#86 Apr 2015 Charleston South Carolina

The English established Charleston in 1670.

Blackbeard lay siege to the city, Spain and France attacked it, a fire ravaged 500 acres of the city, Civil War battles were fought, slavery flourished and still the city grew and established itself as a key cultural and economic port in the South.

By 1708 the majority of South Carolina’s population were slaves. Plantations flourished with slave labor. Today many of the plantations have disappeared and the population has integrated.

We took a Gullah Culture Tour with a guide whose great grandparents were slaves. He brought alive the history of the slaves transported primarily from West Africa. Churches are important centers to maintain the Gullah traditions of descendants of slaves.

The Port of Charleston is a modern mix of cruise ships, sail boats, freighters and military ships.

The Custom House stands as a reminder of the importance of shipping to the economy of Charleston.

She crab soup and oysters on the shell draw seafood lovers from far and wide (even Western Canada).

Charleston City Market offers everything from crafts to art and jewelry, local food and drink and souvenirs.

Many homes and businesses have been restored.

The Angel Oak Tree is hundreds of years old and stands as sentinel over the history of the Charleston area.

#85 Apr 2015 Stately, Gracious Savannah Georgia

Now we were really heading north up the East Coast. This was the beginning of a completely new experience since we had never been anywhere in the eastern US north of Florida. Many of the villages, towns, cities and rural areas have been settled for three and four hundred years. We have always lived in Western Canada where really old is 150 years.

We have been to Europe where history is many hundreds, sometime thousands of years old. Now it was time to learn about places only a few hundred years old.

When Savannah, Georgia was first settled in 1733 it was intended to provide natural resources for England and be a military buffer zone between Spanish Florida and English South Carolina.

The Yamacraw Indians were friendly and open to settlement and trade.

The basic component of the new town was a square comprised of 8 blocks surrounding a park. The blocks would be used for residential, civic and commercial structures. There were four squares initially which grew to twenty-four over time. The city and its residents treasure the twenty-two squares remaining today. They are beautifully maintained with many statues and plaques honouring prominent citizens during Savannah’s history.

This fountain in Forsyth Park was purchased from a mail order catalogue in 1858.

The Charter for the new colony prohibited slavery, lawyers, Catholics and hard liquor.

The prohibition against lawyers was intended to encourage residents to settle disputes one on one. That didn’t work and lawyers gradually settled in the city. Savannah lawyer George Walton was one of the signors of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The prohibition against hard liquor was difficult to enforce. This “punch” was served at military special events.

The prohibition against Catholics was due to the concern that Spanish Catholics might be more loyal to Spain than England. By the late 1700s French émigrés fleeing revolutions in France and Haiti found refuge in Savannah. In 1850 the Church of St. John the Baptist became a cathedral.

In 1987 this magnificent pipe organ was installed. It has 34 ranks and 2,308 pipes and is built along the lines of a 16th century German organ.

Installed in 1900, the stained glass windows depict scenes from the life of John the Baptist.

The prohibition against slavery in Georgia was intended to foster small, self-sustaining, local farms and businesses. However, slavery was legal in South Carolina and Charleston was flourishing.

Eli Whitney did not invent the cotton gin. He did, however, invent a new type of cotton gin, which used wire teeth to pull the seeds from the cotton, rather than rollers that squeezed the seeds from the cotton. By the early 1800s, 41 million pounds of cotton were exported from the south. The rapidly expanding cotton crop created great wealth for the planters and great demand for more slaves to plant and harvest it.

Savannah residents discovered how fertile their ground was for cotton and rebelled against the decree prohibiting slavery. It was lifted in 1750.

The Owens-Thomas house is an example of high-style architecture built in the 1820s for wealthy plantation owners.

The dining room was very elegant with recessed lighting above the sideboard – a very modern effect.

In 1808 the U.S. Congress banned the importation of African slaves. This resulted in more concern for the care and housing of the existing slave population as illustrated by the Owens-Thomas Carriage House. Household slaves occupied one side and the stable and hayloft were on the other side.

The slave quarters had cross ventilation and fireplaces on both floors.

Life for slaves was better but still hard manual labour and no freedom.

In 1832 George Owens paid taxes on 9 slaves. At his death in 1852 Owens owned 67 slaves valued at $8,625. After real estate, slaves were the most valuable possessions a 19th century American could own.

The Cotton Exchange was the Wall Street of the South where the world price of cotton was set. Factors Row consisted of brick buildings along the Savannah River where cotton was bought and sold. Wagons of cotton were driven behind the buildings. Factors or brokers walked along Factors Walk above the wagons and evaluated the cotton, which was then stored in the warehouses below until it was shipped around the world.

Today Factors Row houses antique and gift shops, restaurants and offices.

Savannah Harbor has grown to be one of the busiest ports in the United States welcoming over 3,000 vessels a year.

Motion pictures such as “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and “Forrest Gump” have had a noticeable impact on the tourism industry in Savannah.

Since 1952 the Historic Savannah Foundation has saved and restored many heritage buildings, some of which are open to the public. Thanks to the diligence of the Foundation and many individuals and businesses Savannah has many stately, picturesque streets and parks.

#84 Apr 2015 Florida and Henry Flagler

In the 1880’s well-to-do Northerners discovered the temperate winter climate and unique ambiance of St. Augustine. Millionaire industrialist Henry Flagler built the Ponce de Leon Resort Hotel – endeavoring to meet and exceed the expectations of his wealthy guests.

The hotel is now Flagler College and is being restored to its original grandeur.

The rotunda is breathtaking.

The dining room contains the largest private collection of Tiffany stained glass windows in the world.

Hotel guests were committed to a three-month vacation, which cost $10,000 to be paid in cash upon arrival. In 1888 it was believed that women would swoon and become mentally unstable if they saw such a large amount of cash. Gentlemen were ushered to the right to pay for their stay. Ladies were escorted to the left to the ladies retiring room.

It's a truly magnificent building and is being honoured by the college students who provide guided tours.

Across the street from the Ponce de Leon, Flagler built the Alcazar Hotel to provide activities for more energetic winter visitors.

Among other leisure opportunities the hotel included a casino, the largest indoor swimming pool of its time, a bowling alley, and a Russian Bath Steam Room.

The Alcazar now houses City Hall and the Lightner Museum. The Museum contains over 40,000 antiques and collectibles gathered by Otto Lightner of Chicago, the Founder of Hobbies Magazine.

The items include a Malachite Urn from Russia

Tiffany Glass

A carved wooden seat from India

Hundreds of figurines

And crystal dishes.

A button collection was an organized activity in the 1930s. Creating attractive buttons relied on ingenuity rather than money in a time of often extreme financial circumstances.

Perhaps that was an activity my mother enjoyed growing up in that era in Southern Saskatchewan. As a young child I remember buttons ordered from a Kellogg's Corn Flakes box. We spent many hours sorting and arranging them such as this display.

Flagler believed that Florida could be THE destination for the wealthy elite. He extended the railroad from New York to St. Augustine and on to Key West to provide his guests with a comfortable trip to Florida.

He put a great deal of money into his dream and succeeded in many ways.

Henry Flagler did not want his wealthy guests bothered or upset by the local jail located near his sumptuous hotels. He paid for the construction of a new jail, which was constructed in a Queen Ann Victorian style. So high-styled was the jail that 19th century tourists would confuse it for a hotel and inquire at the front door about accommodations.

Sheriff “Big Joe” Perry and his deputies “welcomed” new prisoners as follows:
“Escape is impossible, regret is too late, and survival is not guaranteed.”

Jail cells were tiny and cramped with four men, no sanitation, ventilation or clean water.

Corporal punishment was considered a necessary part of convict rehabilitation.

The jail served as a county incarceration facility until 1953 when it was sold and developed as a tourist attraction.

Henry Flagler had a vision that started in St. Augustine and stretched throughout Florida to Key West. He built luxurious hotels that catered to the ultra rich and extended the railroad to provide comfortable, first class travel for his guests.

He also commissioned the men who built Alcatraz to create a jail whose exterior would not offend his guests. The interior, however, revealed a another facet of mankind. There is always more than one side to society and Flagler's projects showed both sides of one person.