New Smyrna Saturday

After two solid days of rain in an uncharacteristically cold winter we finally had the kind of great weather our state is known for (hence the Central Florida cities named Winter Park, Winter Haven, Winter Springs and Winter Garden.) I had to make a trip to New Symrna to take photos for an article about the Turnbull colony (future post) so I got on the road as early as I could. Nothing makes me happier than a road trip – no matter how far away I'm are going, I just like to get out and discover new stuff.

About an hour away, New Smyrna is my favorite Central Florida beach town, although on this day I never got near the ocean. I spent most of the day in the historic downtown area to the west of the river.

After shooting some of the archeological sites I found New Smyrna's shuffleboard courts which appear to still be in use by the Mainland Shuffleboard club.

Next door is the New Smyrna Museum of History which was small but interesting and very helpful to my research. In addition to a new display on the Turnbull colony, they had an interesting exhibit on an attempt to re-create the Hollywood Walk of Fame in New Smyrna in the early 2oth century. This story was almost lost until the autographed concrete blocks with footprints from big stars like Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy were recently rescued from the dump!

Just beyond the museum lies the Canal Street Historic District with antique shops, great historic commercial architecture, restaurants and galleries. Here are some of my favorite sights from the area.

I found this place with wonderfully distressed type a couple blocks off Canal Street.

This re-purposed gas station is between Canal Street and the Arts on Douglas gallery.

Veterans Memorial in Riverside Park.

This mid-century modern marvel is the Volusia County Courthouse Annex.

This Art Moderne beauty houses the Chamber of Commerce.

The artwork seen here is by Harold Garde, a well known artist who splits his time between New Smyrna Beach and Maine. It is displayed in the lobby of architect Kevin Schweizer, son of Frank Lloyd Wright protege Nils Schweizer.

Apparently there is a classic car show running the length of Canal Street once a month.

My absolute favorite place on Canal Street is Little Drugs because of its original soda fountain. Here's a little history from their website: "Little Drug Company, Inc has a long and illustrious history since its beginning in 1920. That was the year Bush-Little Drug Company opened on the northern end of Canal Street. In 1922 Mr. Little bought the business from Mrs. Bush and it became Little Drug Company, relocating to 501 Canal Street. In November of 1965 Little Drug moved across the street to the former Victoria Theater building where it is currently located."

While the food is pretty standard, the milkshakes are the great old fashioned kind, made by hand, served with chocolate syrup and then they give you whats left over in the metal mixing cup. Very few places are left like this in Florida and a milkshake here alone is worth the hour drive over.

Just outside of the historic area, this giant can of paint with a brush on top is located on US 1.

A few shuffles left

Since my last post on Kissimmee's KAST club's shuffleboard courts, much has happened but the outcome still seems to be the same, the clubs's last day on the property is to be March 17th.

First I was contacted by a member of St. Pete's shuffleboard club, who reached out to KAST Club's president Dot Clark and got this response:

"Thank you for thinking of the KAST Club. Although the building and courts and cover are going to be demolished, the members voted to keep the club together. We're not able to say where we will meet, but hope and pray that something will turn up. Our new officers are being installed during the meeting at this time... Our club was declining in numbers and that didn't help us at all. In spite of the city situation and progress they have made, we have one member who is still fighting the city and doing all he can. Just a shame he didn't start a few years ago."

Chris from the St. Pete club, shared this with Dot, about how a group of individuals got together to preserve the Shuffleboard courts in his city:

"In 2005, when it was becoming clear that the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club property was being viewed by City 'leaders' as a development site (library, college, etc), a group of us got together. It was clear to us that the seniors at the St. Pete Club weren't able to put together a campaign to counter a proposal and frankly, with the Club size as it was, there was little chance that the City would listen.

We decided that rather than wait until the proposal came (and then laying down in front of bulldozers) we would proactively invite the community to visit and to use the facility for its intended purpose. A group of friends (artists, neighborhood activists), all in our thirties and forties sat at my dining table one Saturday and we put together every idea for public events that we could think of (art shows, concerts, food, barbeque, Fourth of July, glow in the dark shuffle, etc.) and then voted on which ideas were common priorities to try out.

It turned out that the one idea that everyone wanted to put energy into was to open the Club to the public from 6-10 (we now run 7-11), every Friday night. We call the event the St. Pete Shuffle and it has brought thousands of people, (St. Pete residents and visitors, tourists and families,) to the Club, has fed us new memberships, volunteers and publicity. Shuffle has been covered in the NY Times, Washington Post, Southern Living Magazine and lots of other media outlets.

We've done all those other ideas as well, and repeat some of them regularly. They allowed us to forge friendships with arts groups, restaurants, scout troops, a Folk Fair society, old car buffs and more.

As a result of those efforts and outreach, at some point in 2008 City of St. Petersburg 'leaders' realized that the best use of the Shuffleboard Club was... as a shuffleboard club. By this time, if a redevelopment proposal was forthcoming, the Club was in a much stronger position to respond, negotiate or raise a ruckus. Instead, the City budgeted $750,000 to take care of long deferred maintenance issues and restore the buildings last year. In November 2009 we had a formal reopening celebration.... all as a result of our Friday night 'Shuffle'.

I don't know if there's much time left to try something similar in Kissimmee, or if your members, neighbors and the surrounding community want to. It would take much the same collaboration as worked here, with Shufflers, Historic Preservationists, Artists, Neighbors and creative folks all needing to be identified quickly. If they do, I'd be glad to discuss the idea further....Florida was blessed in the last century to have residents who, together, built wonderful recreation facilities. I hope the residents in this century begin to value those grounds appropriately."

Dot responded that it was too late and that only one member was still fighting what now seems inevitable. Yesterday the National Trust for Historic Preservation did a story on its website about the loss of the courts and quoted KAST club member Gerald Lemenager stating "I'm still fighting it ... I know it won't do much good, but I'm going to keep putting my two cents in."

It's a shame we didn't know about this sooner, as we might have made a difference. Still there are great shuffleboard facilities around the state sitting vacant. Perhaps it is time for the magic of the St. Pete Shuffle to spread to other cities. Can we spark a renaissance of the game that so many enjoyed throughout the last century in the Sunshine State?

Beyond the Spiritualist Camp at Cassadaga

My first two trips to the town of Cassadaga in western Volusia County were at night, so I had never seen the town during daylight. On my inaugural visit, my main objective was to find a restroom and I remember I ventured into the dark, deserted hotel to find relief and I was a little freaked out. The next trip years later was just a run through the cemetery, so I had no time to properly enjoy the town itself.

So on this gorgeous February day, my wife decided she would like a reading for her Valentine's Day gift, I had the luxury of walking around and exploring while she spent an hour with a Medium. What I found was a real old Florida town, composed almost entirely of old wood frame houses, dirt roads and some Spiritualist kitsch.

The Cassadaga website says the Spiritualist camp was created in 1894 by a Medium named George P. Colby. The word Cassadega means "rocks beneath the water" in the Seneca Indian language and the location of the town supposedly has "special etheric vibrations emanate from the earth itself, sometimes called Ley Lines or energy Hot Spots." According to another site, Colby was ill with TB when he arrived in the area and a "small spring located on his homestead provided the elixir that healed him." Recognizing the historic and environmental significance of the town, Volusia County has preserved 110 acres adjoining the town, and it is apparent that most of the strip malls and convenience stores present throughout the rest of Florida are not welcome here.




The entire camp is on the historic register and I was very surprised to find a little cottage that was home to the George Colby Museum for sale. It had cute heart shapes in the picket fence and was located diagonally from the hotel. The architecture of the town has a distinct New England feel, and it reminds me a little of the wooden houses of Key West, on a much smaller scale. (Read a great review of the town here.)





The largest buildings are the Cassadaga Hotel, the Information Center, and the Colby Memorial Temple, which is designed in the Mediterranean Revival style seen throughout so much of Florida. Behind the temple I discovered a beautiful lake with a small park that was peaceful and calming. As I walked the streets of the quaint little town, I wondered how I had missed this place's charm before. My guess is that I was so focused on the odd fact that the economy here is driven by Mediums performing readings, that I missed that the place was like a time capsule, untouched by modern sprawl and development.




As for the reading Mrs. Ephemera received, the Medium spend much of the time communicating with her ancestors. He discussed aspects of their personalities that she was unaware of, and she was eager to find out if his assessment was valid from her mother. He encouraged both her and I, (even though I was not part of the reading), to devote time to discovering our spiritual paths. For me on this day, exploring the streets of this timeless town was enough to raise my spirits.

Archival images from the State Archives of Florida

Brooksville, briefly... crumbling bits of history

My prior experiences with Brooksville have been only skirting its borders to get to Weeki Wachee. I had a little time to check it out last weekend, so I went out of my way to visit the Hernando County seat's small downtown. I parked across the street from the great old courthouse and the historical marker in front of it explained the county was originally named after Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto, then briefly named Benton County after Thomas Hart Benton (the Missouri senator, not the artist), and then named Hernando County again after Benton's politics fell out of favor.

Downtown Brooksville was a much busier place in the past than the day I was there when it was practically deserted.

I was looking for an antiques store which I found was no longer open, but stumbled upon this old gas station (for sale) which after much discussion on the SCA facebook page was determined to be a former Sinclair station. Just up the street was an interesting old motel made mostly of rocks, something you don't see in Florida very often. (The weather was horrible and these images were captures with my phone, so forgive the poor quality.)



On my way out of town, I saw this wonderful deserted antebellum mansion for sale. After referring to Black Doll's Flickr site, I learned it was the Saxon-Scarborough House. She had this information posted "Frank Saxon built this Queen Anne Revival house in 1864 on 32 acres ... kitchen and servants' quarters were in the back" and wikipedia has this entry "The Frank Saxon House is a historic residence in Brooksville, Florida. It sits on the top of a hill at 200 South Saxon Avenue.

On November 5, 1998, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The Frank Saxon House is one of the earliest examples of Frame Vernacular architecture with Queen Anne Revival influence in Hernando County. The home was built by Frank Saxon in 1864 for his bride Tululu Hope, daughter of William Hope, one of the earliest settlers in the county. Mr. Saxon was a Civil War hero who was a member of the Hernando Wild Cats, a unit of the 3rd Regiment of the Confederate Army. After the war, Frank Saxon served as a member of the Florida Legislature representing Hernando County. The house is in an extreme state of disrepair with windows, doors, and parts of the roof missing."




According to a Hernando County History website the house later became the residence of the prominent Varn Family and later years the home was "modified and served as a boarding house for some time."

The crumbling house, on the National Historic Register because of its significant architecture, is in dire need of restoration. It like, Brooksville's small downtown, tells a story of a different Florida, a story which ought to be preserved. But from what I saw on my brief excursion, it is precariously close to slipping away.

Archival images from Hernando County History website