ABC Wednesday: "P" is for Princess Place Preserve

Conveniently this week's ABC Wednesday letter falls perfectly into my trip around some state parks I've been doing: P is for Princess Place Preserve (bonus point for alliteration).

Here is the historical marker that gives a little background:

A more complete history can be found at the park's website: http://www.flaglerparks.com/princess/history.htm 

A few highlights:

1886 - Henry Cutting, a shipping magnate and prominent New Yorker, who often visited St. Augustine, purchased the land from H.C. Sloggett calling the place Cherokee Grove. Cutting constructed a large hunting lodge with a pool, riding stables and tennis courts. Cutting also sought to establish a major commercial citrus grove, estimated to be the largest in the area.

1888 - Henry Cutting married Angela Mills in January 1888 in an impressive ceremony at Grace Church in New York. Angela Mills Cutting was born in New Jersey in September 1864. After their marriage, Cherokee Grove was the center of many social activities for many socially and financially prominent people in the east.

1892 - Henry Cutting died on his boat between St. Augustine and Cherokee Grove. His death has been attributed to several causes. The most plausible may be that he was bitten by a rattlesnake and died enroute on his way to St. Augustine for medical attention.

901 - Angela Cutting married J. Lorimer Worden, a wealthy New York stockbroker. Although Worden greatly increased his wife's fortune, their marriage ended after 19 years in a bitter divorce. In 1938, Worden mysteriously disappeared at sea.

1923 - Angela Mills Cutting Worden married Boris Scherbatoff, an exiled Russian prince. Scherbatoff was a member of one of the families claiming the throne of Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. To protect his identity, the prince changed his name to Scherbatow. He spent most of his time in St. Augustine at the Ponce de Leon Hotel rather than at Cherokee Grove.

By marrying Prince Scherbatow, she subsequently assumed the royal title of princess, and Cherokee Grove became known as the "Princess Place." She lived to see the untimely death of her son, Heyward Cutting, in an automobile accident in 1926 and the death of Prince Scherbatow in 1949.

1954 - Princess Scherbatow owned the property until 1954 when she sold it to Angela and Lewis Wadsworth, one of Florida's leading timber men. She died on June 25, 1956, at her residence - 168 Bay St. in St. Augustine.

The above sign informs us that this was the first in ground swimming pool in Florida and is fed by the aquifer. 

One interesting feature of the estate  house is that the columns around the wrap around porch are made of local woods and are not smoothed down, but rather are like natural cedar or palm trees with branches still attached - a hazard if you run into them, but very pretty to look at - just don't look too close or you might lose an eye!

On our way driving out we passed a group of four deer not 50 feet from the car but I had already put the camera away.  I stopped to grab it and photograph them but another vehicle came by and the deer bounded away into the palmetto bushes and out of sight.

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Princess Place Preserve

Princess Place Preserve is actually an offshoot of Faver-Dykes State Park, located along Pellicer Creek and just west of Washington Oaks State Park on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway.

A long entrance road takes you past more beautiful marsh views:

The central / main section of the preserve offers more panoramic water views:

A boat dock provides access should you desire to arrive in that manner:

But as interesting as the marsh and bay might be, there are wonderful, manmade things to enjoy at Princess Place - and an explanation as to the unusual name... tomorrow.