Visual Ephemera's Most Threatened Sites for 2012

The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation is publishing their call for the 11 most threatened historical places in Florida, so I thought I'd come with my own. Introducing the Visual Ephemera Top 12 Threatened Places in Florida. To qualify it has to be a subject I've blogged about, or at least closely related. Drum roll please....

12. McNamera Pontiac Sign(s), Orlando

I've blogged about vintage stuff in my town before and this is one of our best neon signs. There is also a great service sign around the corner. This dealership has been vacant for quite some time now and I see these signs ending up in someone's collection...

11. Firestone in St. Augustine

Every time we return to see the nation's oldest city, I am surprised to see this mid-century dealership still hanging in there, as it is prime real estate. It would be fun to see it re-purposed into something cool, but that seems unlikely.

10. Wreck Bar

A certain mermaid has been working hard to keep the Wreck Bar relevant while the Sheraton chain considers remodeling. One of the few porthole bars left in this country, it would be a shame to lose.

9. Tomoka State Park sculpture

Created by renown artist Frederick Dana Marsh, this monumental sculpture needs some loving in a big way. With our underfunded State Parks as caretakers, I don't see it happening soon.

8. Orange City Historic District

Historic District advocate Dallas Wittgenfeld says "most historically significant houses in Orange City are going to be demolished soon and right across the street from our historic founding hotel. Very sad."



7. The Marion S. Whaley Citrus Packing House, Rockledge

Despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, this future looks grim for this complex on US 1.



6. Bob White Citrus Packing Plant, De Leon Springs

What does one do with an old citrus processing facility? This complex of buildings on US 17 continues to deteriorate.

5. Glen Springs pool, Gainesville

Three Elks club members are doing all that they can, but without some help, the pool will eventually start to cave in.



4. Lake Worth Shuffleboard Courts

See previous post. The meeting to determine the future of the courts is later this month.

3. North Florida lakes

Drought+overuse of the aquifer=dry lakes. Livelihoods are being destroyed as it is difficult to fish where there is no water.


2. Florida Springs

Artist Margaret Tolbert says "although flow in the Itchetucknee has declined 15 percent, and White Springs, Nassau County no longer flows, it has scarcely excited notice..." in her book "Aquiferous". The quality and quantity of the water is at big risk, and the current political climate has made their preservation even more perilous.

1. Belleview Biltmore

The real reason for this post. I've blogged about Henry Plant's Tampa Hotel and the PICO building but never actually seen his former Hotel Belleview near Clearwater. Florida's last operating grand wooden hotel, the city of Bellair meets to consider a demolition permit next week. Want to help try to preserve it? Send an email to: the Mayor and commissioners: gkatica@townofbelleair.net, sfowler@townofbelleair.net, tshelly@townofbelleair.net, kpiccarreto@townofbelleair.net, mwilkinson@townofbelleair.net

Monumental sculpture in Tomoka State Park

I have to admit I hadn't been familiar with Tomoka State Park even though it is just over an hour away and I've passed the sign for it on numerous occasions. It was only when I purchased a vintage brochure of Florida State Parks at the Floridiana Festival in February that I became interested, mainly because of the fascinating sculpture featured on the brochure's cover. The 40 foot sculpture of "Chief Tomokie" was created in 1955 by artist Fred Dana Marsh.


Chief Tomokie was a legendary chief of Timucuan warriors who failed to believe in mystical powers of a sacred spring, according to author Marian S. Tomblin. Tomokie's drinking of the sacred water from the spring enraged other Indians and a war ensued between Tomokie's warriors and those who believed the sacred water should not be touched by man. But the water seemed to make Tomokie invincible as his enemies' arrows seemingly could not harm him. But a lovely Indian princess named Oleeta took aim at Tomokie and released an arrow that fatally wounded the massive warrior. Grabbing the sacred cup from his hand, Oleeta herself was critically wounded by an arrow, but her fellow tribes members were so moved by her death that they wiped out the remaining members of Tomokie's war party.

The statue has taken almost as much of a beating as the poor Indians in the legend; the bows and arrows once held by the Indian warriors are gone as is Tomokie's spear. The figure of Oleeta, directly beneath Tomokie, is badly damaged and unrecognizable. But still the sculpture has an unmistakable presence.

According to the State Archives, the statue was created by Marsh in 1955, the reflecting pool (now dry) added in 1956 and the sculpture was dedicated in 1957. Marsh probably chose the legend of Tomokie as the subject for his sculpture because the site of the park is the location of the former Timucuan village of Nocoroco.

The 1957 dedication of the sculpture and reflecting pool featured a full orchestra

The statue's creator, Frederick Dana Marsh was educated at the Chicago Art Institute in the late 19th century. He lived in Paris at the turn of the century before returning to the US and moving to New York. He moved to Ormond Beach in 1930 and split his time between New York and Florida until his death in 1961. Up until recently, there was a museum at the park with more examples of Marsh's work. But due to the recent state budget crisis, the museum has been closed and the work has been relocated to a museum in South Florida.

Frederick Dana Marsh

The Lady in Scarlet by Fred Dana Marsh - circa 1900

Recently preserved work on ceramic tile by Marsh, New York

Grayscale images from the State Archives of Florida

Fresh Florida Fun

Here are some of my purchases from the Floridiana Festival last weekend that were related to previous blogs. 

The oversized Citrus Tower postcard dates from 1972 and shows nothing but groves and lakes as far as the eye could see. Just to the right of the big red arrow is the amphibious vehicle that used to offer rides in a nearby lake.

The Orange Blossom Trail linen postcard folder features sights from along 441 from one end of the peninsula to the other. 

What is now Bok Tower Gardens started out as Mountain Lake Sanctuary, created by Edward Bok as a haven for our fine feathered friends, like the flamingos pictured here. At a recent visit to Bok, I was told that it became too expensive to feed the beautiful pink birds so they got rid of them. Homosassa Springs and Sunken Gardens, two parks I've visited recently, still have flamingoes.

And the Florida State Parks map shows the wonderful sculpture at Tomoka State Park that I'm pining to visit.

Discovering more than Fountains of Youth

I came across this post card and was reminded of another Florida spring linked to the legend of the fountain of youth, De Leon Springs in Volusia County. The Florida State Parks website quotes an early advertisement: "tourists were promised a fountain of youth impregnated with a deliciously healthy combination of soda and sulphur." Doesn't sound too delicious to me!

There is also a town in the panhandle named Ponce de Leon Florida, in Holmes County. There you can find Ponce de Leon Springs State Park, where on the same state website it says: "Visitors might well regain their fountain of youth by taking a dip in cool, clear waters" of the spring. 

I also ran across an image of this sculpture, which I have yet to see in person, at Tomoka State Park near Ormond Beach. I was attracted by its kitschy qualities, which once again illustrates a legend of sacred waters flowing from Florida's aquifer as interpreted by a sculptor in the mid-twentieth century.

The earliest humans living on this peninsula found Florida's many bubbling spring to be a gift from the gods. The Europeans who first came here must have been awed by these springs and a whole mythology was created around Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth.  Early settlers established towns nearby these sources of clean, pure water. And in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the myth of life sustaining waters flowing from beneath the earth was used to draw tourists from other parts of the country. The tourism aspect is what has garnered my attention, but what I'm discovering is that the battle for the sacred water in our state is shaping up to be one of the most important issues we face today. 

Finding this place where Florida history and environmental concerns co-exist, has led me to the conclusion that the resource that caused this state to be attractive to so many people for hundreds of years, is at great risk. In today's local paper is an article about the battle for Florida's water in the panhandle. And a second article in the Jacksonville paper brings to light the struggle for water in Florida's biggest river, the spring-fed St. Johns. I find it fascinating that my interest in the past, has led me to this issue about our future.