to St. Augustine including: electricity, bathrooms with running water (actually the whole city was getting running fresh water). He brought water from Moultrie Creek watershed and treated it in his own plant, 4 1/2 miles from the PDL) There was a sewage system, and asphalt roads. The electricity (with a system designed by Thomas Edison) was in part generated from an artesian well that had a generator placed over it. For as much attention that is paid to Thomas Edison more should be paid to one of his employ, William Hammer, who spent the whole first year after the hotel opened in St. Augustine running the plant. For the rest of the electricity, they burnt 10 tons of hard coal every 24 hours. In 1888, this was the first building in the State of Florida with electricity. (Electric light bulb being invented in 1879.)
Cordova Hotel
Henry Flagler bought the Casa Monica after the 1888 season. He renamed it the Cordova Hotel and Henry Flagler had the street name changed from Tolomato (after the old cemetery) to Cordova. The street on the other side of the Alcazar was changed from Bronson [after Dr. Oliver Bronson] to Granada. The Hotel Cordova was never as successful as the Ponce or the Alcazar especially after Flagler opened more hotels further south in Daytona, Palm Beach and Miami. Later a covered bridge was built between the Alcazar and the Cordova and it officially became an annex to the Alcazar Hotel.
Return of Carrie Semple
March 21, 1889 - Miss Carrie Semple returned to St. Augustine. She was an early Freedmen’s Bureau schoolteacher. The newspaper commented on returning to a city transformed by the new hotels and growth. She had taught in the Indian school at Carlisle Pa, (with Sarah Mather) and in Texas.
Dr. F. F. Smith and Dr. Anderson
On May 13, 1888 Dr. F. F. Smith and Dr Anderson sailed for Europe. They visited various hospitals and famous baths. On their return they occupied offices in the Alcazar close to the Casino and the baths. However, they made an important side trip to the island of Minorca where Dr. Anderson heard the song of the Minorcans and recognized it as they same song that he heard in St. Augustine - The Fromajadas.
Florida East Coast Railway (more information)
In 1883 The Rand-McNally Official Railway Guide and Handbook listed Jacksonville as serviced by the Savannah, Florida & Western, Fernandina & Jacksonville, and Florida Central & Western (Henry Plant’s railroad). Jacksonville was then a leading winter resort with the St. James, St. Marks, Windsor, and Carlton Hotels. St. Augustine’s only railroad link was from the St. Johns River landing at Tocoi.
The St. Johns Railway was incorporated on December 31, 1858. During the Civil War the Union Army destroyed what little was built of the railroad. The road was fifteen miles long, a three-foot narrow gauge railroad. It was a horse car railway in 1877, and by 1881 Richard McLaughlin was President with William Astor and J. F. D. Lanier as directors.
The second railway was the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad. The first meeting was held on February 1, 1881 with Samuel B. Hubbart as President. By July 23, 1881 the first six miles were started. There were takeover attempts for the under financed railroad, including one from former General Joshua Chamberlain of Maine (one of the United States heroes at Gettysburg). The last spike was put into place on May 19, 1883. It was a narrow gauge railroad that opened for business on June 28, 1883. W. Jerome Green was the President with W. L. Crawford as the treasurer and general manager; G. D. Ackerly was the general passenger agent. By October 29, 1883 there were seven stations between St. Augustine and Jacksonville.
Henry Flagler became a director on December 9, 1885 and President on January 1, 1886. An agreement was reached to construct a bridge over the St. Johns River in Jacksonville and allow the usage of the Jacksonville terminal and depot for 99 years.
Henry Flagler purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railroad on December 31, 1885. In 1887 he acquired the St. Johns and Halifax River Road. By 1888, Flagler built a branch to San Mateo for the orange shippers and was in the process of converting 37 miles of railroad from narrow to standard gauge using steel rails. The St. Augustine Daily News in a February 1, 1889 article states that the schooners Charlotte Sibley and Fannie A. Gorham were unloading the long looked for cargoes of iron needed to complete the laying of the standard gauge track from Jacksonville to St. Augustine. After improvements, the trip was expected to take one hour. In 1892, the road operated to New Smyrna, and by February 1893, the road was completed to Rockledge on the Indian River. In 1892, the railway was re-named the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway. For the winter of 1892-93 the connections were at Jacksonville, Palatka, and Rockledge.  At Rockledge, passengers could transfer to a steamer for Indian River and Lake Worth (future Palm Beach). In 1893, the road started toward Palm Beach. By 1894, a steamer took passengers to Jupiter, and by 1896, the road extended to Miami.
On September 7, 1895 the name was changed to the Florida East Coast Railway. The general offices were located in St. Augustine in the Union Station.  The roundhouse, car sheds and repair shops were also located in St. Augustine. When the Union station was completed the old station on Orange Street faded into history.  Flagler upgraded the lines to standard gauge track and continued the line to Key West. He built cities and grand hotels along the way. He also operated steam ships with took passengers to his hotels in the Bahamas, Cuba and Panama. In St. Augustine was the railroad’s machine shop. He also built the Union Station for the city. While the Union Station at first linked many railroads, in the end he owned all of them. He also built a small park by the station to welcome visitors. The small park is all that is left today (picture). The site is now the location of the St. Augustine Fire Station on Route 1.
Telephone
April 16, 1888 marks the beginning of telephone communication between St. Augustine and Jacksonville.
Havana & St. Augustine Cigar
In 1889 B. Genovar, FB Genovar and Dr. Morena created the first cigar company in St. Augustine. The company was called Havana & St. Augustine Cigar Manufacturing Company. It employed 50 people.
Joe Perry
In 1889 Joe Perry made his entrance into St. Johns County as the new deputy sheriff of the newly elected sheriff Harry Floyd. He was immediately nicknamed “Long Joe Perry” for his size. He was 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighing in at 213 pounds. His reputation was that “when he goes for a man he is bound to bring him back dead or alive.” (Deputy Sheriff Perry and Steve Gormax) (Deputy Sheriff Perry becomes Sheriff) (Sheriff Perry and Robbers) (Sheriff Perry and Sam English) (Deputy Si Davis) (Si Davis arrest) (John Ash and Henry Fern) (Sheriff Perry and mentally disturbed prisoners) (Sheriff Perry 1895 misc.) (Si Davis became sheriff from 1897-1901) (Joe Perry was sheriff from 1889-97, 1901-1919)
Former President Grover Cleveland returns to the Ponce de Leon
March 20, 1889 the Grover Cleveland arrived at St. Augustine as guests of Henry Flagler. They were met at the Union Station by 500 people, Mr. and Mrs. Flagler and the Ponce de Leon band. The President again stayed in the pink bridal chamber. The President enjoyed a tour the baths at the Casino, a two hour drive over the city, an informal reception at the hotel and a fireworks display.
Frederick Douglass (photo)
Also in 1889 St. Augustine got another important visitor Frederick Douglass. Mr. Douglass had just given a speech in Jacksonville when he was talked into coming to St. Augustine. His reception and speech were held in Genovar’s Opera house with 700 people in attendance. Mayor Dewhurst introduced Douglass.
Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church Built (see also the almost rebuilding of Trinity Episcopal)
Henry Flagler offered to build a new church for the Presbyterians. This had been an original piece of the Flagler vision as The Florida Times Union reported on the opening of the Ponce de Leon Hotel that Flagler was going to use the old Dragoon lot for a new Presbyterian Church. It was to be built of concrete in the renaissance style of architecture. By December of 1888 Carrere and Hastings completed the building plans.
Henry Flagler’s daughter, Jennie Louise Benedict, had a baby girl on February 9, 1889. The baby, named Margery, died when she was only a few hours old.  Doctors in New York thought that Jennie Louise would recover sooner in Florida so the Benedict family yacht Oneida was enlisted for the voyage. This was the same yacht on which President Cleveland received his secret operation for cancer. Henry Flagler met the yacht in Charleston South Carolina. Jennie Louise died on March 25 in sight of Fort Sumter as her father waited at the docks. Harry Flagler and Benedict were on board with her. Jennie Louise’s body was taken back to New York and buried beside her mother.
The new church building was built on the corner of Valencia and Sevilla streets. The Venetian Renaissance poured concrete church was designed by Carrere and Hastings and built by McGuire and McDonald. The groundbreaking for Memorial Presbyterian was April 24, 1889. Present at the groundbreaking were Henry Flagler, Ida Alice Flagler, Harry Flagler, Miss Benedict and Mr. Mitchell.
Flagler made it a race against time to get the building completed in less than a year for the dedication service. A bonus was offered the workers if the building could be completed in that time. McGuire and McDonald pushed their employees and by August the walls were almost completed and the roof was being put into place. At that point, McGuire and McDonald asked for a half-day off on a Saturday for a picnic. The employees and their families were entertained on Anastasia Island.
The service dedicating the new church to the memory of Jennie Louise Flagler Benedict took place on March 16, 1890. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, wife of the President of the United States, Mr. and Mrs. Levi Morton, the Vice President and his family were among the congregation. Harry Flagler and Frederick H. Benedict were also present. On April 4, 1890 the building was conveyed from Henry M. Flagler and Ida Alice Flagler to the trustees of the Presbyterian Church. The wording of the conveyance stated: “…shall be a temple devoted to the worship of God and the teaching of that saving faith in which she lived and died…erected in the City of St. Augustine Florida a church edifice in loving commemoration of her spotless life, her virtues and her Christian devotion.”
Flagler donated the stained-glass windows in his daughter’s memory in 1902, each a part of the Apostle’s Creed. Two of the artifacts of the church also are for Jennie Louise – her husband, Frederick H. Benedict, donated the great baptismal font, and the lectern bible was the gift of Dr. George G. Shelton, the New York physician who traveled with her on the Oneida.
The sounding board over the pulpit is shaped like a huge shell. This links the church to the Ponce de Leon Hotel with the shells scattered throughout the building.
The Alicia Hospital
On April 7, 1888 before the idea of an “Alicia Hospital” was conceived, the children of the St. Augustine Loyal Temperance held a fair at Union chapel on Grenada Street for a hospital in St. Augustine.
The Alicia Hospital, formerly Dr. Sloggett’s home, was located on Marine Street. In 1889, Dr. Andrew Anderson was elected president of the board of trustees. The hospital began operations in the winter of 1890 after Henry Flagler deeded the concrete structure and grounds to the board of trustees. When it opened, Alicia was the only public hospital in the area from Jacksonville to Daytona. The hospital had a trained nurse – Miss Aurora Smith from Bellevue Hospital in New York. Dr. Anderson, Dr. DeWitt Webb, Dr. Smith and Dr. Shine were the original medical staff. They served 3 months of donated service each.
The main building consisted of a central hall with reception room, physician’s office and private room on one side. On the other side of the central hall were the superintendent’s room and room for private patients. The 2nd story was the white women’s ward with 8 beds and 4 private rooms. In the pavilion were the white men’s ward, music room kitchen and pantry. In the second pavilion were the Negro men’s and women’s ward, 2 nurses’ rooms and laundry. There were bathrooms for each ward. Indigents were accepted for free, others paid on a sliding scale. By 1892 the hotel employees were contributing part of their salary as an insurance plan. For the Ponce de Leon Hotel alone this amounted to over $700.
The Hospital Association placed its money in Standard Oil stock to be held in trust for the hospital. From 1888 to 1896 they raised about $30,000. With the interest and dividends from the stock, they had contributed around $50,000 by 1896. Much of the money raised, paid for the treatment of patients who were unable to afford hospital care.
East Coast Hospital
Railway employees first went to the Alicia Hospital but “space reserved was so inadequate and the attention so poor that during a latter part of the year none of the employees needing attention could be prevailed upon to enter the hospital” Next they rented a house (at least for the whites – blacks were treated in a barn). Fifty cents a month was assessed from each employee for their health care.
The original building (East Coast Hospital) was occupied in 1891. The hospital was originally for the treatment of the ill and injured among the employees and their families of the F. E. C. Railway throughout the state. In the 1894 Chief Surgeon Annual report, $361.50 was paid to surgeons, 136 people were treated at the cost of $2.65 per patient. Dr. Shine was the chief surgeon that year.
Dr. S. G. Worley helped establish the hospital. He had been in Kissimmee for seven years when he was called to St. Augustine to organize the railroad hospital and establish a training school for nurses in connection with his duties as chief Surgeon. He was chief surgeon by 1896. He was born in Tennessee, attended Tulane University, and was graduated from the Atlanta Medical College. Before Florida, he practiced in Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas.
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell Visits
Dr. Bell the inventor of the telephone stayed at the Alcazar and was entertained by the deaf children from the Florida Institute for the Deaf and Blind.
St. Benedict the Moor
While Catholic Negroes have been in St. Augustine since the founding, in the 1890 a property on Martin Luther King avenue was given to the Catholic Church. The purpose was a school and a church for Negroes. The school was erected in 1898 with most of the money donated by Saint Mother Catherine Drexel and the church was dedicated on February 5, 1911. The church is St. Benedict the Moor.
Thomas Hastings, Henry Flagler and the Founding of the Town of Hastings (not the architect of the Ponce de Leon)
Tomas Hastings and Mary Esther Mellon were married in 1884. Their daughter, Elsie (nick-named “Tots” by her brothers), was born in 1886.  Henry Flagler and Thomas Hastings could have shared some of the same visionary traits. Henry Flagler and Thomas’ mother were cousins.
Thomas Hastings and his family moved to Florida about 1890. They settled on 1569 acres west of St. Augustine … owned by the Model Land Co… which Mr. Hastings named Prairie Garden. But as early as August 1892, the area was known as “Hastings farm” or “Hastings station.”
There were two purposes for the farm: to grow vegetables for Flagler’s hotels and to experiment with different crops and different farming methods. Tom Hastings must have enjoyed farming, for he and his family lived at Prairie Garden for ten years.
His son, George, wrote:  “When I visited my father in Florida … he had the same enthusiasm and believed that Florida would raise fresh vegetables for the big hotels of the north as well as for Flagler’s hotels in Florida. I remember …his feeling that by expert care the vegetables would be of such superior quality they would command big prices…”
In 1933, Thomas Hastings’ cousin, Bill Pusey, wrote about the farm:
“… A home was built, drainage ditches dug and garden plots laid out. Hastings set out to experiment with cauliflower, cabbage, Bermuda onions and rice. He built a large hot house for seedbeds and winter cucumbers.
“In a year, 3000 tomato plants were growing in his “tomato house,” and… vegetables were being cultivated on a large scale. “The farm was known as the Hastings Prairie Garden Sub-irrigation farm…. In addition to Hastings’ residence, there were cabins to house 50 men who were employed on the place.
Unfortunately, Thomas Hastings took ill in 1896 and the family moved to St. Augustine, where he died on June 10, 1897. Thomas Hastings, the architect with Carrere & Hastings who designed the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, and Thomas Horace Hastings were distant cousins — their great grandfathers were brothers.
Old Jail
The Pauley Jail Company of St. Louis, Missouri built the St. Johns County Jail in 1891. The money for it was paid by Henry Flagler. This building is today’s Old Jail. In December 1891 however a rather odd incident almost derailed Sheriff Perry. He was arrested for malicious destruction of property and an assault on Mr. Alex Canova. The sheriff pleaded guilty to the charge and was assessed damages and costs. The newspaper responded that “The recent actions of the genial sheriff cause much surprise among his friends here.” (Old Jail near PDL),(1888 Bidding for New Jail), (Bid by the Pauley Jail Company), (Building the Jail), (Bricks for the Jail), (Contractor for County Jail)
Flagler Buys an Orange Grove in San Mateo
Mr. Henry M. Flagler bought the famous, sixteen-acre, S. H. Bacon orange grove at San Mateo. He bought another twelve-acre grove there. Mr. Henry J. Ritchie who is a grove owner at San Mateo made the sale for the parties and was placed in charge of Mr. Flagler’s grove property there….The 16 acre grove yielded this season over 4,000 boxes of fruit.
Ancient City Baptist
The Ancient City Baptist Church was built in 1895 on land donated by Henry Flagler. It is the first masonry Baptist church in the state of Florida.
Tatler Magazine
As the hotels grew throughout the 1890s, news of and about the hotels dominated the social scene. The Tatler Magazine was started to help keep people informed of the events at the hotels (through the state of Florida) throughout the winter season. The remarkable woman behind the magazine was Anna Marcotte. For a glimpse of The Tatler reporting see the description of Flagler’s Hotels 1894.
W.C.T.U
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was active in St. Augustine. It was part of several Temperance Unions working the St. Augustine area. (See 1896 story of meeting)
Daughters of the American Revolution.
On April 21, 1896 the first meeting to organize a D.A.R chapter in St. Augustine was called by Mrs. Maria Jefferson Epps Shine, wife of Dr. William F. Shine, and great granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the US and writer of the Declaration of Independence.
This preliminary meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Shine, April 21, 1896, and it was decided to name the new chapter “The Jefferson Chapter.” Mrs. Shine had been appointed Organizing Regent by the State Regent, Mrs. D. G. Ambler. But Mrs. Shine died that fall before a final organization was completed. She had been unable to procure the twelve members necessary to form a chapter.
The matter was then dropped until January 1898, when Mrs. Ann S. Woodruff was asked to re-organize the chapter and become its regent. Mrs. Woodrull was appointed and confirmed as organizing regent by the National Board on February 3, 1898. She organized the chapter, which was renamed “Maria Jefferson Chapter.” (Charter Members)
Villa Flora and Amarylla
In 1898 another Moorish Revival house was built called Villa Flora. It’s located at 234 St. George Street. The house was built by a Baptist minister and his wife who were winter residents of St. Augustine. At that time, the house called Wiley Hall on 6 Valencia Street was built. The house was originally called the Casa Amarylla (”yellow house“). This was originally the home of Dr. F. F. Smith.
St. Cyprian Episcopal Church
St. Cyprian’s was formed in 1893. The African-American Episcopal Church replaced most of the Negro members going to Trinity Episcopal.
Sons of Israel
In 1898 the Sons of Israel Synagogue was organized by a man named Tarlinsky. The original congregation contained a Mikveh and the women sat upstairs away from the men. Finally it was decided to build a barricade the height of the chair backs to separate the two and let the women sit downstairs.
School System
The school system was required from the beginning to make census information available about the number of children in the St. Johns County area. Only one of those censuses has been found 1892 Census- completed by Peter Arnau. This document became extremely important in the 1930s as it was used to verify the ages of people applying for Social Security.
In 1896 on the state report, a short history of St. Augustine Public Schools is given. (Teachers in the Flagler Era)
St. Josephs Academy had three departments primary (which included a kindergarten), Junior and Senior. The school had 150 students some as boarders. The school was run by Sister M. Eulalie.
Ida Alice Shourds
Henry Flagler had 3 wives. The first wife died before he decided to start his Florida adventure. However, the second wife Ida Alice was probably a very strong motivating factor in getting the St. Augustine Hotels started. She was very strong willed, though. She was childless, and probably not very appreciative of Henry’s attraction to younger women. After reigning as Queen of the St. Augustine Social life, she became insane in the late 1890s. The insanity continued for the rest of her life.
School at the turn of the century
In 1896 E. Reynolds became the school superintendent. He was the son of the second school superintendent. The school system was segregated and still supported the Catholic School System. The community support for the schools augmented the tax base.
The Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurrection
Before the Spanish-American War, St. Augustine was a rallying spot for Cuban revolutionaries. Dr. Jose Marti the “Father of Cuban Independence” came to town. Here they received the revolutionary flag sewn by Ann, Amy and Alice McMillen.
In 1898, the U. S. government asked Florida for one regiment of troops in twelve companies for service in the Spanish-American War. St. Augustine sent two companies of which one —The St. Augustine Rifles was accepted. Unfortunately, the Florida Regiment took up guard duty along the coast of the United States and did not see active combat. Starting in Tampa, the regiment was transferred to Fernandina. Finally they were sent to Huntsville, Alabama. George W. Beverly, Albert B. Buxton, Alvin M. Willis, Edward J. Owin, Harold F. Neligan, and Wallace Leonardy died during the conflict. You can follow the activities of the St. Augustine Rifles as it goes to Tampa to prepare for war in the St. Augustine Daily Herald.
For African-Americans, participation in the Spanish-American War was more difficult. One had to be in a regular U.S. Army unit (Buffalo soldiers). However that didn’t keep St. Augustine’s Blacks from trying (Story of Lisbon Sessions). African-Americans from Lincolnville (general African-American history of the event) participated in the regular army during the Philippine Insurrection.
The Last Pirate
1900 saw the death of what must have been the last of the pirates to come through St. Augustine. His story was carried in all the papers and in the 1930s he even made it into the WPA records 30+ years after his death. Juan Gomez was the last pirate. (His obit)
