Celebrate the New Year in historic elegance
Historic City News readers are invited to celebrate 125 years of the Hotel Ponce de Leon while they ring in the New Year during the New Year’s Eve Scholarship Ball, hosted by the President’s Society of Flagler College.



Historic City News reporters learned that National Geographic has name St Augustine one of twenty “must see” places in the world for the coming year; travel editors of the magazine, which began publication in 1888, give a number of tips and thumbnail history of the area in their recommendation.
After five or six years of overbearing, even abusive behavior, by St Johns Commissioners deemed to have bullied members of the public who have come before them with concerns and complaints, the new commissioners seem interested in what the public has to say.
Wasting no time in rolling out the welcome mat, Historic City News watched as commissioners added “item 1A” to today’s agenda at the regular meeting of the St Johns County Commission; official confirmation of an incentive package offered to relocate the offices of Advanced Disposal, Inc.
Daniel D Holiday, the St Augustine leather-craftsman known to his friends as “the spirit of Espiritu”, came to coffee on the Plaza this morning; bearing a handmade replica of one of three-dozen fasteners needed to hold the riggings on the 16th Century Spanish Caravel under construction at St Augustine Marine Center’s 23-acre Riberia Street shipyard.
Ranger Joe Brehm informed local Historic City News reporters that Castillo de San Marcos National Monument will hold its Holiday Open House this coming Saturday, December 8, to more closely follow the tradition of years past.
Guest Column: Thoughts for the Holidays
After two-terms in office, the chairman of the St Johns County Republican Party, Harlan Mason, is stepping down, and Historic City News will be watching Thursday evening to see who will lead the county’s largest political party of registered voters for the next two years.