On a long-ago day in early April, more than a century before the Pilgrims boarded The Mayflower, a group of Spanish explorers—already having claimed land in the Caribbean for the crown—came upon what they thought was another island to the north.
Verdant, lush, colorful, the new land looked flowery to the expedition’s leader, Juan Ponce de Leon, who named it “la Florida” and took his party ashore near what is today St. Augustine.
The rest literally is history as that momentous event of 1513 led to the European conquest of North America and, ultimately, the formation of the U.S.
Five hundred years later, what’s old will be celebrated anew as Northeast Florida gears up for the anniversary of Ponce de Leon’s arrival in the New World and sets the stage for even more festivities in the coming years, including the 450th birthday of St. Augustine in 2015.
Meanwhile, the entire region is an open history book of heritage attractions that go beyond the Spanish Colonial era to recognize Northeast Florida’s days as a frontier outpost of the fledgling U.S., a stronghold of the Confederacy, a sunny haven for Victorian and Gilded Age vacationers, and an important stop on the road to civil rights, as demonstrations held here in 1964 led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, a fact that will be celebrated during 2014’s “Year of Freedom.”
“It’s a great time to bring a program into our area,” notes Glenn Graham, the new director of convention sales for the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & the Beaches VCB. “There’s always something going on.”
Event Driven
Indeed, America’s oldest city has a perennially busy events calendar that will fill up even more in 2013 as the king and queen of Spain are due in May to dedicate the bells of the St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica, while a colorful re-enactment of Ponce de Leon’s landing—complete with replica Spanish galleon—will take place on the city’s historic downtown bayfront April 3, followed by an evening street fair that at press time was still in the planning stages.
If your group is in town Feb. 23, the evening may begin with a parade honoring the 493rd birthday of St. Augustine’s founder, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, which starts at 5 p.m. at City Gates and marches through the downtown area toward the Lightner Museum, where an annual gala ball will be held.
“We just have fun with it,” says parade organizer Michelle Reyna, an entertainer with City Gate Productions, which puts together customized corporate tours in St. Augustine, Jacksonville and Amelia Island. “We have characters wearing giant papier-mache heads, there’s a giant St. Augustin and a giantess gypsy woman and a stuffed chicken, too.”
On March 9 and 10, the Celts take over during an annual music and heritage festival in downtown St. Augustine’s Francis Field, featuring highland games, pipes and drums, Celtic vendors and colorful clan colors. Celts, in the midst of Spanish colonial history?
“Pedro Menendez was from the northern part of Spain. He was a Celt,” explains Albert Syeles, president of Romanza, which produces the Celtic Festival along with other performing arts events that celebrate what he calls “the living culture of St. Augustine.”
In fact, Romanza Week, spanning two weekends from May 10-19 and themed around the 500th anniversary in 2013, will feature more than three dozen cultural organizations hosting over 60 shows and events over the 10-day period, many centered around historic St. George Street in the heart of Old St. Augustine.
“There will be something to do every day and every night for the whole week,” says Kathleen Vande Berg, a board member of Romanza and conductor of the St. Augustine Community Chorus. “We’ll have processions and reenactors, historical performers like glassblowers and live music every day. It’s great for any convention group coming to town to take an afternoon or evening and enjoy.”
Besides the cultural and historic happenings filling the city’s calendar, a wealth of local attractions offer a glimpse of bygone days, and very often a place for groups to gather, including the Gilded Age-era Lightner Museum—the former Alcazar Hotel, built in 1887 by railroad magnate Henry Flagler—with event space for up to 400; the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum, featuring a lush lawn and upstairs gallery and veranda for receptions; and heritage homes open to group events, including Ximenez-Fatio House, built in 1821, and Villa Zorayda, which dates to 1883.
Set against the waterfront near downtown St. Augustine, the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park combines historical exploration with outdoor fun as visitors learn about native tribes and the founding of St. Augustine while sitting under the stars at an on-site planetarium, sipping from the “Fountain of Youth” spring, and snapping pictures of peacocks that roam the 15-acre grounds, also available for group events.
Nearby, group tours can be arranged at Castillo de San Marcos, the only existing 17th century fort in North America, where historic weapons demonstrations take place every Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the year.
“We’ll have more living history exhibits and programs in 2015, during the city’s 450th anniversary,” notes Jon Burpee, chief of interpretation for Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monument.PageBreak
Tantalizing Timelines
Beyond St. Augustine, other Northeast Florida cities will showcase their own historical sites in 2013, including Jacksonville, with plans to “piggyback on that 500th anniversary, though we don’t have specific plans yet,” says Kim Ritten, senior director of sales for Visit Jacksonville. “We have a lot of historic venues, and we are finding that groups are looking for these types of unique sites.”
Among those locales in Jacksonville are the Kingsley Plantation, built in 1798 and set within the coastal wetlands of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve outside the city. The site includes the plantation house, slave quarters and an interpretive garden; call ahead for a private ranger-guided tour.
Also part of Timucuan, the Ribault Club was built in 1928 and has seen its share of upper-crust events over the decades, hosting foreign dignitaries and industry bigwigs, though today it is available for group events of up to 400.
In downtown Jacksonville, the city’s African-American heritage is honored at the Ritz Theatre and Museum, featuring a regular schedule of live concerts and a permanent exhibit that includes photographs, artifacts and a re-created street scene from the African-American community of La Villa. The theater’s Deco-style auditorium and lobby reception area are available for rental, while group tours for up to 60 are offered.
“The theater is a wonderful venue that we often recommend to groups,” Ritten says. “We can build specific microsites so that groups know what they’re doing before, during and after the meeting, and we can customize specific programs.”
Northeast of Jacksonville, slender Amelia Island owns a large chunk of the area’s history, and touts itself as the only place in America to have experienced life under eight different flags of dominion, including French, Spanish, English and the Confederacy.
“It’s had a colorful and tumultuous history, even by Florida standards,” says Gil Langley, president and CEO of the Amelia Island CVB, who recommends group visits to Fort Clinch on the island’s northern end, which was garrisoned during both the Civil and Spanish-American wars.
Another option is the Amelia Island Museum of History—housed in what used to be the county jail—where walking tours encompass a 4,000-year timeline of history, from native inhabitants to African slaves fleeing captivity, as well as Friday night ghost tours and a two-hour pub crawl through Fernandina Beach that includes free drinks at four pubs.
In addition, the museum offers event space for up to 100 reception style, or if planners prefer, off-site presentations are also available.
“We can send people who are costumed docents—we call them ‘dramatic interpreters’—to visit local meeting spots,” says Thea Seagraves, the museum’s tour and volunteer director.
South of St. Augustine, just inland from the placid shores of Palm Coast, the Florida Agricultural Museum offers another view of local history with a fully restored pioneer homestead from the 1890s, a turn-of-the-century dry goods store, restored buildings from a defunct 1930s citrus business and a 5,000-square-foot dairy barn that doubles as group event space.
Tours of the grounds are conducted via two 20-passenger tractors, while team-building activities also can be arranged.
“We’ve had groups ride horses, with one person blindfolded and the others telling him or her which way to go,” says Bruce Piatek, the museum director. “We can also put together programs that highlight Florida history.”
