The need to eliminate Les Innocents gained urgency from May 31, 1780, when a basement wall in a property adjoining the cemetery collapsed under the weight of the mass grave behind it. The cemetery was closed to the public and all intra muros (Latin: “within the [city] walls”) burials were forbidden after 1780. The problem…
Longwood’s Big Tree at 3500 years old is the oldest living thing in Florida. Towering 126 feet the huge cypress, nicknamed the “Senator,” has a girth of 47 feet and contains an estimated 50,000 feet of lumber. Think about it, this gentle giant was an adult tree before the birth of Christ and although it…
Most people think family cemeteries, particularly ones in the western United States, consist of a couple of tumbledown marble or wooden headstones surrounded by a rotting picket fence. Sad to say, this is mostly true: but there are exceptions. Take for example the family plot of the McMillins, in Roche Harbor. John McMillin owned the…
So goes one of Jimi Hendrix’s most famous lyrics, and kiss the sky he did, much too early by any standard. The Seattle-born rock musician, known for his overdriven guitar riffs and flamboyant attire, was only 26 when he died in a London hotel from vomit asphyxiation. September 18, 1970 marked the tragic end of…
When the United States took possession of Florida as a territory in 1821 a portion of the old St. Francis Barracks’ land was set aside for a small post cemetery. The first soldiers buried here were casualties of the Seminole Indian Wars. However, most casualties were first buried at different posts around the territory. The…
Visiting the Lees in Lakeview Two of Seattle’s Lakeview Cemetery most famous residents are Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon. Every year, thousands of people from all over the world visit them. Visitors are so common that when I recently went into the cemetery office to ask about another matter, the receptionist did not even…
Born Moszek Sztajnkeler in 1928 in Zakrzówek, Poland, Morris Stein passed away in North Carolina in 2014. His son, Jack Stein, says that Morris struggled to talk about his experiences during the Holocaust. As a child in Israel, Jack did not ask his father about his life during World War II because it caused him…
Born in Krakow, Poland, on January 19, 1931, Steve (formerly Sacher) Israeler was the youngest of six children. His father, David, had a textile business on the main street of the city’s Jewish quarter, and his mother, Regina (Ryfka) (née Wolf), was a housewife. His older siblings were Miriam, Rose, Janka, Helen, and Walter (Zev)….
It’s on the Dixie Highway in North Miami and at 800 years old it’s the oldest building in America. It’s called the “Old Spanish Monastery” but its real name is The Cloisters of the Ancient Spanish Monastery and St. Bernard de Clairvaux Episcopal Church. You may be wondering how it was built in Florida 300…
No book about Florida’s fabled places would be complete without mentioning Ponce de Leon’s quest for the Fountain of Youth. In my personal search for this fabled fountain I’ve been to the St. Augustine’s Fountain of Youth many times. You know the place, that tourist attraction where after paying admission they give you a paper…