Florida - Jan/Feb 2006
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January 18 ,
January 22 ,
January 23 ,
January 24 ,
January 25 ,
January 26 ,
January 27
January 28,
January 29 ,
January 30 ,
(No Postings after Jan 30 on this trip)
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January 18 thru January 21, High Bridge, NJ to
Charlotte, NC
We
left High Bridge at 6:00 AM in a steady rain which continued until we got below
Baltimore. Below there we could see sun in the distance and by the time we
cleared the Potomac Bridge we were in a sunny but windy environment. Our
destination was Charlotte, NC to spend some time with our friends the Stutt's,
and also to drop off our accumulation of tins, mugs and glasses that we acquired
on our western trip last summer. In addition we had to go over the final
plans for our Australia trip and also review the planned 2007 drive to Alaska.
In between we had fun by visiting the Penske Racing Team garage and also take a
ride out to a country store beyond Hickory, NC. We found out at the Penske
facility that we had missed Rusty Wallace by one day. Had he known we were
coming I am sure he would have stuck around to talk to us. Ken is a very big
NASCAR fan. At the country store we had lunch and ice cream, not much more. The
proprietor talked me into a Livermushy Sandwich which was a Liverwurst style
square patty, pan fried on a bun. I asked her if I would like it and she said
probably not. She was right. Not too my taste but as I am writing this 4 days
later I survived.
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At the Penske Shop - #2 in progress
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At the Penske Shop #2 in progress and finished
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Sign at the Country Shop.
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January 22, Charlotte, NC to Jacksonville, Fl.
We
left Charlotte on Saturday morning and lo and behold it was pouring rain again.
For the first two hours of our ride it wasn't too much fun. We arrived in
Brunswick, GA to spend the evening. On Sunday after church we headed over to
Jeckyll Island to take the tour of the "Millionaires" retreat. A group of New
York Robber Barons established a club on Jeckyll Island in the 1880's as a
winter retreat. Amongst the names included in the club were Rockefeller, J. P.
Morgan, Gould, Pulitzer and others. The formation of the Federal Reserve was
developed at a secret conference here during 1910. The fun continued on Jekyll
until WWII when a German submarine sank two tankers in close proximity to St.
Simons and Jeckyll Islands. The government realized that one sixth of the worlds
wealth resided at Jeckyll and persuaded the resident Millionaires to leave the
island. After the war some of the occupants returned but the times had changed.
The new guard of "Big Money" no longer wanted the staid life of Jeckyll, opting
instead for Miami Beach and other faster paced places. The time had come for a
change. In 1947, Georgia initiated condemnation proceedings and bought the
island for $675K. Private homes are limited in number on the island as it is all
state property. The historic district is maintained my the Jeckyll Island
Authority with the stipulation that no state money is used. The Authority is
self sustaining through admissions, land rents, donations and the parking fees
to get on the island. In addition the authority is restoring the houses as funds
become available.
We
had wanted to take the tour a few years ago but decided against it as then it
was pouring rain. Today it was overcast but no rain. We took a tram ride around
the historic area and entered the Moss Cottage previously owned by the Struthers
Family from Philadelphia. The Struthers family had its wealth from stone
building construction in Philly. We also entered the Indian Mound Cottage -owned
by William Rockefeller. William was the brother of J. D. From what we saw of
both places, it indeed was good to be king. We also visited the Faith Chapel to
see a Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass window and the other window by a
student of L. C. Tiffany. When we arrived at the Chapel we found a sign that
said "Thou Shall take no pictures". Very unfriendly.
After
Jeckyl Island we drove over to St. Simons Island to see Christ Church,
Frederica, St. Simons, Ga. the original church was build in 1820 and destroyed
during the Civil War. In the 1880's the Rev. Anson Green Phelps Dodge (yes the
copper mine family) rebuilt the destroyed church. The founders of the Methodist
Church - John and Charles Wesley are reported to have held services on this site
in 1736 when they were with the Frederica settlement nearby. The folks at this
church were a lot friendlier than at Jeckyll. Pictures were allowed, They also
have a Tiffany stained glass window but it is unsigned. After this we departed
for Jacksonville, Fl for the night.
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Jeckyll Island Club - It is a classy place
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The Moss Cottage - Philadelphia Money
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Faith Chapel with the Tiffany Glass
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A Stained Glass Window
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Jekyll Island-DuBignon Cottage He originally bought the island for 6k and sold it for 127k
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Christ Church, Frederica
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The Wesley's preached close to here
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Interior of the Christ Church
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January 23, Jacksonville, Fl to Tampa, Fl
Today
we moved to Tampa, Florida prior to exploring the western shore of Florida. It
is a 200+ mile drive and we got a relatively late start for us. We had no
particular plans for the day. Along the road in Barberville we spotted a sign
for The Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts and took a look. The center is
a recreation of "Old Florida" as it was in Pioneer Days. Most of the buildings
are original to Florida or Georgia and have been moved to the site. Others like
the barn have been built by volunteers from scratch. Many of the crafts that we
have at Millbrook are on display here. There is a blacksmith shop, a woodworkers
shop, a wheelwrights shop, pottery studio, Weaving and spinning. The
center is run by volunteers with two full time time administrators. It is used
heavily by schools. They estimate that 24,000 students a year visit the village
on field trips. Admission for this little jewel was only $3.00. They have a big
festival here in November similar to our Millbrook Days.
We
were led on the tour which lasted for two hours by a 81 year old gentleman.
While listening to his stories we both decided that he must be at least 100
years old as no-one under that age could have done all the things he says he
did. One of the cabins, The Lewis Cabin had 11 family members living in it, in
its time. Nowdays we would consider it too small for two. Things were different
then. It was a fun stop.
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Barberville-Our guide leading a hymn sing.
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Barberville - The village country store
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Barberville, This cabin housed 11 people
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Barberville, A birthing chair
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January 24, Tampa, Fl to Ft. Myers, Fl.
Back
in 1996 we visited the Ringling Museum and Mansion in Sarasota, Fl. At the time
the mansion was in bad repair and was about to be shut down for restoration. It
was really drab inside. We said that we would return after the restoration and
today was that day. We found out that the restoration took 6 years at a cost of
15 million. Things have changed at the Ringling Museum. Entrance fee for the two
of us was $18 each which gave us access to the art museum, the circus museum,
the Tibbals Circus Miniature exhibit and the first and part of the second floor
of the Ca D' Zan mansion. This price included a $5 upgrade to get the partial
second floor access. For an additional $20 we could have had access to the rest
of the second floor, the third floor and the tower. This add on is called the
"Private Places" tour. Back in Ringling's day it cost money to live like a king.
Now it costs money to see how the king lived.
To
see the art museum would have taken a large part of the day so we opted to see
the Tibbals Circus Miniature exhibit. Howard Tibbals as a young boy developed a
love for the circus. Not so much from the performance angle but the mechanics
and logistics behind the scenes. He started collecting pictures and then
creating the circus in miniature, down to the smallest detail. While studying
engineering in college he wrote to the Ringling Barnum and Bailey Circus and
asked for permission to use the logo on all the wagons and rail cars that he was
producing in miniature. The Ringling Circus declined to give him permission
which led Tibbals to use an imaginary name Howard Bros. Circus. Ringling however
did supply pictures of the circus wagons which he could use in his work. In a
video Tibbals explained that Ringling really did him a favor as it would have
taken him much longer to include "The Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus"
on all the wagons and cars. The exhibit is huge. It covers 3800 square feet and
begins with the circus train unloading all the way to the big top and all the
supporting tents, sideshows, mess tents etc. It is a real beauty. The detail is
amazing. There is an estimate of 45,000 pieces in the exhibit and we counted
them. They are all there. There is a quote attributed to P. T. Barnum on the
wall which reads "Every crowd has a silver lining." Tibbals has dedicated
over 50 years to his exhibit which is now permanently housed here in a building
funded in large part by Tibbals himself. Tibbals was an owner of a woodflooring
company and donated over $7 million for the building and endowment.
From
the circus exhibit we went to see Ca D'Zan mansion on the shore of Sarasota Bay.
It is a marvelous mansion in a marvelous setting. The first floor has now been
restored and is filled with Ringlings furniture. When we were there in 1996, The
first floor was empty and drab. It looked deserted then but lived in now. I will
let the pictures speak for themselves. John Ringling was involved in more than
just the circus. He was an investor in stocks and real estate and developed much
of the Sarasota area. The Ringlings did not have any children and upon their
death the entire estate went to the State of Florida for the people of Florida.
Now the estate and museum has been entrusted to the Florida State University for
safekeeping and interpretation.
We
arrived in Fort Myers in the late afternoon and took a ride over to Sanibel
Island to catch a sunset. We stopped on the causeway to take the sunset pictures
and that turned out to be a mistake. While we were taking pictures, someone in
the other lane about a mile up the causeway road decided to have a rear end
collision. Since this is a one way in and same way out affair, the results were
not positive. We were held up getting past the accident on the way in and from
what we could see, the outbound traffic was backed up forever. We wound up
killing over an hour in some shops before returning to Ft. Myers.
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Circus Posters at the Ringling Museum
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Tibbals exhibit - Circus Train Unloading
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Tibbals Exhibit, Performers Practice Tent
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Tibbals exhibit - Circus Midway
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Tibbals Exhibit - Under the Big Top
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Tibbals Exhibit - overview from second floor - it is huge.
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CaD'Zan Ceiling First Floor
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CaD'Zan First Floor Main Hall
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John Ringling's Bed Room
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Mable Ringlings Bed Room
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CaD'Zan Main Hall from the balcony
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CaD'Zan - exterior view from the South
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CaD'Zan Tower from the outside
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CaD'Zan Front of Mansion
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CaD'Zan from the bay
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January 25, Ft. Myers, Fl
to Naples, Fl.
A visit to Ft. Myers is not complete without a
visit to the Edison Ford Winter Homes. Edison acquired about 14 acres of land in
Ft. Myers and built his winter retreat. He spent three months a year here
between 1886 and 1931. He built two identical homes on the site selling one to
his business partner. When he and the partner had a falling out, Edison bought
back the other and from then on lived in one and had his meals in the other.
Edison built a lab on the property for his electrical experiments which was
subsequently moved to Ford's Greenfield Village museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
After this removal in 1928 another lab was built for the botanical experiments.
Henry Ford on the other hand acquired an existing house on a property adjacent
to Edison in 1916. While Edison spent three months here, Ford only spent two
weeks here. Ford's visits always coincided with Edison's birthday celebrations.
Ford acquired his property for $20k and spent another 25k for improvements but
after Edison's death in 1931, Ford lost interest in his simple cottage and sold
it for $20k.
After WWI Edison wanted to develop an alternate
source of rubber, synthetic rubber having not yet been invented. Edison through
a hybrid process was able to grow "Goldenrod" with a 14% latex content. While he
was able to vulcanize this latex into rubber, the process was too costly to be
practical. By WWII synthetic rubber was developed and the Goldenrod Rubber tire
never took off.
After a tour of the houses, which are quite
plain, not at all like Cad'zan we saw yesterday, we took a tour of the
Rubber/Botanical Lab and also the museum housing many of his inventions and
developments. Edison was awarded 1093 patents, the last one two years after he
died. We then proceeded on our ride to Naples for the evening, stopping in Fr.
Myers Beach for lunch at a seaside restaurant. The view from the restaurant was
spectacular but I would never go back to Ft. Myers Beach. According to the
parking lot attendant, it is not yet busy. However we were in bumper to bumper
traffic all day long. These were not rush hour times. From the restaurant we saw
that the beach had people on it but not in great masses. However the roads were
jammed. If this is what it is like when it is no yet full, forget it.
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Edison's Winter Home
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Looking out at Edison's Fishing Pier.
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Under the Village Banyan Tree
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Edison's Botanical Lab
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A collection of Edison Phonographs
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Its a Jukebox -Gee Dad it's not a Wurlitzer, It's an Edison
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Henry Ford's first V-8 engine - 1940
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Fr. Myers Beach from Restaurant
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January 26, Naples to the
Everglades.
Today's plan involved visiting the Everglades. Originally we planned to go to
Flamingo at the southern end of the park and stay a few days in the lodge.
Hurricane Wilma took care of that. The visitors center is closed and the lodge
is wrecked. We opted to visit Park by starting at the Everglades City visitors
center for information and go from there. We had made a reservation two days
earlier for the tram ride at Shark Valley Visitors center which is 50 miles down
the road. We arrived at Everglades City to find that the boats were running
tours and the next available tour was at 11:30 AM. Since the tour was only 90
minutes we had time to take the tour and still make the 3PM tram ride. We saw
many airboat rides before we came to the park but found out that no air-boats
are allowed to enter the park or its waters. After viewing a video at the
visitors center we boarded the boats.
The
boat ride took us through a part of the Thousand Islands area of the park made
up of many mangrove tree formed islands. The guide tried to find us wildlife for
viewing. We were treated to a leaping dolphin show right next to the boat as
well as seeing an osprey nest with the two parents at hand. In addition we saw
many pelicans, roosting in trees as well as gliding in the air. The guide
pointed out that at one time the local airport was known as the Everglades City
International Airport. It seems that many midnight flights from Columbia landed
here in the 1970's. I wonder why? The captain mentioned that as a non-park
service employee he was allowed to accept tips. I wonder why he said that?
We
arrived at Shark Valley Visitors Center in plenty of time to take in a talk by a
volunteer naturalist describing the many birds in the park and their feeding
habits. He was very interesting and we did witness some of the characteristics
on the tram ride. Alligators abounded at the visitors center. Some were only a
few feet away from the sidewalk oblivious to the humans walking by. Good thing
they didn't seem hungry when I took pictures from only feet away. The Shark
River derives it's water from this area of the everglades and is the birthing
place for many species of sharks. Thus the name Shark Valley. The tram ride
consisted of two tram cars, with numerous rows of 5 across seating. It was led
by a guide who pointed out flora and fauna we saw along the way. The guide
mentioned that many non-native species have been introduced into the eco-system
by unthinking individuals. They have found numerous burma pythons (reproducing)
as well as an anaconda. The non-native fish cause a peculiar problem as the fish
eating birds have not had the exotics imprinted on them as a food source. Thus
they leave them alone and concentrate on known foods.
Halfway through the two hour ride we stopped at an observation tower out in the
everglades. It was build there by Exxon as an aesthetic way to cover an old oil
rig. At one time Humble discovered oil in the glades but it was of a low
quality. Questions linger if modern extraction and refining could turn this low
quality into a useable product. After the tram ride we returned to Naples with a
stop in Everglades City for dinner. An altogether satisfying day.
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Tour boat at Everglades City
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There is a dolphin in there
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Mrs. Osprey on the nest
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Mom declined this tour in favor of the motor boat
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Pelicans Roosting
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Mr. Alligator on the bank
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Mr. Blue Heron at Shark Valley
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View from the Observation tower
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Observation Tower
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Great Egret
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Alligator and Egret
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I was only a few feet away
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String Lilly
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Egret and Wood Stork
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Sunset from the Big Cypress Visitors center
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January 27,
Naples .
Today we decided not to do any formal touristy
things and just bum around Naples and Marco Island. What better way to get to
know an area than to visit some thrift stores. Our friend in Charlotte deals in
tins and mugs and we like to shop around when we are out on the road. We were
surprised by the number of thrift stores in the Naples area. We selected 10 and
checked the map to lay out the best route of attack. On the way over to Marco
Island we got caught in a traffic jam caused by an accident on the bridge
(shades of Sanibel). I had sworn off going to one way in same way out places
after Sanibel but checking on the map one can see two entrances to Marco. I
unfortunately chose the wrong way in. Marco Island is a well developed island
full of condos, fancy houses and high rises. It is a very busy place. Lunch was
at NeNe's Kitchen and it really should have been NoNo Kitchen. The food was
tasteless. After the two shops in Marco we exited the other way out and returned
to Naples to finish our round of thrift stores. Out of ten stores selected we
found nine, one had been abandoned, and also ran across two more that weren't on
our list. We made small purchases at three of the stores. After having completed
our thrift store journey we visited the beach at Naples as well as the fishing
pier. The sky was overcast for part of the afternoon but the sun did come out
eventually. At the pier we ran into a 82 year old retiree from Pittsburgh who
had graduated the University of Pittsburgh in 1945. He was talking to a lot of
the fishermen on the pier and it was obvious that he knew the other fishermen
from all the other years that they had been coming down to Naples. We had a nice
chat and then visited the up-scale shopping area in Naples. One of the stores
was Valentino Studio's where I suggested mom to have her cruise wear outfitted.
Mom said I didn't have enough money.
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Beach at Naples in a cloudy sky
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Welfare Pelicans waiting for the catch of the day
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Beach at Naples in the sunshine
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Mercedes Benz and Lexus were the cars of the area. Thats Valentinos across the road.
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January 28, Naples, Fl to
Florida City, Fl.
Today we moved on to Florida City, Fl to get
ready to visit the Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida. along the way we stopped
at Everglades City to visit the Everglades Museum. Collier County, Florida is
named after Barron Collier who promised to build the road from Tampa to Miami if
the state would break his land holdings away from another county and re-name it
Collier County. The road building was a monumental project through the
Everglades and when finished was called the Tamiami Trail. On the maps it
appears as Highway 41. The Everglades City area was very sparsely populated
before the road building project but grew considerably when Collier established
housing for the building crews. At one time a railroad for the logging industry
came to Everglades City and Everglades City was the county seat of Collier
County. Subsequently Naples became the county seat. Looking around Everglades
City one can see the grandeur of days gone by. There is an annual Fish Festival
held here in the beginning of February and they advertise that over 60,000
people will descend upon this tiny hamlet. This is one of those one way in same
way out places so we will pass on that. All in all Everglades City had a nice
feel about it. New housing was under progress but there was no evidence of a
mushroom city in the works. No golf clubs in the immediate vicinity under
construction - goody.
From Everglades City we moved 4 miles down the
road to visit the Smallwood Store Museum on Chokoloskee Island. Chokoloskee
Island is a shell mound island. The island has a colorful history which I will
learn from a book I purchased at the museum "The Story of the Chokoloskee
Bay Country" The store is named after Ted Smallwood who ran the store until his
death in the 1950's. It remains in the family to this day and stopped operations
in 1982. According to the museum guide, over 90% of the items in the store were
there at the time of the shut down. Members of the family now run maintain the
store as a museum. It is an amazing building to go into. One of the rooms used
to be a pelt room as most of the goods were at one time paid for with animal
hides. It was well worth the trip down to the end of this island, it is a jewel.
From Chokoloskee we headed down the Tamiami Trail
to stop at the Kirby Storter Cypress Tree stand and also the Big Cypress
Preserve Visitors Center. I must say that we have now seen all the alligators we
ever need to see. We arrived in Florida City at around 4:30Pm. Another good day
on the bum.
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Mom going back for her pocketbook at the Smallwood Store
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Interior of store from a postcard
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Critters at the Big Cypress visitors center
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Its only a yawn. These guys look bored most of the time
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This hunting bird was quite successful
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Cypress trees in water
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January 29, Florida City, FL
Today we visited the Coral Castle in Homestead,
Fl. At one time my mother and father saw a TV show about the Coral Castle in
Florida and were fascinated by the fact that the creator of this curiosity was a
Latvian. Being Latvians ourselves I guess their fascination was justified. At
the time I was probably too uninterested to pay it much mind. However as years
progressed I too wondered about this site. We finally made the pilgrimage.
The Coral Castle is one mans dedication to
unrequited love. In Latvia Edward Leedskalnins was engaged to Agnes who was
around 8 years younger than Ed. On the day before their marriage, Agnes told Ed
that he was too old for her - him being 23 and her around 16, and that the
prospects of him being successful were limited by his low education level. Ed
was heartbroken and left Latvia for other pastures. After working his way across
the US cowboying, and other pursuits Ed wound up in Florida. He had come to
Florida for his health after developing arthritis and tuberculosis. Ed was only
5 foot tall and weighed no more than 100 lbs. Without a job he started to create
a castle to his long lost love Agnes by carving large stone monuments and
arranging them in the form of an outdoor castle. According to the guide, Ed was
very much interested in magnetism as a moving force and claimed to posses the
knowledge of how the pyramids were built. The original castle was started on
another location and in 1938 was moved by Ed to the present location. He
accomplished all of the work on his own without any help. Even the move was
accomplished by himself. He would borrow a heavy truck and somehow huge blocks
of Coral stone would be loaded on the truck. All of the heavy work on the castle
would be done at night when no-one could witness what Ed was doing. According to
the guide some of the stones are over 20 tons. One of the amazing features of
the castle is the 9 ton door. It is a large slab of coral stone which pivots on
the center. I remember the TV show where they show the stone turning with the
touch of the finger. After Hurricane Andrew something went wrong with the ball
bearing assembly which Ed had put together from car parts and the gate stopped
operating. It was taken apart with a crane and a crew of workmen but while the
door still turns it now needs a heavy push. Hard to imagine Ed doing all this
work by himself. There have been many theories of how Ed build this place but no
definitive answers are given. Ed's tools are on display on site including a
stone wheelbarrow, a heavy duty chain fall and other metal implements but none
of these explain the ability to move 20 ton blocks. You have to see to believe.
From the Coral Castle we went to the Fruits and
Spices Park in Homestead. It is a Dade County park in operation for over 50
years. It's attempts to display many of the fruit and spice trees from around
the world. Being a tree oriented park, it looked in sad shape after Hurricane
Wilma in October/November 2006 took care of the tree canopy. According to the
guide, the storm in one way did them a favor. They had been planning to organize
their groupings according to continents and the damages gave them an impetus to
move or replant trees in their desired locations. The herb and vegetable garden
was spectacular. You could snip off sprigs of the herbs and get the smells and
flavors. Hopefully it will not take too long to get the tree canopy back to
pre-Wilma days.
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Ed Leedskalnin lived on the second floor - like a hermit.
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Interior of Ed's home. Maybe 15 feet by 15 feet. Very sparse.
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9 ton gate. Blocked for safety reasons. No need to get pinched here
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Me in original stone age lazyboy
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Mom at the Florida Shaped Table
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A view towards the throne room in the castle
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Crescent moon stone and North Star Locator.
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View from inside the Coral Castle
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Coconut trees at the Fruit and Spices Park
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Its a Beaubab tree- The tree of life from Africa
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January
30, Florida City to Sebastian, Fl.
Today we headed towards Sebastian where we will
spend the month of February. Along the way we decided to visit the estate of
Charles Deering in the Cutler area of Dade County. At one time Cutler had a
population of around 150 with the hopes of becoming an incorporated town.
However Henry Flagler chosen route for the Florida East Coast Rail Road was
changed when the residents of Cutler tried to jack up their property value to
the point where Flagler decided to move the railroad route. After the railroad
was re-routed, Cutler became abandoned except for the Richmond Cottage which was
run as hotel. Around 1913 a Charles Deering acquired around 350 acres including
the Rishmonc Cottage. After spending a few winters in Florida versus Chicage,
Deering took up full time residence in Florida.
Charles Deering was the Chairman of the Board of
the International Harvester Corporation which was the result of a merger of
MCCormick Farm Machinery, Deering Farm Machinery and a few other firms. J.P.
Morgan convinced the McCormicks and the Deerings that it would be advantageous
for them to merge rather than compete. In 1922 Charles Deering built the Stone
House next to the Richmond Cottage. He lived here with his wife and daughters.
One son had died in an accident and another son had decided to pursue his
fortunes away from the Deering family. In 1927 Charles Deering died at the age
of 75. The stipulation in his will did not permit the sale of the estate
holdings until the last direct heir of the estate died. That event occured in
the 1980's with the death of Deerings last living daughter. The buildings and
grounds were then sold to the state of Florida for 22 million. Before this sale
Toyota had been interested in the property but public outcry led to the sale to
Florida. The house did not come to the state with all the art collection intact.
The art collection was willed at his death to his daughters and they at their
death left it to the Chicago Art Institute.
One of the interesting features in the house was
the wine cellar. It was behind a huge steel vault door hidden by a moving shelf
unit. The room had to be kept hidden because of prohibition. The guide indicated
that Deering kept the cellar stocked at all times in spite of prohibition. As an
interesting aside, John Deering had his winter home Vizcaya in Miami. When John
died in 1926 and the time came for the evaluation of John's estate, the two
daughters of Charles, being the inheritors sent a truck from Chicago to secretly
empty the wine cellar at Vizcaya before the estate evaluation. If the wine would
have been discovered there would have been a fine.
One interesting item regarding Deering was his
fear of fire. Deering installed many fireplaces in both the Richmond Cottage and
the Stone House. They were workable fireplaces but they were never to be used -
for show only. In addition, in the Stone House all the doors and door jambs were
lined with copper. To continue with the wine story, In 1945 the Stone House was
hit with a hurricane. The wine cellar was filled with about three feet of salt
water. By the time the basement was pumped, the steel vault doors had rusted
shut. The daughters did not want to spend the money to fix the doors as they had
no interest in ever living at the house again. It was basically left to the
caretakers. In 1984 when the state acquired the property, the door to the wine
cellar was opened and again restored. The lower sections of the wine racks were
destroyed but the sections above 3 feet had survived. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew
created a storm surge of over 14 feet which completely filled the wine cellar to
the ceiling. What didn't get ruined in 1945 was now destroyed. There were many
displays regarding Hurricane Andrew and the damage to the estate. The wooden
Richmond Cottage took extensive structural damage while for the most part, the
stone house withstood the storm other than interior water damage. Since 1992 it
has now been fully restored to its beauty. We took a short walk along the lagoon
and witnessed at least 6 manatees feeding in the grassy bottom. This concludes
the cultural portion of our trip. On January 30 we arrived in Sebastian to get
ready for our month long vegging out. Postings to the web site will be pictures
only and then only periodically if at all.
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Richmond Cottage on left, Stone House on right.
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Deerings Stone House
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The mysterious door to the wine cellar
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Interior of the wine cellar
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Fancy Bookcase and table.
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Mrs. Deerings bedroom
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Spanish Style metal gate in Stone House
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Fireplace in Richmond Cottage
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Kitchen in the Richmond Cottage - awaiting replacemnt of stove rusted by Hurricane Andrew.
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Manatees in the lagoon
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