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(bright joyful music) (bright joyful music continues) (canon booming) (bright joyful music continues) (bright joyful music continues) - Pedro Menendez de Aviles held the rank of admiral in the Spanish Navy.

In 1565, the king of Spain decided that Menendez should set up a colony on the East Coast of Florida, a colony that would protect Spanish treasure ships on their way home from the Americas.

After all, it doesn't make much sense to steal all that gold and silver from the Aztecs and the Maya if you can't get it home safely.

And so Menendez put together a fleet filled with colonists, soldiers, sailors, and supplies, and headed for Florida.

On August 28th, 1565, which happens to be the feast day of Saint Augustine, he spotted land, and 11 days later came ashore and founded a settlement, which he called St.

Augustine.

For over 200 years, it was the capital of Spanish Florida, and today it is the oldest continually occupied settlement founded by Europeans in the United States.

For the next few hundred years, Spain and England were in constant conflict, in conflict over the settlements along the East Coast of what is now the United States.

A key element in Spain's defense plan for St.

Augustine was the Castillo de San Marcos.

Its construction started in 1672 and took 23 years to complete.

It's made of a locally sourced stone-like compound of shells and limestone called Coquina, which has proven to be virtually indestructible.

During the early 1800s, Spain was very busy trying to hold on to its colonies in Latin America, and St.

Augustine was not particularly important to them.

And so in 1821, they gave it to the United States.

(water babbling) The first time I heard about St.

Augustine was in connection with the Fountain of Youth.

I was reading a book about the history of Florida, and it contained a section about the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon sailing up and back along the coast.

(wood creaking) On Easter Sunday, 1513, he made an entry in his ship's log.

He had sighted land just south of here at Ponte Vedra Beach.

No one is sure where he came ashore, but it was probably near here.

(water crashing) This is what the area looks like today.

The beach actually looks very much like it would have when it was discovered.

There's a large, undisturbed seven-mile area of dunes that have not been developed or touched.

The boardwalks are the only constructed elements on the beach.

(water crashing) In general, it's our policy to get our information from experts.

Excuse me, which way is the Fountain of Youth?

He says it's over there.

The book I was reading then went on to talk about Ponce and his search for the Fountain of Youth.

Apparently the legend is totally false, but it made a great story and inspired a local attraction, the Fountain of Youth Archeological Park.

(person speaking in Spanish) (gun firing) (hammer clanging) (water babbling) The idea that there was a magic fountain with water that could restore one's youth has been around for thousands of years.

Herodotus wrote about it in the fifth century BC.

Here in St.

Augustine, the Fountain of Youth is memorialized in an archeological park that was created by Luella Day McConnell in 1904.

Years later, the Smithsonian Institution undertook a series of archeological digs that marked it as the spot where Menendez built the original St.

Augustine settlement in 1565.

- Well, beginning in 1934, there's been a chain of discoveries.

In that year, 1934, a gardener was digging a hole to plant an orange tree, and a shovel clinked into a skull.

Well, there was high drama.

The police were called, and it was almost immediately discovered that what he had clinked into was in fact one of the first Christianized Native American burials in the continental US.

As it turns out, our Franciscan friends, who constructed the mission in 1587, performed the last rights of thousands of Christianized Timucua over the years, and they're all buried right here on our site.

The (speaks in Spanish) would be preloaded with the gunpowder load (indistinct).

- [Burt] From time to time, Spanish colonial military canons are fired.

(canon booming) There's an authentic 16th century boat works, a recreation of a Native American village, and an exhibit demonstrating how the Spanish explorers navigated the sea.

(bright joyful music) (water pattering) The basic idea behind the Fountain of Youth is that there is some element that will be a source of rejuvenation and renewal, a basis for revitalization.

(upbeat music) Enter Henry Flagler.

Flagler, along with his pal, John D. Rockefeller, were the founders of the Standard Oil Company.

In 1883, he spent the winter in St.

Augustine.

He liked the city, but thought the hotels and the transportation system needed work.

So he decided to rejuvenate the place to make St.

Augustine a winter resort for wealthy folks from the north.

First thing up was the Florida East Coast Railroad, which he started building in 1887.

It opened up the Atlantic Coast of Florida to tourism and industrial development.

He also built the Ponce De Leon Hotel.

Today, it is a national historic landmark and part of Flagler College.

- We have 32 buildings on our campus, and 19 of the 32 buildings are historic structures.

- [Burt] My guide is Dr.

William Abare Jr.

Dr.

Abare has spent many years preserving, maintaining, and revitalizing important historic properties throughout St.

Augustine.

- The architects for the Hotel Ponce De Leon were Carrere and Hastings.

They designed 600 buildings in their lifetime.

This was their first job.

- [Burt] Flagler's architects liked the Moorish revival style, which used elements taken from the architecture of Moorish Spain, domes, horseshoe arches and fountains.

(water pattering) The Ponce de Leon Hotel was their masterpiece.

It was the first large-scale building constructed of cast-in-place concrete.

- And they hired a gentleman by the name of Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose name became synonymous with stained glass windows.

And you'll see the Tiffany windows up close.

They are the largest in-place collection of Tiffany glass anywhere in the world.

And also you'll notice the beautiful hand-carved wood, the spindles on the staircase.

And then if you'll see the statue of Queen Isabella, and you'll also notice the light bulbs that are fabrications of the light bulbs during that time.

And then they also hired a gentleman by the name of Thomas Alva Edison, who built the two dynamos that powered the electricity for this building.

Here we are in the mezzanine, and you can see the upper part of the rotunda.

And as you look up and you see these murals.

The murals were done by George W. Maynard.

The interesting thing is that the Hotel Ponce De Leon was built 10 years before the Library of Congress.

So we have the original work by George W. Maynard, and the work was repeated up in the Library of Congress.

This is probably the most magnificent dining room in the United States, certainly on any college campus anywhere in the United States.

We have about 30 of the original chairs that we maintained, and then we found a company in North Carolina that could replicate these chairs.

And so our students are sitting in chairs that are almost like the original chairs of the old hotel.

- [Burt] The students here have an amazing experience and in constant touch... - They do.

- [Burt] with history.

- And that is one of the real interesting parts about this experience that our students do have this opportunity.

So, the two towers that are very conspicuous architectural elements of this building were actually functional.

They were water tanks.

And so you had a gravity-fed water sprinkler system in the building.

- The heyday of the college started in 1968 when it was the women's college, right?

But (indistinct).

- [Burt] Leslee Keys is the college's director of historical preservation.

- So, we are in the grand parlor here, what we call now the Flagler room.

And this room is in great contrast to what you have seen in that it's light and airy and very feminine.

This is where ladies came in, and it was called the Grand Parlor.

And they would sit and do whatever women wanted to do, like gossip and talk and visit with each other.

After a few years, they invited the guys to come in, and this became a second ballroom.

- Ruined it.

(Leslee laughing) - Perhaps.

(laughs) There is a blue on the ceiling, which is attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany's father, the jeweler, Charles Lewis Tiffany, who trademarked the blue.

And that's still is what is used on the jewelry boxes.

So, this building looks as close as it did now (water pattering) to when Henry Flagler was here and opened it.

(bright music) - [Burt] More than anyone else, Henry Flagler was responsible for the renewal of Florida's East Coast.

He was a fountain of youth for the neighborhood.

William Mark Keenan Jr.

was a longtime business associate of Mr.

Flagler.

He was also Mr.

Flagler's brother-in-law, which in itself was a good job.

When Flagler died in 1913, Keenan took over the business.

Keenan believed that a well-rounded education was central to one's happiness.

When Keenan passed away, he left a substantial part of his wealth to a charitable trust, and it was Keenan's trust that began supporting the idea of a college named after Flagler.

- The Keenans are critical to Flagler College.

They have really supported practically every major initiative on our campus.

So it's the foundation, the trust has been extremely generous to Flagler College, and without their support, we would not be where we are today.

- [Burt] Keenan died in 1962, and his assistant, Lawrence Lewis, took over.

Lewis shared the same love of education that motivated Keenan, and so Lewis began the development of the college with the Ponce de Leon Hotel as the centerpiece of the campus.

- Flagler College was founded in 1968 as an all women's college.

It was very short-lived, reorganized in 1971 as a co-educational institution.

The enrollment in 1971 was 223 students, full-time students.

Today, we have about 2,500 students here in St.

Augustine.

(audience applauding) - [Burt] William Proctor became the president of the school and things really got underway.

He restored the buildings, and he set up a curriculum that truly met the needs of the students.

He saw to it that the college received regional accreditation.

He was instrumental in securing additional funding from the Flagler Foundation and the Flagler family.

- [Burt] When Dr.

Proctor retired, Bill Abare became president and the college continued to grow.

He's been at Flagler College since 1971.

He started as the dean of admissions and became president in 2001.

Perhaps even more significant is the fact that he has sent his three children to Flagler.

- He likes to say he has been here for every single graduation.

So he has shaken the hand of every student who has ever graduated from this college.

- That's amazing.

- [Leslee] Yes.

- Well, I think the feeling is a feeling of family and community.

There's a sense of collegiality, a sense of civility, and we think that those are qualities, those are characteristics, those are values that are very, very important in terms of the academic tenor, what goes on on this campus, and how we interact with one another, how we treat one another, the respect that we have for one another.

We have a very unique program in deaf education.

Our students here have the benefit of working with probably the best school for the deaf and the blind in the United States, maybe in the world.

It's about two miles from our campus, the Florida State School for the Deaf & the Blind.

So it's a great training ground for our students.

And our students who graduate with a major in deaf education have no problem whatsoever getting a job.

(motor whirring) - Request permission to come aboard, sir.

- [Captain] Absolutely.

Nice to see you.

Good morning.

- [Burt] There's also an extraordinary program for science majors interested in how to protect our coastal environment.

- Got 35 parts per 1,000 for salinity today.

- [William] We take advantage of our coastal location.

We are within two blocks of the intercoastal waterway.

We're within five miles of the Atlantic Ocean, so our students have a fantastic laboratory experience in terms of coastal environmental science.

- [Burt] The need to protect our coastal environment is essential to our survival.

(motor whirring) It's also a growing field in terms of occupation, and the number of people working on the subject is increasing faster than the average for all occupations.

And the St.

Augustine area is an ideal place to study the subject.

(camera clicking) - Yeah, they're hanging around by the sandbar.

(camera clicking) - The thrust of our program is that students are learning environmental science because they're out studying environmental science.

You really can't do environmental science by sitting in the classroom and talking about it.

(water splashing) - [Student] I see a calf.

- I think there's his mom (camera clicking) and another one right over there by buoy.

- Through photographic identification, we can mark and recapture these dolphins based on their fins.

So the fin is their mark, and we do this non-invasively.

So after 11 years of data and the partnership with the college to help us crunch that data, we've learned amazing things about these animals, their culture and their population.

- Within 40 miles of the college, there are over 80 protected and actively managed natural sites.

(water crashing) There's the Atlantic Ocean, the coastal barrier islands, the St.

John's River, Longleaf pine forest.

There's also a considerable amount of involvement with the local community.

(motor whirring) The city of St.

Augustine has a series of eco tours.

The St.

Augustine community has targeted a number of research projects.

They need more information in establishing oyster reefs, monitoring gopher tortoises, and cataloging the local dolphin population.

(dolphin blowing) (joyous orchestral music) (feet clacking) St.

Augustine is the site of the oldest permanent navigational aid in North America.

Before Siri, before GPS, before my Aunt Dorothy in the backseat of my car, there was the St.

Augustine Lighthouse.

It started out as a series of wooden watchtowers and eventually became what you see here today.

It's 165 feet tall.

Inside, there are 219 steps, each of which has been entered into the Burt Wolf Fountain of Youth Exercise Program, which is being developed especially for me by the Max Plank Institute for the Terminally Naive.

The lens consists of 370 hand-cut prisms arranged in a beehive shape, is 12 feet tall and six feet in diameter.

It can be seen for over 20 nautical miles, assuming it's a clear night and you're wearing your glasses with a new prescription.

I mention this in case you get to St.

Augustine and you don't have the strength to climb up the 219 steps, or you have too much homework, at least you'll know what's going on at the top of the lighthouse.

(bright music) Established in 1738 by the Spanish colonial government in the marshes of St.

Augustine, Fort Mose gave sanctuary to African slaves fleeing the British colony in Carolina.

More than 100 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, they were able to follow the original Underground Railroad, which instead of heading north, headed south to the Spanish colony in Florida.

If they declared their allegiance to the King of Spain and joined the Catholic Church, they were granted their freedom.

The community that they formed became the first free Black settlement in America.

(bright music) Virtually every town established by the Spanish in the Americas has a town plaza.

The one here in St.

Augustine was built in 1573 and named for the Spanish Constitution of 1812.

But right after the monument was erected, there was a change of government and orders went out to destroy all monuments to the Constitution.

But the governor of St.

Augustine was a great appreciator of both constitutions and monuments, and he refused to have it knocked down.

As a result of his appreciation of art and constitutions, this is the only monument devoted to the Constitution of 1812 that is standing anywhere in the world.

(energetic rock music) (waves crashing) St.

Augustine has over 40 miles of shoreline, which includes some of the best beaches in the United States.

When I lived in New York, I was constantly infuriated by real estate developers who built buildings so high that they cast a shadow into Central Park and covered some of the most beautiful streets in the city.

Much to St.

Augustine's credit, they have a law that says you cannot build a building on the beach front that's more than 35 feet high.

To put that in perspective, it's less than five times the height of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

As a result, the beaches are never covered by the shadows cast from high-rise buildings.

(calming music) (bell ringing) - [Jon] All right, gentlemen, haul away.

(pulleys creaking) - [Burt] The Schooner Freedom is an authentic replica of a 19th century blockade runner.

She is a double-masted gaff rig top-sail schooner, whatever that means.

It certainly sounds impressive.

- There's nothing quite like setting full sail on a 76-foot schooner right in St.

Augustine.

- [Burt] The Freedom has been sailing the waters of historic St.

Augustine since 2001.

Visitors can take a day sail, a sunset, or a moonlit sailing.

- [Jon] What we're doing is keeping a dying art alive.

We're keeping that piece of history here in St.

Augustine.

Just we have a different cargo on board these days.

You know, our passengers.

(people chattering) (birds chirping) - And the great Florida Birding Trail is not just for the birds, it's a birdwatcher's paradise.

In April, hundreds of birders and photographers from around the world come to St.

Augustine for the annual Birding and Photo Fest, with world-class tours, seminars, and workshops.

It's not exactly the Fountain of Youth presented in the legend of Ponce de Leon, but there is a fountain of youth here in St.

Augustine.

It comes from a city that is constantly preserving its youth.

And at Flagler College, which is devoted not only to educating young people... (joyful music) but to integrating their programs to St.

Augustine, the historic city, the coastline estuaries and tourism.

For "Travels & Traditions," I'm Burt Wolf.

(joyous music) But wait, there's more.

For daily Reels featuring interviews and stories filmed during "Travels & Traditions," visit BurtNicholasWolfTV on YouTube.

(joyful orchestral music) (joyful orchestral music continues) - [Announcer] "Travels & Traditions with Burt and Nicholas Wolf" is made possible by Goldbelly.

Shipping stone crabs, pizzas, birthday cakes, and more from many of America's restaurants anywhere nationwide, goldbelly.com.

And by Swiss International Airlines, flying to over 100 worldwide locations.

Truly Swiss-made.

Swiss International Airlines.

And by YP Foundation, helping those in need through education and improving life skills.

Guided by the principles of good deeds, charity, and public welfare, YP Foundation.

And by Five Star Travel, Inc in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since 1985, Five Star Travel has been developing and delivering detailed itineraries for trips, cruises, and vacations to destinations around the world.

Five Star Travel, Inc.

(bright music)