Sky Watch Friday

A column of the old Florida Hotel now part of Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL points us skyward for watching this week.

And a little background history on the building from the historical marker that stands in front of it:
Visit the Sky Watch Blog for all of this weeks great shots.

City Gates

A few shots of the St. Augustine city gates at the head of St. George Street.  This version of the city gate was constructed out of coquina in 1808 during the final reconstruction of the city wall which stretched west from the castillo to the San Sebastian River just west of town.

Just west of the city gate is a reconstructed version of the Santo Domingo Redoubt, one of many such defensive works that ringed the city in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Redoubts have open back sides so defenders can access it easily and stick out beyond the normal line of the city wall so that you can create a cross-fire along the length of the wall if attacked.

The British are coming! The British are coming!

The British are... here...  at Fort Matanzas.  Ok, not really Brits - locals dressed as British soldiers re-enacting garrison life at the fort during the "British Period" when Great Britain had control of Florida after the first Spanish period.

Fort Matanzas

A few miles south of St. Augustine, Florida lies an obscure piece of history: Fort Matanzas.  It can hardly be called a fort given its size - 50 feet long, 30 feet wide, with a 30 foot tower in the back half - quite tiny.  Standard garrison was generally only one officer, four soldiers, and two gunners (more could fit if needed).  It was built in 1740 to protect the southern entrance or "back door" to St Augustine and protect Matanzas Inlet after the British under Oglethorpe (founder of the colony of Georgia) used the Matanzas river as a way around the main Spanish defenses in St. Augustine to lay siege to that town in 1740.  It was abandoned after the Spanish ceded Florida to the United States and lay in ruins until the 1920s when it was turned over to the US Park Service and has since become a national monument and is run in conjunction with the larger and more famous Castillo de San Marcos in downtown St. Augustine.  You can visit Fort Matanzas for free (donations greatly accepted), but it does require a boat ride on a park service run ferry that operates every hour on the half-hour.  If you are lucky you will catch them on a day when there are soldiers re-enacting Spanish or British garrisons (as they were this past weekend when we visited).

Tomorrow: The British are coming!  The British are coming! :)

Bulow Plantation and Ruins: Part 2

Thursday's post ended with a teaser shot of the sugar mill ruins.  Today we get up close and personal.  First, a marker explaining a bit of the history:

Then some shots of the actual ruins:

More shots of the ruins tomorrow.  It is a great place to photograph - lots of interesting color, lighting, angles, etc.

ABC Wednesday: "H" is for Historic Home

An alliterative post for ABC Wednesday this week - "H" is for Historic Home. This is just one of many similar houses in olde St. Augustine - simple design, sloped roof to prevent rain water from accumulating and collapsing the ceiling, small balcony sticking out on the second floor, chimney at one end for cooking (if no detached kitchen) and heat in winter.

Visit the ABC Wednesday Blog here or here to all of the other posts for the week.

* A happy birthday also today to my wonderful mother who is, as always, 39 years old... or is it still 29? Either way, she's young. :)

ABC Wednesday: "R" is for Redcoat

In honor of all our British blogging friends across the pond, my ABC Wednesday for the letter R is Redcoat!

Redcoat is a nickname given to British soldiers of the 17th to 19th centuries due to the fact that the uniform of the army included a red coat.

The first use of the red coat as part of the regular army uniform of England came in 1645 as part of the New Model Army ordinance. One reason for the use of red was the relative cheapness of red dye at the time. There is no truth to the old wive's tale that red was chosen because it would not show blood (blood shows as a black stain on red cloth).

From an early stage the facings (lapels, cuffs and collars) of the red coat were varied, depending upon which regiment the uniform belonged to. Examples were scarlet for the 33rd Regiment of Foot, yellow for the 44th Regiment of Foot and buff for the 3rd Regiment of Foot. An attempt at standardisation was made following the Cardwell Reforms of 1881, with English and Welsh regiments having white, Scottish yellow, Irish green and Royal regiments dark blue.

Scarlet tunics ceased to be general issue upon British mobilisation in August 1914. The Brigade of Guards resumed wearing their scarlet full dress in 1920 but for the remainder of the Army red coats were only authorised for wear by regimental bands and officers in mess dress or on certain limited social or ceremonial occasions (notably attendance at Court functions or weddings). The reason for not generally reintroducing the distinctive full dress was primarily financial, as the scarlet cloth requires expensive cochineal dye.

As late as 1980, consideration was given to the reintroduction of scarlet as a replacement for the dark blue "No. 1 dress" and khaki "No. 2 dress" of the modern British Army, using cheaper and fadeless chemical dyes instead of cochineal. Surveys of serving soldiers' opinion showed little support for the idea and it was shelved.

Information mostly taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_coat_(British_army)

All photos taken in St. Augustine, FL during December 2007 at a living history event depicting the "British period" of the city from 1763-1784.

Visit Mrs. Nesbitt's Place for all the ABC Wednesday fun.

Old Florida Series: Part 3

Next stop on our little tour is the town of Fernandina, located at the north end of Amelia Island, the northernmost of all of Florida's barrier islands, with Georgia just across the inlet to its north. Being so close to the ocean naturally lends Fernandina to take advantage of the abundance of seafood. Each year on the first weekend in May they hold the "Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival" to celebrate that little crustaceon that tastes so darn good when battered and deep fried.

Shrimp boats docked in Fernandina .

The festival is the "Isle of Eight Flags" festival because the island has been under the flag of eight nations over the years: France (1562-1565), Spain (1565-1763), England (1763-1783), the Patriots of Amelia Isand (1812), the Green Cross of Florida (1817), Mexican Revolutionary Flag (1817), Confederate Flag (1861-1862), United States (1821-Present).

Some of the older buildings downtown.

Part of the rich history of the area includes that of pirates. (Now the mascot of the local high school.) Pirates as "great" as Captain Morgan, Calico Jack, Black Bart, and Luis Aury all put in to port there over the years.

"Peg Leg Pete" the pirate statue downtown.

Also important in the towns history is the railroad. Before and during the Civil War, there were only two major railroads in Florida - one ran from Jacksonville west past Tallahassee, and the other ran from Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico to Fernandina on the Atlantic. This made Fernandina a very strategic location for trade and an important military target, leading to the construction of various fortifications over the years, culminating in the US built Fort Clinch, which we will explore tomorrow.

A gentleman decked out in historic train conductor garb.

Finally, I must mention a lovely little cafe we ate at called the Happy Tomato Cafe. Wonderful pulled pork and pulled turkey Bar-B-Que (there is more on the menu, but we opted for BBQ). Great stuff, the way it is supposed to be made. If you are ever in town and want some good Florida BBQ, this is a good place to go downtown.

BBQ Turkey and all the fixins'. Yummy!

Old Florida Series: Part 2

Our destination on Ft. George island was a history lecture (yes, I'm a nerd - haha) being given at the Ribault Club.

The Ribalut Club (technically pronounced Re-bow, not Ree-balt as we locals call it) was originally opened in 1928 as a resort catering to wealthy locals and vacationing Northerners. At that time Jacksonville was the popular vacation spot in Florida as Miami and other points further South were nothing but malaria infested swamps.

The Ribault Club flourished for a while, adding an additional lodge in 1930 to accomodate the 350 members. Some ammenities included: a library, grand fireplace, numerous rooms, outdoor activities such as lawn bowling, and a 9-hole Scottish style golf course, not to mention easy access to sailing and boating.

The Great Depression put an end to most of the fun, however, and the club was sold numerous times until finally falling into disrepair by the late 1900's. In 1989 the State of Florida purchased the property and is in the process of revitalising the facility. It currently hosts many weddings and receptions, a museum, and will eventually be the main visitor's center for Ft. George island.

One other structure we stopped by briefly to snap a few photos of from the car is the St. George Episcopal Church, originally built in 1882-1883 and still an active parish. I would have liked to have gotten out to get some better photos and perhaps go inside, but some members were getting the facility ready for palm sunday and I did not want to disturb their work.

Next up: Fernandina, FL

Carnton Plantation, Franklin, TN

Haven't taken many new pictures in the last week, so I must call upon my reserves - these from 2004 and a vacation in Tennessee we took with some of my wife's family to visit their ancestral home in the north central part of the state. But these photos are not from there... these are from a side trip I begged for: a day visiting Civil War sites nearby - Murfeesboro and Fanklin.

But today's photos are specifically of Carnton Plantation outside of Franklin, TN, which is just south of Nashville. The home was built in 1826 by former Nashville mayor Randal McGavock and was in the McGavock family until 1911, when it was sold, but was returned to the Carnton Association in 1977 to be restored as a museum. It was first listed on the national registry of historic places in 1973.

The front of the main house, facing North towards Franklin:



The back of the house, which is actually the first thing you see when visiting (this is standing in front of the gift shop where you purchase tickets for the tour):


A view from the second story veranda of the house gardens:


A quick shot snapped out of the car window of the Confederate cemetery that occupies two acres of the plantation grounds:

They don't allow photography inside, but it has been restored to mid-nineteenth century decor, including the furniture, wall coverings, etc. Quite interesting. More interesting, if not certainly more ghoulish, are the numerous blood stains on the hardwood floors, left by wounded and dying Confederate soldiers during the Battle of Franklin in November 1864. The house was used as a field hospital and many hundreds of soldiers were brought here inside the house and all over the outside grounds. Six Confederate generals died in the attack on Franklin, and four of them wound up here at Carnton laid out side-by-side on the back porch after the battle, including the promising young Patrick Cleburne, who was engaged to be wed in just a few more weeks. Sad story.

For more info on Carnton you can visit their website at http://www.carnton.org/

ABC Wednesday: "V" is for Viking

From the 2007 Hoggetown Medieval Faire in Gainesville, FL.

And just for the record, "vikings" most likely never had horns on their helmets. Think about it - if you are in close combat (with swords and axes) do you want to have these horns sticking out above you so your enemy can grab them and pull your head down to kill you? Didn't think so.

No archaeological evidence has ever been found of a "viking" horned warrior helmet. Its just one of those modern stereotypes that developed with no basis in fact.

Still... I do enjoy Hagar the Horrible comics. :)