Wilderness hospitality

Guest bedroom is furnished as it would have
been in the late 1800s. (Gerri Bauer photo)

Trading, fishing, guiding visitors - they were some of the ways pioneers in undeveloped parts of Florida made their living in the late 1800s. The Pacetti family of Ponce Inlet did so, and more, at a time when the area was a true wilderness.

Even the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse didn't exist at first. Bartolo and Martha Pacetti sold 10 acres to the U.S. government for use as a light station. The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse was constructed in 1887.

By that time, the Pacettis operated a thriving fishing resort and boarding house adjacent to the lighthouse grounds. They'd built the structure in 1881 using the $400 earned from the land sale. It was an upgrade from the wooden cottage where they had already become known for their hospitality.

In a joyful moment for history seekers, the restored Pacetti Hotel re-opened in 2024 as a public museum owned by the Ponce DeLeon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association. I recently toured the hotel and enjoyed every minute.

The Pacetti Hotel is now a public museum.
(Gerri Bauer photo)

There's a lot of history packed into the building, now named the Constance D. Hunter Historic Pacetti Hotel. And several people worth noting, from modern times to the past:

• Constance Hunter, whose foundation partially funded the recent restoration
• The Gamble family of Procter & Gamble fame. Olive Gamble did the first restoration. She and subsequent relatives hosted family and friends there.
• Fishing and hunting guide and building caretaker Jesse Linzy, who lived at the hotel and worked for the Pacettis starting in 1907. In the 1930s, he married "Miss Ida," the personal cook and maid who arrived with Olive Gamble. In the short-sighted ways of the era, we don't know her surname before she became Ida Linzy.

Each person deserves a blog post but today's belongs to the Pacettis. 

Bartolomeu Clemente Pacetti was born about 1823. He was a descendent of the Pons and Pacetti families who were part of the ill-fated Turnbull Colony (1760s-1770s) in nearby New Smyrna Beach. The colonists arrived from Minorca, Greece and Italy as indentured servants. Most went north to St. Augustine when the colony collapsed, but others stayed nearby. Bartolo inherited some of the Pons family land.

Martha Jane Wickwire Pacetti was born in Florida in 1844 to pioneers from Vermont and Georgia. Her local roots also ran deep. Her ancestors included the Osteen family, whose name lives today in the Florida community of the same name in the same county. 

The Pacettis had five children. The family lived and ran their popular resort in a beautiful, bountiful waterfront location. But it was isolated. And the living wasn't easy in the 1880s, 1890s and early 1900s. It was nonstop work, as you learn from museum exhibits. 

Martha gained a reputation as an excellent cook of the fish and wild game the land and sea produced. One visitor said she set a "capital table" and was said to be the best fish cook in Florida. Bartolo, his sons Gomez and Bert (who later became a federal wildlife officer), along with Jesse, became renowned as guides. 

The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
is seen through a window in
Pacetti Hotel. (Gerri Bauer photo)

As the years continued, notables such as businessman James Norris Gamble and artist William Aiken Walker found their way to the resort, along with many others. They included the lighthouse builders, its keepers and their families.

Today, visitors can tour the beautifully restored building and view bedrooms furnished as they were in the different time periods. They can immerse themselves in period details shown in exhibits and explained in wall board displays that include period photos. A short video acquaints guests with the property's history. You can even rent the facility for weddings and other events. Learn more at www.ponceinlet.org

Go see the hotel. And the lighthouse complex, which I'll write about next month. They are both so worth it.

Side view of the waterfront hotel.
(Gerri Bauer photo)

Reading between the lines - or fruits

Ready for dinner on Christmas Day 1885. Is the
 decor tasteful or showy? It can be hard to tell.
 (Credit: State Archives of  Florida)

The type of natural Christmas decorations I wrote about in my last post are displayed nicely in this 1885 image from the State Archives of Florida. What I can't figure is how the decorators managed to secure the palm fronds to the walls. If anyone has an idea, leave a comment.

This picture depicts a Christmas dinner at what is labeled on the Florida Memory website as a "restaurant or club" in DeLand. I've seen this photo before, though, and it shows the Putnam Inn.

DeLand in 1885 had some notable boarding houses, and the Putnam Inn was one of the them. Others included the Parce Land Hotel and the Grove House. Another photo on the Florida Memory site shows the same room, set for dinner, but without the wait staff and centerpiece display. It clearly states that the image is of the dining room of the Putnam House (the hotel's later name) on Dec. 25, 1885.

The mystery (to me, anyway) is the condition of the palm-frond decorations. They are decidedly droopier in the image identified as the Putnam and dated Dec. 25.

I share the photograph now - a few days after Christmas - for two reasons:

1. The 12 Days of Christmas begin Dec. 25, they don't end on that day. So it's still Christmas, in my book. (When I was a child, we didn't decorate our tree until Dec. 24, a tradition that generated much youthful whining.)
2. People who dined out in 1885 Florida had more disposable income than the average pioneer family. The diners were often winter residents, and some were fairly wealthy. Yet there isn't anything really fancy about the dining room. The decorations aren't lavish. The table decor is notable only for the fanned napkins. The scene, overall, leads me to think people back then didn't expect over-the-top everything as many do today.

I'll now argue against my notion in Number 2, because of the fruits tied to the legs of the big display table. It's possible such decoration was part of the era's definition of overabundance. I mean, who dresses up table legs?

And I question what fruits are piled up on the display. Pineapples? Giant avocados? Papayas? Excess can have different measures. Perhaps in an era when locally sourced meant the Back 40, having a papaya in the dead of winter flashed a message louder than any holiday light display.

A glimpse of 1880s luxury

Just your average dining room .... Aristocratic
guests dined here in the late 19th century.
Today, students attending Flagler College
have their meals here. (Gerri Bauer photo)

If you wonder how the 1 percent vacationed in the late 1880s, take the guided tour of Flagler College in St. Augustine. You won't be disappointed.

The college's main building is the former Ponce deLeon Hotel, built by oil magnate and Florida promoter Henry Flagler in the mid-1880s. It opened in 1888. He spared no expense, and the hotel launched high-class tourism in Florida. 

The luxury of the structure remains evident today, and must have awed visitors in its day. At least those visitors who gained access. Our tour guide said patrons had to be on the Social Register to be considered guest-worthy in the late 19th century.

They also had to pay $4,000 to vacation there. I don't remember if that amount covered a month or the entire season - which was about three months. I do remember that Flagler demanded the fee be paid in cash. In advance. (That $4,000 in 1888 would have been $103,800 in 2014.) 

People did get what they paid for. Much has been written about the hotel's architecture and service, so I'll cut my ramblings short and let photos tell the rest of the story. It's a feast for the eyes. 

In a future post, I'll take a look at the people behind the scenes - the servants who ran themselves ragged making sure the cocoon of perfection contained no jagged edges.
Enjoy a virtual tour, but make sure to see the real thing next time you're in St. Augustine.

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