This old city has a wealth of little-seen but intriguing sights.
ROBERTA SANDLER
The most notable graves in the St. Augustine National Cemetery,
topped by three stone pyramids, are those of soldiers ambushed by
Seminole Indians in 1835.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - If you think you've "been there, done that," you probably haven't.
Visitors to America's oldest permanent European settlement (founded
in 1565) may unknowingly bypass the Old City's lesser-known historical
attractions. During 2013, Florida celebrates its quincentennial, making
these overlooked attractions a must see to appreciate 500 years of
history, architecture, and culture that began with Ponce de Leon's
arrival in Florida in 1513.A spy in petticoats. The Spanish Colonial-style Segui-Kirby Smith House dates to the 1700s, when it was occupied by Bernardo Segui, a baker and Spanish militia official. Edmund Kirby Smith, the last Confederate general to surrender, was born in the house in 1824.
In the garden, there are bronze statues of Gen. Smith and Alexander Darnes, a slave born in the house in 1840 who was owned by Smith's mother, Frances. In 1880, Darnes became Florida's second black physician.
During the Civil War, Frances Smith entertained Union officers in the house. Whatever strategic information she gleaned from her unsuspecting guests she secretly conveyed to the Confederates. In 1863, the federal government ousted her from St. Augustine.
A prince among men. A collection of period-decorated houses and other buildings nestled among garden courtyards makes up the Dow Museum of Historic Houses. Especially notable is the Prince Murat House, a circa-1791 pink cottage occupied by Prince Achille Murat, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The eccentric Murat, a militiaman, judge, and plantation owner, was known to dine on owls and buzzards and to bathe while fully clothed. He moved to Tallahassee, where he wooed George Washington's great-grandniece Catherine Willis Gray, reportedly by sipping champagne from her slipper, and married her. Murat was elected mayor of Tallahassee in 1825.
See the pyramids. St. Augustine National Cemetery sits on land once owned by a Franciscan monastery. Burials date to the 1830s. Among them is the grave of Margaret Worth, widow of Maj. Gen. William Jenkins Worth, a hero of the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War. (Fort Worth, Texas; Lake Worth, Fla.; and Palm Beach's Worth Avenue are named for him.)
Margaret Worth's house in St. Augustine is now a restaurant, O.C. White's.
The cemetery's most notable graves, topped by three 8-foot-tall stone pyramids and a marble obelisk, are those of Maj. Francis Dade and his soldiers, who were ambushed by Seminole Indians in December 1835. The attack, known as the Dade Massacre, fueled the Second Seminole War. (Miami-Dade County, Fla.; Dade City, Fla.; and Dade County, Mo., are named for the major.)
Greek splendor. Visitors obliviously bypass St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine on pedestrian-only St. George Street, yet the chapel within is exquisite. The dome and walls are adorned with stunning Byzantine-style frescoes accented with 22-karat gold leaf. The frescoes depict scenes of Christ and many apostles and saints.
The shrine, named for St. Photios, twice the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople during the ninth century, features exhibits about the first colony of Greek people to come to America, in 1768 (Florida's British period), and the injustices they endured as part of Florida's ill-fated New Smyrna (Beach) settlement. Many of these indentured souls ran off to St. Augustine, where Gov. Patrick Tonyn granted them permanent refuge.
The other fort. Visitors flock to St. Augustine's famous fort, Castillo de San Marcos, but the Old City's other stone fort gets little attention. In 1740, realizing that St. Augustine's southern entrance was vulnerable to enemy attacks, Spain ordered the construction of Fort Matanzas, complete with gun deck and 30-foot tower on two acres of dry ground on remote Rattlesnake Island.
Having no fresh water, the fort's soldiers relied on rainwater collected in cisterns, and on food arriving by monthly supply boat. Now called Fort Matanzas National Monument, it is operated by the National Park Service, which transports visitors by ferry from the mainland visitor center for guided tours and occasional cannon- and musket-firing demonstrations.
A house of faith; a house of women; a parrot heiress. Dating to 1691, the Father Miguel O'Reilly House Museum documents the five-century traditions of Catholicism in St. Augustine and celebrates the priest who lived in this six-room stone house beginning in 1784. The building, operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Ximenez-Fatio House was built in 1798 for local merchant Andres Ximenez. Now owned by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the property is a National Historic Landmark depicting its use, from 1830 to 1875, as a boardinghouse successively owned by three women, the last of whom was business-savvy and well-educated Louisa Fatio. Those were rare attributes for a woman of her era.
The Peña-Peck House, dating to 1750, was home to royal treasurer Juan Esteban de Peña and is one of St. Augustine's finest surviving First Spanish Period stone houses. In 1784 (the beginning of Florida's Second Spanish Period), Gov. Tonyn closed out the affairs of the British government in North America (south of Canada) from this house.
In 1837 (Florida's Territorial Period), Dr. Seth Peck arrived from Connecticut and bought the house. It is filled with valuable 19th-century antiques. Peck's spinster granddaughter Anna bequeathed the house to the city of St. Augustine. And she took care to provide for her foul-mouthed pet parrot, Polly, proving that St. Augustine's history is amusing as well as amazing.
Correction: Prince Achille Murat was never a mayor of Tallahassee. That information is incorrect.
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