Ancient City
St. Augustine recently celebrated its 450th anniversary, making it the oldest city in the United States. I was fortunate enough to visit this past weekend, visiting Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth and I also got to take a tour with GhoST Augustine through the darker, more isolated part of the historic district. Much like Savannah, New Orleans, and Charleston, there are over a dozen different tour operators from which to choose. Perhaps maybe even more than the other aforementioned cities, as the city of St. Augustine does not require guides to be licensed- and I applaud that decision for a number of reasons. St. Augustine certainly sets the stage appropriately for a ghost tour, Spanish moss hanging innocently enough from the flor and fauna, and fog rising from the narrow streets during a steamy and damp enough dusk.
GhoST Augustine operates a number of different tours, some on foot some by “shadow shuttle”, and appropriately enough, some by hearse. For this particular tour, known as the “Dead Walk”, we were on foot and had a small, intimate group of just six. Luna was our fearless tour guide. We were given K2 meters to detect electromagnetic activity throughout the tour. I don’t know how accurate these things are, but there were several spots that made my meter go crazy, from green to red in the flash of an eye.
We made our way to about eight stops, but Luna also informed us about other haunted locations not on the path of the tour, as we were walking. (Additionally, I had taken the “Trolley of Doom” with Ghosts and Gravestones, the highlights of that particular tour being the Old Jail and the St. Augustine Lighthouse. I’ll speak more about that in a later entry.)
Our first stop on this tour was Plaza de la Constitucion, where public executions used to take place, directly in plain site of the governor’s mansion. Much like the ghost tours I, myself used to lead in Raleigh, North Carolina, visiting a site which once hosted public hangings was always a crowd pleaser. Not only did they perform hangings, but also garroting, basically an execution method using strangulation. Andrew Ranson was the most famous (and perhaps the only) person to evade execution in St. Augustine. He was a pirate who asked for rosary beads as he was about to be put to death. On that day Ranson ascended the scaffold. The executioner placed the rope collar around his neck. Ranson clutched his beads. The screw was turned 6 times. The crowd gasped. The rope broke. Ranson was set free, based on the belief that he was not meant to be executed, due to divine intervention. Today, the spirits of those not so fortunate as Ranson allegedly still cry for help to be released from their dismal fate on that plaza. Reportedly, apparitions of the execution victims still linger in the air, swaying from the trees.
Next stop: the Spanish military hospital. Luna told us the museum for the hospital was not in the original building where the hospital once was, but it was the museum, not the original site where all the paranormal activity occurs today. Apparently the ghosts followed the objects to which they were attached (or perhaps detached?) Even before the museum moved to the building that replicates the former hospital, something dreadful lurked throughout the building. A dark air of sadness and woeful moans were heard, echoing throughout the building. And so it goes, eventually it was discovered that beneath the hospital, thousands upon thousands of bones were discovered. Apparently the structure had been built upon an ancient Timucuan burial ground. That’s enough to rattle any structure, even built with the best of intentions.
Next we moved on to Casa de Salona, currently a bed and breakfast, but also the former home of the ghost of Mary Mitchel, first wife of Don Manuel Lorenzo Solana, and first mistress of the home. Solana was a gentleman of immense wealth, influence and prestige. He owned a sugar cane plantation. Mary didn’t like her role as mistress, so she threatened Solana with a decision to make: either leave his wife and marry her; otherwise she would tell the entire town of his sordid affairs (plural- there were others). He finally caved, and married Mitchel in 1764. But at that point it was just role reversal, because she was now the wife, but was competing with other mistresses. Never happy with what she had, Mary is somehow trapped in the inn. Guests here reportedly see a wisp of a white dress fleeing from the courtyard, perhaps the ghost of Mary Mitchel.
As we wandered further from the tourist district, through the dark and narrow streets, we also were told stories of the Old Coquina Well, a site where several children drowned. Then there was the Kenwood Inn, complete with a widow’s walk, and a spirit that has stuck around for years, after jumping from said walk to her death. Why, you ask? Poor thing saw the sailor she loved get off the ship and embrace another woman. Another ghost of the Kenwood is a young lady named Lavender. She was seeing a prominent doctor in town when she died. She may still be waiting for him to come back to get her. She’s been known to caress the cheek of male visitors to her room, and whisper softly into their ears. Additionally, visitors have reportedly smelled her sweet perfume filling the air. We next moved on to Convent St. Joseph, which seemed so peaceful to me, but apparently there are some spirits who do not share that peaceful sentiment, and still roam the grounds, in search of whatever it was that was not accomplished during their lives.
Second to last stop was the Lightner Museum, the former Alcazar Hotel built in 1888 by Henry Morrison Flagler. It is situated across the street from Casa Monica Hotel, which is also reportedly very haunted. It had an interesting history. Built by Boston architect Franklin Smith, he could no longer afford it, so Henry Flagler bought it from him shortly after the building was completed. Why could Smith no longer afford it? Interestingly enough the night it was set to open none of the furniture arrived. Allegedly the train carrying all of the furniture had been “lost” (say what!?), and he had to cancel a large number of reservations, because the rooms were unfurnished on the night it was scheduled to open. Ironically, Henry Flagler was *the* railroad tycoon here in Florida. Smell a rat here? …..yeah, me too…..But let’s shift our focus here now on the Lightner Museum. It is a one-of-a-kind museum, with all sorts of different collections. Otto Lightener smuggled Egyptian artifacts over to be housed in the museum. But before that, it was the first hotel with electricity, and it featured some of the most opulent rooms in the world. The café on the bottom floor was once an ornate and grandiose swimming pool. It was here that we learned about the second drowning referenced on this tour, the first being the Old Coquina Well. Visitors to the café in the museum today often report the sensation of drowning, struggling to breath or feeling like they are engulfed in water, and unable to catch their breath. After the tour I did some additional research and I found out that a tourist visiting the museum took some photos of some of the paintings, and his camera gave him a startling message: “blink detected”. Makes one wonder what lurks beyond the faces in those paintings.
Last stop: Flagler College, which was once Ponce de Leon Hotel. A beautiful gilded structure, the main building also houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass. It is said that on the fourth floor of the building lives the ghost of Henry Flagler’s mistress. As the story goes, at one point that room was called the “mirror room”. It was just what you think: a room filled with mirrors. At one point Flagler, in an attempt to hide his mistress from his wife, shoved the mistress into the mirror room, locked the door, got distracted, then forgot about her for 72 hours. After being trapped in a dimly lit room with her own reflection multiplied, she went mad and hung herself from the chandelier. Today the former hotel is a women’s residence hall, and it is reported that the lights in that particular room randomly turn on and off by themselves. Also, people have heard a woman crying in that room, as well as other peculiar noises. Luna also showed us a photo of tile with an image Flagler’s face oddly embedded into the tile. It is pretty convincing.
GhoST Augustine did not disappoint. I have some pretty convincing friends who live in St. Augustine, advising me of all the reasons I should consider moving here. My arm has been pretty far twisted, and this becomes more and more tempting by the day. Hey, if drinking from the fountain here takes years off my life, I think this might be a brilliant idea. After all, you only live twice.
