Monson Motor Lodge
Monson House | |
---|---|
General information | |
Address | 24 Bay Street |
Town or city | St. Augustine, Florida |
Country | United States |
Opened | 1884 |
Demolished | 1960 |
Monson Motor Lodge | |
---|---|
General information | |
Address | 32 Avenida Menendez |
Town or city | St. Augustine, Florida |
Country | United States |
Opened | 1961 |
Demolished | 2003 |
The Monson Motor Lodge, at 32 Avenida Menendez, Saint Augustine, Florida, was in 1964 the site of a landmark protest event of the Civil Rights Movement. The site was before that occupied by the Monson House, a 19th-century boarding house.
The Monson House
The original Monson hotel was established by Captain Anthony Vincent "Bossy" Monson and his wife Florence Young in the 1880s, not long before the opening of the Flagler hotels made the city a luxury destination.[1] Monson was a Saint Augustine native raised at 56 Marine Street (now known as the González-Jones House). Born in 1854, he was the youngest of eight children, including William F Monson, who became a notable architect/builder in Mandarin, Florida. His mother was Laurenna Leonardy, a Minorcan descendant of the Bonelly and Leonardy families who were original colonists in Andrew Turnbull's expedition at New Smyrna, Florida. Leonardy married William Monson (Anton Bengt Osmundsen), who had immigrated to America in 1836 from Stavanger, Norway.
The first Monson House was on the water's edge at 24 Bay Street (now Avenida Menendez), between the Plaza and Fort Marion. An 1885 advertisement claimed rooms for ten boarders at $9-$10/week.[2] In addition to rented rooms, the Monson offered tourists a chance to sail to the Saint Augustine Lighthouse on Anastasia Island on one of four yachts anchored near the club house.
The visitor to St. Augustine should consider the sojourn incomplete without a sail in the harbor and over in the beach where one can climb the stairs to the top of the light-house on Anastasia Island, and get a magnificent view of the ocean on one side and the town on the other. In order to do this, it will be necessary to engage one of Captain Monson's yachts, Mamie, Maria, Traveller or Ocrenba. which are at anchor near the club-house. Captain Monson is a native of St. Augustine and about 58 years of age. He is also proprietor of a boarding house which can accommodate ten guests at $1.50 per day from $9 to $10 per week.[3]
This first house burned in an 1895 fire. The second Monson House was located at 26 Bay Street next to Brava Lane. Open all year, the rates were $1.50 to $2.00 per day with $7.00 to 12.00 per week. Residents could enjoy hot and cold baths. The hotel was again enlarged in 1901 and in 1912, when the capacity was advertised at 75.
The final wooden hotel fell victim to the April 1914 fire that started at the Florida House and destroyed everything from Saint George Street to the Bay. The fire claimed four hotels, the opera house, the courthouse, and countless homes and businesses.[4] The Monson was replaced by a masonry structure that opened on January 5, 1915. Monson died later that year, and his brother-in-law Charles E Young Sr became manager of the new hotel.[5]
The Monson was enlarged in 1916 with an addition to the south side that almost doubled its size. The Monson Hotel remained a fixture on Saint Augustine's bay front until 1960, when it was demolished and replaced by the Monson Motor Lodge. That structure was eventually razed as well, and in 2003 reopened as the Hilton Bayfront Hotel. It remains under Hilton's management today, with 72 rooms spread over 19 small buildings. During excavations prior to construction of the Hilton's underground parking garage, archeologists found evidence of colonial foundations from Saint Augustine's British Period (1763–1784).[6]
Civil Rights Movement
In the spring of 1964, Robert Hayling worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to recruit college students to come to Saint Augustine for spring break to take part in civil rights activities. Martin Luther King Jr. of the SCLC was arrested on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge restaurant, June 11, 1964. He wrote a "Letter from the Saint Augustine Jail" to his friend, Israel S. Dresner, in New Jersey, encouraging rabbis to come to Saint Augustine and take part in the movement. The result was the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, which occurred June 18 at the Monson.[7] That same day, black and white activists jumped into the Monson swimming pool in defiance of segregation ordinances. The manager of the hotel, James Brock, responded by pouring muriatic acid into the water to drive the "wade in" protestors out. Photographs of this action, and of a police officer jumping into the pool to arrest the young activists, were broadcast around the world and became some of the most famous images of the movement. On June 30, Florida Governor Farris Bryant announced the formation of a biracial committee to restore interracial communication in Saint Augustine. National SCLC leaders left Saint Augustine on July 1, the day before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.
The motel and pool were demolished in March 2003, despite five years of protests, thus eliminating one of the nation's important landmarks of the civil rights movement.[8] The Hilton Bayfront Hotel was built on the site. Today, the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge have been preserved with a plaque to commemorate King's activism in the city.[9] The last sign from the Monson is preserved in the ACCORD Civil Rights Museum at 79 Bridge Street, the former dental office of Dr. Robert Hayling, the leader of the civil rights movement in St. Augustine. It has also been displayed at the state Capitol in Tallahassee.
References
- ^ Bowen, Beth Rogero (2012). Saint Augustine in the Roaring Twenties. Charleston SC: Arcadia. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7385-9121-6.
- ^ "Boarding Houses Over Time". Dr Bronson. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ "Post Reconstruction in St. Augustine 1877–1885". Dr Bronson.
- ^ Harvey, Karen (2006). Legends and Tales II. Charleston SC: History Press. p. 16. ISBN 1-59629-070-6.
- ^ Bowen, Beth Rogero (2012). Saint Augustine in the Roaring Twenties. Charleston SC: Arcadia. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7385-9121-6.
- ^ Gordon, Elsbeth Buff (2015). Walking Saint Augustine. Gainesville FL: University of Florida. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-8130-6083-5.
- ^ Branch, Taylor (1998). Pillar of Fire. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80819-6.
- ^ "St. Augustine Record: March 18, 2003-Demolition begins on Monson Inn by Ken Lewis". Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
- ^ Gordon, Elsbeth Buff (2015). Walking Saint Augustine. Gainesville FL: University of Florida. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-8130-6083-5.
- v
- t
- e
(timeline)
groups
- Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
- Atlanta Student Movement
- Black Panther Party
- Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
- Committee for Freedom Now
- Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
- Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
- Council of Federated Organizations
- Dallas County Voters League
- Deacons for Defense and Justice
- Georgia Council on Human Relations
- Highlander Folk School
- Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
- Montgomery Improvement Association
- NAACP
- Nashville Student Movement
- Nation of Islam
- Northern Student Movement
- National Council of Negro Women
- National Urban League
- Operation Breadbasket
- Regional Council of Negro Leadership
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Southern Regional Council
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- The Freedom Singers
- United Auto Workers (UAW)
- Wednesdays in Mississippi
- Women's Political Council
- Ralph Abernathy
- Victoria Gray Adams
- Zev Aelony
- Mathew Ahmann
- Muhammad Ali
- William G. Anderson
- Gwendolyn Armstrong
- Arnold Aronson
- Ella Baker
- James Baldwin
- Marion Barry
- Daisy Bates
- Harry Belafonte
- James Bevel
- Claude Black
- Gloria Blackwell
- Randolph Blackwell
- Unita Blackwell
- Ezell Blair Jr.
- Joanne Bland
- Julian Bond
- Joseph E. Boone
- William Holmes Borders
- Amelia Boynton
- Bruce Boynton
- Raylawni Branch
- Stanley Branche
- Ruby Bridges
- Aurelia Browder
- H. Rap Brown
- Ralph Bunche
- Guy Carawan
- Stokely Carmichael
- Johnnie Carr
- James Chaney
- J. L. Chestnut
- Shirley Chisholm
- Colia Lafayette Clark
- Ramsey Clark
- Septima Clark
- Xernona Clayton
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Kathleen Cleaver
- Charles E. Cobb Jr.
- Annie Lee Cooper
- Dorothy Cotton
- Claudette Colvin
- Vernon Dahmer
- Jonathan Daniels
- Abraham Lincoln Davis
- Angela Davis
- Joseph DeLaine
- Dave Dennis
- Annie Devine
- Patricia Stephens Due
- Joseph Ellwanger
- Charles Evers
- Medgar Evers
- Myrlie Evers-Williams
- Chuck Fager
- James Farmer
- Walter Fauntroy
- James Forman
- Marie Foster
- Golden Frinks
- Andrew Goodman
- Robert Graetz
- Fred Gray
- Jack Greenberg
- Dick Gregory
- Lawrence Guyot
- Prathia Hall
- Fannie Lou Hamer
- Fred Hampton
- William E. Harbour
- Vincent Harding
- Dorothy Height
- Audrey Faye Hendricks
- Lola Hendricks
- Aaron Henry
- Oliver Hill
- Donald L. Hollowell
- James Hood
- Myles Horton
- Zilphia Horton
- T. R. M. Howard
- Ruby Hurley
- Cecil Ivory
- Jesse Jackson
- Jimmie Lee Jackson
- Richie Jean Jackson
- T. J. Jemison
- Esau Jenkins
- Barbara Rose Johns
- Vernon Johns
- Frank Minis Johnson
- Clarence Jones
- J. Charles Jones
- Matthew Jones
- Vernon Jordan
- Tom Kahn
- Clyde Kennard
- A. D. King
- C.B. King
- Coretta Scott King
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Martin Luther King Sr.
- Bernard Lafayette
- James Lawson
- Bernard Lee
- Sanford R. Leigh
- Jim Letherer
- Stanley Levison
- John Lewis
- Viola Liuzzo
- Z. Alexander Looby
- Joseph Lowery
- Clara Luper
- Danny Lyon
- Malcolm X
- Mae Mallory
- Vivian Malone
- Bob Mants
- Thurgood Marshall
- Benjamin Mays
- Franklin McCain
- Charles McDew
- Ralph McGill
- Floyd McKissick
- Joseph McNeil
- James Meredith
- William Ming
- Jack Minnis
- Amzie Moore
- Cecil B. Moore
- Douglas E. Moore
- Harriette Moore
- Harry T. Moore
- Queen Mother Moore
- William Lewis Moore
- Irene Morgan
- Bob Moses
- William Moyer
- Elijah Muhammad
- Diane Nash
- Charles Neblett
- Huey P. Newton
- Edgar Nixon
- Jack O'Dell
- James Orange
- Rosa Parks
- James Peck
- Charles Person
- Homer Plessy
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
- Fay Bellamy Powell
- Rodney N. Powell
- Al Raby
- Lincoln Ragsdale
- A. Philip Randolph
- George Raymond
- George Raymond Jr.
- Bernice Johnson Reagon
- Cordell Reagon
- James Reeb
- Frederick D. Reese
- Walter Reuther
- Gloria Richardson
- David Richmond
- Bernice Robinson
- Jo Ann Robinson
- Angela Russell
- Bayard Rustin
- Bernie Sanders
- Michael Schwerner
- Bobby Seale
- Cleveland Sellers
- Charles Sherrod
- Alexander D. Shimkin
- Fred Shuttlesworth
- Modjeska Monteith Simkins
- Glenn E. Smiley
- A. Maceo Smith
- Kelly Miller Smith
- Mary Louise Smith
- Maxine Smith
- Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
- Charles Kenzie Steele
- Hank Thomas
- Dorothy Tillman
- A. P. Tureaud
- Hartman Turnbow
- Albert Turner
- C. T. Vivian
- Wyatt Tee Walker
- Hollis Watkins
- Walter Francis White
- Roy Wilkins
- Hosea Williams
- Kale Williams
- Robert F. Williams
- Andrew Young
- Whitney Young
- Sammy Younge Jr.
- Bob Zellner
- James Zwerg
songs
- "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
- "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
- "Kumbaya"
- "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
- "Oh, Freedom"
- "This Little Light of Mine"
- "We Shall Not Be Moved"
- "We Shall Overcome"
- "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"
- Jim Crow laws
- Lynching in the United States
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Buchanan v. Warley
- Hocutt v. Wilson
- Sweatt v. Painter
- Hernandez v. Texas
- Loving v. Virginia
- African-American women in the movement
- Jews in the civil rights movement
- Fifth Circuit Four
- 16th Street Baptist Church
- Kelly Ingram Park
- A.G. Gaston Motel
- Bethel Baptist Church
- Brown Chapel
- Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
- Holt Street Baptist Church
- Edmund Pettus Bridge
- March on Washington Movement
- African-American churches attacked
- List of lynching victims in the United States
- Freedom Schools
- Freedom songs
- Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
- "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
- Voter Education Project
- 1960s counterculture
- African American founding fathers of the United States
- Eyes on the Prize
- In popular culture
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
- Civil Rights Memorial
- Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
- Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
- Freedom Rides Museum
- Freedom Riders National Monument
- King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
- National Civil Rights Museum
- National Voting Rights Museum
- St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
historians