Inside America’s Oldest City

[funky music]
[Peter] Caroline where are we right now?
-We’re at the Castillo de San Marcos.
-Okay.
So built in 1672.
It’s made entirely out of
coquina, mollusks, shells.
We had huge quantities of it
over on the island over there.
So it’s very durable and it’s pretty soft.
So what makes the fort so unique
in the event of an attack
it could actually absorb cannons.
[Peter] And so St. Augustine is
America’s oldest continuously inhabited
European settlement.
Yeah in the continental United States.
Pre-Jamestown.
Correct, yeah.
St. Augustine was established in 1565.
So this definitely predates
British colonization.
The Spanish and the Portuguese
they were the first to really be
colonizing over in the Americas.
The British are gonna
come around eventually.
The French, the Dutch will come.
But I mean Spain and Portugal
especially Spain
had almost like a monopoly
on territory over here.
-And so it was going to
an indigenous Native lands
and conquering the territory
and getting the riches right?
Yeah absolutely.
Gold glory and God, those were the
three motivators for exploration right?
They wanna get rich,
they wanna get famous.
A really big mission as well though
was to spread Christianity.
For the Spanish that was Catholicism.
And if you actually look over there
where that big cross is
that is the site
of the Mission Nombre de Dios.
And that is actually considered
the oldest still existing Spanish mission.
-And so we’re gonna go
into St. Augustine in a little bit
walk through these streets.
-It’s tourist town these days.
-Oh for sure.
But it definitely doesn’t feel
like the rest of Florida.
And when people think of Florida
it’s usually retirees, golf.
But they’re not thinking European,
older than anything else
in the country Western history-wise.
-Right.
-That’s not what comes to mind.
So you grew up nearby in Jacksonville
but you’ve been living in
St. Augustine for quite some time right?
-And you’re a history teacher here?
-Right. Yes I am.
So this is your wheelhouse.
St. Augustine is perfect for you,
that collaboration, that connection.
Okay I see what you’re saying here.
-So these are shells?
-Yep.
So what was it?
-When cannonballs came they could absorb?
-They just stick.
-And not crack it?
-Yeah. Right.
‘Cause I mean I’m sure they’ve restored it
a few times but it’s in great shape.
-Yeah and what’s also cool is the moat.
So sometimes whenever
hurricanes will come through…
Yep.
-St. Augustine Downtown
will absolutely get flooded
but the moat obviously
will fill up with water.
-This moat right here?
-Yep right here.
But what’s funny is that this was
not intended to be a water moat.
This was actually used
for holding livestock.
Fort was definitely sieged
and attacked multiple times.
They do reenactments of that a lot.
Okay.
And then actually Sir Francis Drake,
really famous English privateer.
Yep.
One of Elizabeth I’s right-hand men.
He actually set the entire city on fire.
And then eventually 1763,
end of the French and Indian War
Spain loses a lot of its territories.
Spain wanted to have control
over Havana, Cuba right?
Because Havana was so profitable
with sugar plantations and whatnot
that in exchange for Havana
the Spanish were like
“Okay you guys can have Florida.”
[Caroline] “La Florida.”
[Peter] La Florida means the flower right?
-Correct.
-Discovered by?
-Ponce de Leon, 1513.
[Peter] “Purchased 1821
by the United States.”
-Yeah so that’s when Florida
was ceded by the Union.
-And so why is it named St. Augustine?
-After San Agustin of Hippo.
Obviously huge Catholic presence here.
-Governor’s House, what’s the story here?
-This has roots from late 16th century.
So this is the Governor’s House
whether St. Augustine
is under Spanish leadership
or British leadership.
[Peter] Beautiful.
See this is what…
It’s not Europe obviously here.
Florida, with the architecture
every place has its pros and cons.
I’ll take this weather any day
over Northern Europe right?
-Especially this time of year.
-Oh my God.
-This is February.
-Oh yeah.
But it’s good to get a little dose
of the old marble floors.
-Yeah.
The beautiful rafters above.
And then you get this
Southern beauty of that.
-Oh yeah.
-Spanish moss.
Wonder why they call it Spanish moss.
-I don’t know.
-‘Cause I don’t think
this exists in Spain.
Probably ’cause the Spanish came
and said “Hey this is our moss.”
-Right?
-Could be.
That might be a good Google question.
[laughs]
Okay.
But you’ll get a lot of this really cool
Gilded Age architecture.
So this was originally
the Ponce de Leon Hotel
built by Henry Flagler.
Who was really close partners
with John D. Rockefeller.
-Right.
So like railroad oil tycoon.
When Flagler came down here
in the late 19th century
he wanted St. Augustine
to be sort of a resort town
for this rising wealthy middle class.
-Okay from the Northeast?
-Right.
Post-Industrial Revolution,we
now have these like self-made people
that they’re business owners,
factory owners.
-Okay we’re seeing
a different iteration of its history.
-Obviously the fort was the oldest
Western marker at least.
And then this is basically 120 years ago.
-Yeah yeah.
Late 19th century 1880s, 1890s.
And then in the 1960s they converted it.
They turned it into a college.
-Is it still a college?
-Yeah.
Okay.
[Caroline] It’s a liberal arts school.
It’s a private school. It’s beautiful.
[Peter] -Oh it is. Look at this.
So peaceful here you know?
Can we go in?
-Yeah.
[Peter] These old doors.
Just love all the detail
the shell in the door handle.
-Yeah.
[Peter] This is beautiful.
Okay so this is all Henry Flagler?
-Mm-hmm.
-It was the East Florida Railway
he brought down?
-Is that the title of it?
-Yes.
That pushed the development
down to Miami eventually.
Right.
But this developed first
in its modern iteration
because it was closer to the Northeast.
Right, yeah.
And then kept going
south and south and south.
-Yeah yeah.
-Okay.
Can we walk through? Is that cool?
-Yeah I think they have closed off
the parts that you can’t walk through.
All right you can’t be on camera
’cause you work here.
-[man] I’d rather not.
-Well I appreciate you showing us.
[man] This is the dining hall
for the students.
[Peter] Oh cool.
-[Peter] Have you been in here?
-[Caroline] No I haven’t.
[Peter] This is special access.
What a dining hall.
Phew.
You push the button
and your own butler servants come to you
and take you to the table.
Thomas Edison actually wired that.
-Seriously?
-Yeah.
[Caroline] This was one of
the first buildings in the country
with electricity right?
[man] Before the White House.
-[Peter] What year?
-[man] 1886.
[Peter] That is a unique
college dining experience.
Thank you.
-You got any other questions?
-Tell us what you love
about St. Augustine.
I’m from Atlanta retired
and my wife just wanted to be here.
Okay, happy wife, happy life.
Yeah so actually
we had riots a few years back
and I lived close
to where it was happening.
-Riots in Atlanta?
-Yeah.
Okay.
-So we bought a house here. I’ve retired.
-Do you love it?
-Yeah it’s much better.
I miss the city
but you come over that bridge
there’s nothing more beautiful.
-Yeah it’s a special feeling here I’d say.
[Peter] It gets cold enough here
you need a fireplace huh?
Okay what’s going on here?
[Caroline laughs]
-It’s right there.
-What is that?
[Caroline] That’s apparently
Henry Flagler’s face.
So they say.
-That’s his face?
-Yeah.
Who says that?
-Locals.
-You believe Bob?
Do you think that’s his face?
Yeah didn’t you hear the story?
-No.
Come over here.
-What’s the story? All right.
Bob you mind if I record this?
This is fascinating stuff.
[man] He’s cranky but he’s nice.
[laughing]
No I don’t mind.
Over here you have steps that go up
to the right is Henry Flagler’s
private dining room.
-Okay.
-Those windows, they’re not windows,
they’re actually doors.
Henry Flagler would go up here
every day to go to dinner.
All his life he was afraid of slipping
and falling so he made leather steps.
On the over there, they’re leather.
-Okay.
That brown is leather.
-You know how he died?
-How?
He slipped and fell on a flight of steps
in his house and broke his hip.
Two weeks later he passed away.
And as they brought his body
back to St. Augustine for viewing
and as the funeral procession’s
coming down King Street
it started to rain.
Well everybody knows when it rains
in Florida it rains hard and heavy.
Pallbearers are soaking wet
the casket’s soaking wet.
As soon as they walk in
they slip and they drop the casket.
Corner of the casket hits the floor,
they pick it up and continue on.
They tell the maintenance man
“We think we broke the tile.”
Maintenance man goes over
scrubs his marks
can’t get the mark out then he realizes
that it’s Henry Flagler’s
facial expression.
-That one tile we looked at? Interesting.
-That one tile yeah.
What’s the moral of that story?
Don’t be afraid of
falling down steps all your life.
[Peter] You were saying Flagler
had a little mini-dog
and…
Right there.
-That’s the dog?
That’s the dog.
That’s a little tougher to see
to be honest.
You seen a dog out of that?
-I’m not. Oh yeah I do a little bit.
-Look that way.
-I guess his ears are going back
and its little face.
-Oh there we go. Yeah I see the dog.
[giggling]
[Caroline] There’s so much character here.
Like the locals and stuff.
Bob’s fired up.
Oh yeah. [giggles]
Bob was put on this planet
to tell that dog story
and that Henry Flagler story right?
He’s been waiting weeks
for somebody to ask.
[Peter] Flagler was your dream school?
[Caroline] Oh yeah.
-What happened to the dream?
-It’s a private school
and I couldn’t use grants
or anything like that to attend.
So I went to St. Johns River State College
for a couple years
got my AA and then I went to UNF.
Okay off topic of the St. Augustine topic
but sort of on topic
’cause you live and work here.
These days, you’re a high school teacher.
Are the kids into history?
It depends.
You have to really engage them.
Like you have to make it interesting.
You have to use the real life examples,
real world examples.
You gotta really play up the drama
’cause that’s all history is. It’s drama.
-It’s drama?
-Yeah.
What’s the drama here?
-So this is the Alcazar Hotel.
So this is now the Lightner Museum.
This was kind of along with
the Ponce de Leon Hotel.
This was also supposed to be
kind of like a luxury resort.
They’ve since converted it to a museum
but one of the really cool parts about it
is that they built the largest
indoor swimming pool in the country
and this was the first indoor
swimming pool in Florida.
And now they’ve converted it into…
It’s used as like a wedding venue a lot.
And there’s like a cafe
in what is now the swimming pool
but it is really really cool.
[Peter] Love these archways
and these gates.
-Oh yeah.
-Beautiful courtyard.
-Oh this is nice.
A lot of wedding photos
taken on this bridge right here.
-Okay yeah.
Oh look at these fish.
That guy’s huge. Wow.
What’s that like three feet?
Two and a half feet?
-Yeah.
-That is massive.
That thing’s probably like 30 pounds.
Wow.
[Peter] That’s interesting 1890s.
The luggage is because they stayed
from November to April.
So they would all take off in the summers.
[woman] People coming from the Northeast
that was generally what their season was.
November to April
and they paid $9000 a piece in 1888.
-$9000 a piece to come here?
Wow.
[woman] These were the people
who would summer in Newport, Rhode Island
and then they came down here
and this is where they would winter.
-Okay so that’s not really a new trend.
That’s been going on forever.
Newport to Palm Beach or whatever.
-Yes sir. Absolutely.
-Okay.
And this is just the gilded age
good times late night dancing.
-They periodically would drain the pool.
You see it in the picture behind me.
-Okay.
-So at the time this was
the world’s largest indoor swimming pool
and now instead of a swimming pool
it’s a restaurant.
-Oh it lost a bit of its mojo. No offense.
Well but this entire building
was the entertainment complex
for the folks that would
come down here for the season
and so they could watch
acrobats swim in the pool.
They could learn how to swim.
They could get permits
to learn how to ride bicycles
because that was not a thing.
People didn’t know how to ride bicycles
and so they had to have
a license to do that.
-You needed a license to ride bicycles?
-Yes sir.
And then on the second level here
you would have
all of the medical cures at the time.
There was a spa there.
There was a steam bath.
A doctor who was on site would prescribe
hydrotherapy or electrotherapy to you
and so that was something
that you could get.
And then on the third floor
you would have the ballroom.
So at night there were concerts.
There was dancing.
There were special events.
They would have people singing
or playing instruments from these alcoves.
-Oh.
-Entertainment.
You had to do something with
these people while they were here.
[Caroline] It makes me think of
“Below Deck”.
Like just like a bunch of rich people
who are bored and need ridiculous…
They need attention like all the time.
Yes.
And then as it says over here,
when the staff retired
to their humble living quarters
where they stayed was on the fourth floor
above the ballroom above the pool
and so people were still partying
and things like that
but their rooms were these little rooms
in the galley above that central area.
[Peter] It’s beautiful.
[Peter] So it’s so crazy.
Down there the woman was saying
you needed a license
to ride a bicycle in those days.
[Caroline] Crazy.
When did that stop?
[man] I think when people probably
started to get some common sense.
-Yeah Florida driving tests,
my wife took one last year.
It was literally show up with a heartbeat.
And like know where the gas
and the brake is. Okay you’re passed.
I mean a little more than that
but it was like nothing
no parallel parking anything.
And to think back in the day in Florida
there was actually a license for bicycles.
[man] That back parking lot,
it’s now a ticketing building,
was actually a whole space
used for bicycles.
So that you could
actually get your license
while you visited St. Augustine
from up North.
And look at these.
They’re so cool with the lights.
I’m a bike geek that’s why I’m finding
this interesting. I love cycling.
There you go. Nice.
You got your dream job here.
You can see this is obviously
a very cool wedding venue now.
-Oh yeah.
-Super cool.
You said you were going to do your wedding
here and they wanted $45,000 right?
Something like that.
It was a lot. I was like ooh.
[Peter] Okay so this is the old pool room.
Still is impressive.
[man whistles at motorcycle]
-[Peter] Are you guys in the Navy?
-Yes sir.
Oh yeah.
Very cool.
Can I record you uh recording?
Of course.
-Where are you guys from?
-Ecuadorian Navy.
-Ecuadorian Navy.
-Yes.
Today we are here because we signed
an agreement with the US Navy.
We are a partnership
fighting against threats
like drug traffic, illegal fishing.
That’s in the South Pacific.
-Are you happy about that?
-Of course.
I’m here by the US Navy.
Oh that’s cool. Interesting.
Both of our countries,
the Spanish controlled these territories.
Oh yes.
Just like Ecuador.
That’s history. That’s life.
That’s how the world works.
-Well congratulations guys.
-Thank you very much.
-We’re happy to be connected with Ecuador.
-Thank you.
Thank you to you. Thank you very much.
Take care guys.
Have a good trip. Hasta luego.
[Caroline] So when we talk about
the Age of Exploration
it was the Portuguese who were,
they were really the first to kick off
the whole Age of Exploration
and then Spain followed suit.
And when it came to
colonizing in the Americas
they signed a treaty in 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
which basically drew an imaginary line
in the middle of the Americas
because Spain and Portugal
are bickering over
who gets to be claiming what,
who gets to have control over what.
So the Pope steps in
draws this imaginary line and says
“Okay everything to the west of this line
is going to go to the Spanish
and then everything to the east
goes to the Portuguese.
And so that’s why the Spanish
had control over so much of the Americas.
Especially in South America.
Okay.
Whereas the Portuguese
pretty much their only colonial holdings
were what’s now Brazil.
Yeah.
So that’s why
they speak Portuguese in Brazil.
Yep.
And the rest of South America
they’re speaking Spanish.
There’s still that
big cultural influence there.
Then the British and French step in
and just totally ignore this treaty.
Right.
-This is a cool street. What’s this?
-This is Aviles Street.
This is the oldest street in America.
-Oh really?
-I knew I meant to take you down here.
But yeah,
this is the oldest street in the US.
We have the Spanish
military hospitals over here.
-Okay so this probably
has burnt down a few times.
-Oh yeah.
[Peter] One of the original houses.
[Caroline] Late 1700s, 1786.
Okay so Minorcans.
-Minorcans? From Minorca?
-Yeah the Minorcans.
Well okay so there were
like 1500 Minorcans.
They weren’t just Minorcans.
-They were Greek, Spanish.
-Okay.
These were all indentured servants
that came over to work on the plantation
of Andrew Turnbull
who was like a physician.
This was in New Smyrna.
So he had a big plantation
down in New Smyrna.
And then there was this mass exodus.
-So the Jimenez Fatio House right here.
-Yeah.
Actually has Minorcan connections to it.
Sorry I have a lot of holes in my history.
But the Minorcans
were the slaves for the Spanish.
-They weren’t slaves.
-Or the cheap labor.
So they were indentured servants.
Okay.
And so that’s usually contractual.
So indentured servants
were typically Europeans.
Like these were people who maybe
they were in and out of jail
or they had a lot of debts
or stuff like that.
-Okay.
-Basically they had the option
of signing these contracts
four to seven year long contracts
where they could go and work.
-In the colony.
-Okay.
Okay, so to get out of their debt
or whatever.
Yeah.
Sign a contract, do your work over here.
You’re in the sugar plantations.
Right, or cotton et cetera, rice, indigo.
So Andrew Turnbull
had like 1,500 indentured servants.
There was like a mass exodus
of 500 to 600 Minorcans
that left New Smyrna
and came up here to St. Augustine
and settled down here.
I mean there are some 12th generation
Floridians or something crazy like that.
That house back there
was the Jimenez Fatio house.
So the guy who owned the house,
his wife’s father, so his father-in-law,
led this mass exodus
from New Smyrna to St. Augustine.
And so yeah,
there’s big Minorcan presence here.
[Peter] That’s a plate right there,
Seminoles.
-Oh yeah.
-And that’s a sports team.
But the Seminoles
for those that don’t know
in the Native world are highly respected.
Oh absolutely.
-We can go this way right?
-Yeah.
I’m actually going to be doing a video
on the Seminole Tribe in South Florida.
Oh cool.
Yeah I’m pumped
’cause that’s not an easy story to get.
In the Third Seminole War
the cavalry just gave up
’cause they just didn’t want to
hack it out in the Everglades
with alligators and swamp conditions.
So the Seminoles have done
very well financially.
I’m gonna learn way more.
They own the Hard Rock Casino brand.
Not just the one in Fort Lauderdale
but the whole brand.
I believe there are
only roughly 4000 of them.
I just love that you’re driving around
Florida, you see these Seminoles.
They’re really like
the sports teams I don’t know but
there’s a huge following.
-Oh yeah.
And then in the Native world
when I’m with the Crow, or the Lakota,
Hoopa or anyone,
they’re like, “Oh the Seminoles, wow.”
They look up to them like…
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Second Seminole War
actually there were a lot of Seminoles.
They were actually
imprisoned at the Castillo.
-Really, so where we started today?
-Yeah.
-You can barely see it.
-Yeah in the distance.
There were three Seminole Wars
and the second one they’re held there?
Yeah they were imprisoned there.
And one of the famous ones
was the Chief Osceola.
He was imprisoned there.
Everything is connected. [laughs]
This is the oldest house in Florida.
Now what’s really interesting about this,
you can actually see architecture
from three distinct periods.
So the first floor.
-This is made out of coquina.
-Okay.
That is from the first Spanish period.
Second Spanish period,
the house was occupied
by a British gentleman.
He added on the second floor
with the wooden framing.
And the logia,
which is I want to say it’s over here.
So the logia
was really beneficial in Florida
before there was AC and stuff like that.
Because it kind of allowed
for there to be an air flow
from like the southeasterly winds.
-Oh yeah.
So people could open their windows
and would get this nice…
Like you can feel.
Like even now you can feel like a breeze.
So that’s how they would keep
some kind of circulation in these houses.
But yeah so that’s
the Gonzales Alvarez house.
-Do you want to try to get in there?
-Uh sure.
Yeah we can try to get in.
-This is cool.
-Yeah.
[tour guide] There’s a couple samples
on the widow sill.
If you haven’t heard about coquina yet
you will ’cause it makes up a major part
of the infrastructure in this town.
-[Peter] And then British influence.
-[Caroline] Yeah.
And then during the second Spanish period
it was once again owned by a Spaniard.
So crazy. You think you got it, right?
You’re the British.
You’re like, “We defeated the Spanish.”
We’re good now. This is ours.
But you got to be on your toes constantly
because they mount a stronger attack
and it goes back to them.
[Caroline] Yeah. And if I’m not mistaken
when the Spanish get Florida back
that is 1783.
That is perfectly timing
with the end of the American Revolution.
So because the Spanish
were helping the American cause,
the American fight,
the Spanish get Florida back.
[Peter] This is a cool street.
It’s a bit rustic and run down.
I mean this is like…
Well that’s not super old I don’t think.
-Yeah.
-But it’s cool.
There’s some military
barracks somewhere over here.
-But these nice little parks?
-Oh yeah.
[Caroline] We’re starting
to enter Lincolnville.
So Lincolnville was founded
after the Civil War
as a Black community and settlement.
-We’re coming into it right now right?
-Correct. Yes.
Yep. Yep. Cordova.
St. Augustine was getting ready
to celebrate the quadricentennial.
There’s not really
any other cities in the US
that can celebrate 400 years.
So it was a big deal.
This is also 1960s.
There was some discontent
over there not really being
any Black representation
for the quadricentennial.
Martin Luther King Jr.
and his organization
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference came down here.
One of the things that
a lot of these activists were doing
were these swim-ins or wade-ins
where they were attempting
to desegregate pools.
At the Monson Motor Lodge,
what is now the Hilton,
there was this photograph captured.
And I would like to try to show you–
-Sorry to interrupt one second.
You were talking off-camera,
gentrification,
like these old homes
getting changed over right now.
-Oh, yeah.
-I just want to let the viewers see that
as we walk into this.
It’s really changing quite…
I can see down here it’s quite different.
Okay so wade-in.
Yeah, there was a wade-in
at the Monson Motor Lodge.
Which Was A White Hotel.
Basically these wade-ins
were an attempt to desegregate pools.
So there were a group of Black people
who were in the pool
at the Monson Motor Lodge.
The owner came by
and poured acid in the pool.
Oh, geez.
It was photographed.
This photograph ended up
being talked about in Congress.
When they were getting ready to pass
the Civil Rights Act of 1964
this photograph was being brought up.
It just really spoke to people I think.
And it really did kind of help propel
that legislation being passed
to help desegregate.
-And for those that don’t know
a big part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
was you can’t hire or fire
off gender, skin color, religion.
Right? Isn’t that the basic premise of it?
Yes. Yes.
[Caroline] This is the Lincolnville
Museum and Cultural Center.
This is formerly Excelsior High School.
The first Black public school in Florida.
Civil Rights Movement down here,
it was more violent than Birmingham.
It was more violent than Selma.
They say that medical expenses
were actually higher than legal fees.
[Peter] Okay so this is interesting.
You see some of these cute little places.
And gentrification in a way,
it’s a double-edged sword right?
Because if it’s a neighborhood
that’s falling apart
the money comes in,
the energy, the oxygen, the resources.
But then it will create
also very high prices.
And I’ve heard people
in neighborhoods like this
I don’t see one out and about today
but depending on who you talk to
is what you’re going to hear right?
There’s no consensus on that.
A lot of locals would be like,
“It’s great. My neighborhood
was falling apart and now things look nice
and the neighbor’s lawn looks good.”
And others are like,
“I don’t like change.”
And if they’re renting
and the rent bounces way up
they’re like,
“This sucks for me. Not a fan.”
Yeah.
-But it’s really interesting
example of this.
I mean
neighborhoods are always changing right?
But this one is really touching on
this old Florida stuff here.
Mm-hmm.
-They’re even taking these
small places and redoing them
and you can see the for sale signs.
-Look at that.
-This is super modern.
-[Peter] Oh wow. Interesting.
-Yeah.
-[Peter] What a wild place St. Augustine.
-[Caroline] Right?
[Peter] You’ve seen a lot of this
over recent years right?
Northeast?
Oh for sure. Oh yeah.
A lot of New York license plates.
Wisconsin.
I mean that is the story of America right?
That pioneering mentality
of move where the opportunity is.
Move to the new life.
-Oh yeah.
-Right?
Well I mean you can hear
like there’s just no chaos.
It’s calm.
I love Jacksonville. I’m a huge Jags fan.
That’s my NFL team.
I will always have a special place
in my heart for Jacksonville
but I love it down here.
It’s so relaxing, so laid back.
And the civil right history is…
Well in the St. Augustine timeline,
it just happened.
But for most of America
it was a long time ago.
Yeah.
-Okay so they have
like a big tour of this here.
Yep. So yeah that’s the Freedom Trail.
So that was the march
that they did from Lincolnville
all the way up to the
Plaza de la Constitucion.
-Kind of in that town center area.
-Okay.
What a neighborhood.
So St. Augustine
is not cheap I’m gathering.
-No it’s not.
If you want a decent house in the historic
district it’s gonna be a million dollars.
-So like this is a million?
-This is Lincolnville
so if I had to guess maybe 600s.
Look at this thing, that’s cute.
That is cute.
Detailed nice ornate paint job.
It is one of those
cool walkable neighborhoods
where your kids get out of school
and they can walk home easily.
-Oh yeah.
-Nice safe street.
What’s the story with the lions here?
You know they are actually replicas
of a pair of lions in Florence, Italy.
[Caroline] It has the drawbridge on it
so traffic notoriously
gets backed up right up here.
[Peter] Have you seen that boat?
[Caroline] Oh yeah.
-It’s like an old replica?
-Yeah.
If I’m not mistaken
that might be the Black Raven ship or…
Yeah it’s got a pirate’s flag on the back.
Yeah they do little tours
and stuff like that.
We do have a lot of
pirate history out here.
-Oh yeah?
-Oh yeah.
It’s not what people think
of goofy cartoon pirates
and stuff like that.
-Okay what’s the pirate history here?
What would be an example?
-It’s more realistic
and a lot of it goes back
to the Spanish-British rivalries of,
“Hey I’m a sailor on this British ship
and I see a Spanish ship up there,
I’m going to raid and plunder.”
That’s pretty much how it goes.
-So who are better in the seas?
[Caroline laughs]
Um…
I would say absolutely the British.
I mean they always had
the most superior Navy in the world.
And they were also notorious
for using like fire ships.
Like they would basically get their ships
really close to Spanish ships
and there would be nothing on the ships
except for maybe like flammable materials
and they would just set them on fire
and like shove them into Spanish ships.
Okay so we’re over the bridge.
This is another neighborhood
in St. Augustine.
-Yeah this is Davis Shores.
So this was all kind of developed
in the 1920s during the Florida land boom
when all these people
started trying to move down here.
But then Great Depression hits
and this area
was impacted pretty negatively
and it really wasn’t until
like post-World War II
this area started to grow
and develop again.
Just because of overall
economic prosperity nationwide.
-Okay so these homes over here
are pretty expensive I’m gathering.
-Oh yeah.
-This is prime real estate.
[Caroline] They do flood
out here pretty bad.
They’re pretty close
to the water table here.
-Sure.
-But I love it out here. It’s beautiful.
A lot of these houses you can see
where some of them are
just built a little bit up.
-Yeah like that one is.
-You can tell the newer ones are.
-That just that guy just went straight up.
The lots are narrow
and they have to build up huh?
Yeah it’s just different
building codes now
because of rising sea levels.
-[Peter] How you doing sir?
-[man] Good. How you doing?
Doing well.
Yeah this is sweet out here.
[Caroline] I love it out here.
It’s so pretty.
-When was the last hurricane here?
-Uh last big one
was a couple of years ago.
Irma, Matthew,
had a really big impact on the city.
It’s just something you have to
think about when you’re buying a home.
So what’s crazy is a lot of the people
that are buying houses out here
are from up North.
And they’re a little bit ignorant of that.
They’ll also kind of market
some of the homes out here
as being, you know,
“Oh it’s new construction.”
And it’s like well then you find out
why it’s new construction.
-Oh yeah right.
-So that’s kind of the issue with it.
But I love this neighborhood.
It is absolutely beautiful.
-Yeah and their views
are unbelievable out here.
You can’t see past these homes
but we’re looking right back
on the old city.
-Across the water.
-Yeah.
[Peter] So when you live in St. Augustine
you can live in a totally different world.
You can live in that
old European-feeling stuff.
-You can live in your beautiful
American suburb-type stuff.
Or out at the beach where we’re going.
Right. Right.
[Peter] Yeah it’s a cool combo.
Being able to live around
that old architecture and then have this.
-Yeah I really feel like…
-And this be February.
Oh I know.
I get the best of both worlds.
I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.
-You’re in your place?
This is my place.
Like I don’t ever want to leave.
[Peter] What are we 15 minutes
from St. Augustine Downtown?
-About a 10-minute drive.
-Yeah, 10 minutes.
Thank you for bringing us along Caroline.
-Yeah absolutely.
-All right.
And thanks guys
for coming on this journey.
It’s part of a Greater Florida series
going to all corners of the state
trying to show different perspectives
of what this place is like.
Until the next one.
[funky music]