Behind the Walls of the Ponce

Blueprint design with the title "Behind the walls of the Ponce"
July 26, 2024
By Ann Boone, Photos by Zach Thomas, '00
Since embarking on a historic restoration project less than two years ago, Flagler College has handed contractors and preservationists a magnifying glass to rediscover one of St. Augustine’s most iconic buildings, the former Hotel Ponce de Leon.

“That’s what’s kind of fun: peeling all this back,” said Bill Evans, owner of Avondale Window Restoration.

As expert groups like Evans’ regional restoration company work to preserve the historical value and beauty of the Ponce, they are peeling back 130 years’ worth of layers which have obscured original details of the former hotel for over a century.

“One of the things about working long-term in a building like this is you get to know it intimately,” said Geoff Stewart, owner and director of International Fine Art Conservation Studios (IFACS). “You can stay here for half an hour and notice things you hadn’t before.”

Intricately painted and once vibrantly colored wallpaper ornamented the walls of the Ponce from different periods of the hotel. A handful of these prints are among the hidden gems unearthed by groups like IFACS during recent preservation work inside the National Historic Landmark.

These magnificently designed prints seem worthy to be framed on a wall rather than covering one. But in a manner characteristic of his opulent winter resort, Henry Flagler’s vision has left the College with countless walls to continue to explore for artwork.

One uncovered wallpaper print, with a faded floral damask design, has found the spotlight it deserves. With a beauty akin to peering through a kaleidoscope, this once-bold print now hangs as a swatch in the East Wing of today’s student residence halls. Identifying and uncovering seemingly minute design details from original craftsmen and artists requires keen observation and a genuine interest in finding those special elements which now characterize the historic building that is the centerpiece of Flagler College.

Ponce undergoing renovation work in 2023, this room above the Rotunda was turned into a new community space called The Birdcage

This is a challenge that Stewart considers a “wonderful privilege” as he leads the work that revealed original paint color schemes of the former hotel.

“You’ve got to look behind your initial impression,” he said. While the College has restored several original hotel fireplaces throughout its stewardship, nearly a dozen others have been uncovered over the past two years. Masked by layers of plastered drywall, the fireplaces revealed elaborately placed tile, carved wooden mantles and intricate metalwork.

Restoring these more than 125-year-old fireplaces requires precision at every step. This hefty undertaking is a project that has literally expanded Avondale Window Restoration. “But I’m not complaining!” Evans said.

Photos of the Ponce undergoing renovation work in 2023, including newly discovered fireplaces and original hotel wallpaper that had been hidden for years behind plaster.

To accommodate the scale of this project and space needed to restore individual elements from the many fireplaces in former hotel rooms, Evans had to expand his Jacksonville workshop two stories up. “At our shop, every single fireplace has a book,” he said, explaining their system which requires individual numbering of each part of the fireplace from mantle to inner iron grate.

“Everything had to get numbered, and everything has to be put back exactly the same way it was put on,” Evans said. “Even if we have to replace a piece of the fireplace, we have documentation of it. [For example,] all the pieces that go back together have to be exactly the same size and made out of the same type of wood.”

Behind fireplace mantles and beneath baseboards, they also discovered previously unseen maker’s marks and builder signatures. Evans said that each manufacturer had a logo or a mark placed on their respective elements, and that at least five of these distinct maker’s marks have been found through their work so far.

The variety of original contractors makes the job of preservationists like Evans’ distinctly more challenging. This is largely due to the extensive time, space and energy required to restore and reinstall historical elements of this building with exactness.

"Everything has to go back the exact same way it was made by the people who made it a hundred years ago,” he said. “Using all those same skills, some easier tools, but all the same skills.”

These are all the details that may have otherwise remained buried behind the walls of the historic building had a burst water pipe in the Ponce’s east wing in 2022 not caused Flagler to undertake this major stewardship initiative. While time-consuming and costly, the upside has been uncovering remarkable details of the building’s history.

“The Ponce will always unveil mysteries to you and things that you just were not expecting,” said Vice President and Chief of Staff Laura Stevenson Dumas.

Some, like long-time contractor with the College Mike Davis, consider the former Hotel Ponce de Leon “the most unique building in downtown St. Augustine.”

A student room after renovations were completed.

Four decades of experience working inside the Ponce stand as the basis for such an honest compliment from Davis, third-generation owner of his family’s construction business, A.D. Davis Construction “If it had become a hotel before historic preservation took precedence in St. Augustine in the 60s and 70s, a lot of the historic features would've already been gone, and there wouldn't have been [for example] a Flagler Room to save,” Davis said, recalling his grandfather AD’s strong relationship with architect Craig Thorn and their early work on the College.

Thinking back to 1981, during his first summer as a 14-year-old apprentice inside the Ponce, Davis recalled being struck by the ornate “fireplaces and historic features” that seemed so foreign to a college dorm room.

At a young age, Davis picked up on this niche juxtaposition which has proven to be a defining asset for the College, even creeping into its mission statement.

Stevenson Dumas said it’s uncommon for a college to focus an element of its mission on something other than the quality of its student education. However, she sees the value in this differentiator as an opportunity to honor the past with forward thinking.

“I think that’s one of the great things about Flagler,” Stevenson Dumas said. “We are housed in this very remarkable town with a very rich history, and we are a part of that history.”