The Temple Terrace (FL) Golf Course, designed by Tom Benelow in 1922, was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the first Florida golf site on the Register.
Temple Terrace was one of America’s first golf communities. Although the original hotel and casino is now part of Florida College, a drive around the course will show off the original Bing & Bing houses with their Spanish red tiles. The course is city-ownded.
This year this blog will feature Ponce de Leon: The Man and the Myth; events of 150th anniversary of Civil War in Florida; My Favorite Hotels, Restaurants, Parks, Historic Sites, and More. Also, special Walt Disney World insider information and Famous Floridians of the past.
The three room Be Our Guest Beauty and the Beast restaurant gets mixed reviews from us. It is a huge place where at lunch you get sandwiches and salads “with a French flair.” At night it is a traditional sitdown spot.
At lunch the GPS electronic rose lets waiters with French serving trays find you in the maze of tables. Very classic until you have to walk to the beverage wall to pour your coffee into a paper cup. Lunch food was OK except for watery onion soup and tasteless quiche.
The ballroom is a little dark although the outside snow storm was a cute effect. The colorful Rose Gallery is not used for lunch. With cornish hen and strip steak, the dinner menu ($15-36) is better, but this might not be the place for small kids.
The 1931 Benedictine Abbey next to the campus of St Leo College in Pasco County contains the 23,500 pound Tennessee marble crucifix modeled by sculptor Frank Aretz after the Shroud of Turin.
Florida is an unlikely spot for a Christmas movie, but the late Jim Varney of Orlando decided to film his third Ernest film in Orlando film and people might recognize Church Street and downtown and even parts of the old Disney Hollywood sets.
Here are some of the best events for December 2012:
DEC 1-2 – “Union Holiday Encampment” at Fort Clinch. Union forces held this Amelia Island fort for most of war. Contact Fort Clinch Styate Park 904-277-7274.
DEC 7, 8, 9 – “Raid on Fort Pierce” includes a series of events but two battle enactments ar Savanna County Park (SR 712, Midway Road). Battles 2 PM Saturday; 1 PM Sunday. 772-318-8258.
DEC 8 – “Sugarcane Harvest Festival” in Old Miakka, Sarasota County. Visit www.crowleyfl.org.
Few places will confuse visitors more than the Seminole Country Inn (1926) in Indiantown, 30 miles northwest of West Palm Beach. You expect some rural estate and find an urban, downtown property.
You then open the grand double French doors and enter a classic lobby with a pecky cypress ceiling and bronze chandeliers. You notice the elegant Windsor Dining Room where for 80 years locals have come for brunch.
Even the 22 guest rooms reflect a sophisticated clientele. So what do guests do for activities? Wild boar hunting, bass fishing, and frog gigging. I guess you can have this luxury in the country.
One of the victims of Hurricane Sandy was the HMS Bounty, a replica built for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty. The tall-masted 180-foot ship was actually headed for Saint Petersburg for a last time reunion with St. Pete Pier, where the ship was
docked as a tourist attraction for many years.
How ironical and tragic this event is. Next year the famous inverted triangular 1974 Saint Petersburg Pier will be torn down for a newer model. Its tenants like the famous Columbia Restaurant will have to search for temporary housing.
The return visit of the Bounty was going to be a refreshing reminder of the part both historic structures played in the revival of downtown St Pete. Now one is under the waves. The other soon to follow. For a TOUR OF ST PETE visit my history site.
The first shots in Civil War were actually fired here in Florida.
Civil War buffs in Florida know the first shots of the Civil War took place around midnight on January 8, 1861, at Fort Barrancas, a fort adjacent to the port of Pensacola. With just 46 soldiers, fort commander Lt. Adam J. Slemmer began moving weapons and doubling guards.
Thinking the Union was deserting the fort, some twenty armed civilians marched to the sally port gate hoping to claim the structure. They found the drawbridge up and the corporal of the guard pointing his rifle at them. He fired at the force to alarm the rest of the fort. The civilians fled away.
The next day Stemmer decided the mainland fort was indefensible against a large Confederate force so he spiked the guns and secretly moved supplies to Fort Pickens, a fort across Pensacola Bay on Santa Rosa Island. If not for Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., the first real battle of the Civil War would have started when Union supply ships reinforced Pickens. Unlike Sumter, Pickens remained in Union hands, blocking Pensacola Harbor. For more visit the FHIC Civil War Section.
Half the fun of eating at the Cabbage Key Inn Restaurant is getting there. The Inn is on a tiny island at the entrance to huge Charlotte Harbor and is accessible only by boat from nearby Pine Island or private craft.
The inn was built by Alan Rinehart, son of mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart, who also had a cottage on nearby Useppa Island. Unlike the exclusive other island I just noted, Cabbage Key welcomes restaurant visitors and a guide will show you if there are any vacancies at the inn or rental cottages.
The Inn sits on a 38-foot Calusa Indian mound so air breezes cool the porch where most dine. The most popular spot is the bar whose walls are covered by autographed dollar bills started by a patron who didn’t want to visit the bar broke. Today, 65,000 dollar bills grace the walls and regulars will point you to the Jimmy Buffett and Neil Young bills.
