Ybor, Florida - The City Cigars Built

Ybor City postcard

We often hear the United States of America being described as a “melting pot”, where different races merge into a salad of immense variety to form a medley of blended cultures and communities working together in harmony for the common good.  It is this ideal that continues to draw people to the USA from all over the world – hopeful that they too may somehow share in the success uniquely produced in this “land of opportunity”.

Don Vincente Ybor

One of the best examples of this ideal concept becoming a reality was created by a Spanish immigrant and master cigar manufacturer, Vicente Martinez Ybor, founder of Ybor City, Florida. When he was 14-years old, Ybor fled his home in Spain and went to Cuba in 1832 to avoid being drafted into the military.

He began his career as a grocery clerk and by 1856 had started his own cigar manufacturing company with the creation of his Prince of Wales brand. He would later flee from Cuba in 1868 with his family to avoid being imprisoned by the Spanish rulers for being a Cuban independence sympathizer.

Prince of Wales Cigar box top

Ybor and his family set up a new successful cigar factory in Key West. Several factors, including labor unrest between the Spanish and Cuban immigrants, a lack of fresh water and no rail transportation to ship the cigars, made the Key West location untenable. This forced Ybor to relocate to a more suitable location northeast of Tampa in 1885.

After a major fire in Key West in 1886 nearly destroyed the town, thousands of cigar industry workers and those in the subsidiary industries, fled to the newly created Ybor City. Immigrants from beyond Cuba and Spain came to support the burgeoning cigar industry. For example, Afro-Cubans filled the factories. Germans produced the graphics for the cigar boxes. Italians set up restaurants. Romanian Jews and Chinese set up retail and service businesses. The Irish provided a plethora of priests and nuns to keep everyone in line.

(Left) Ybor cigar factory (Right) Don Vincente Ybor

Ybor City became known as the “Cigar Capital of the World” producing half a billion a year.  The wide variety of cultures worked to help each other, constructing social centers for each ethnicity which sprang up all over town.

Old cigar factory - photo by Joe Giamotti

Ybor built affordable housing for the workers, brought in doctors and medical facilities, built schools and roads. He built a variety of community facilities and services established to support the multi-ethnic community.

Click on player below to see a video about the Columbia Restaurant and it's Cuban sandwich.

In the late 1800’s, with such a wide variety of culinary tastes from the diverse immigrant population, restaurants and sandwich shops sprang up all over Ybor City. One of the most notable culinary creations was the invention of the “Cuban Sandwich”.

For an authentic experience, it must be made on bread from the La Segunda Central Bakery, established in 1915 and one of Ybor’s surviving historical landmarks.

Click on player below to see video about La Segunda Central Bakery.

The Columbia restaurant uses bread supplied from La Segunda. The founder of the bakery was Juan More, a native of the Catalan region in Spain. His love of Cuban bread combined with ham, roast pork, cheese and mustard created the now world famous sandwich. Later, due to the Italian influence, salami was added to the mix. The Cuban recently became Tampa’s official sandwich.

Columbia Restaurant

Bob and I went to meet a friend, Rudy Triana, for lunch at the fabulous Columbia restaurant founded in 1905 by Cuban immigrant Casimiro Hernandez, Sr. It is the largest and oldest Spanish restaurant in the USA. His family still owns and runs the restaurant which has expanded well beyond the original corner shop and takes up an entire city block. The Columbia restaurant group now has restaurants in several locations throughout the USA.  What began as a small cafe serving coffee and Cuban sandwiches to the cigar factory workers, has become a world famous eatery.

Large dining room in the Columbia restaurant

Columbia’s unique Spanish cuisine is why the place was packed. There are 15 separate dining rooms, ranging in size and shape from small intimate spaces to large spacious rooms including diners seated at tables on the balcony’s overhead.

Bob and Kristine

We had a lovely lunch and were served by a charming waitress, Kristine Smock. She really brought a smile to our faces as we watched her deftly scoot around several crowded tables, like an experienced skater on ice, carrying large plates piled high with generous portions of delectable goodies. It’s been a long time since we’ve enjoyed such a terrific meal where the exquisite food + delightful service = an excellent dining experience!

Sadly, the heritage of Ybor City is about to be lost forever. The manufacture of cigars is in itself a “melting pot” of tobaccos - specifically blended to create a recipe for a unique and flavorful experience found in each individual brand.

The tobacco for premium cigars is actually allowed to “sleep in bales for seven years.” The entire process is practically an art form and takes a considerable amount of time for a talented cigar manufacturer to produce a premium cigar that has a robust taste, the right length and the correct rate of “burn”. Even the way the cigar creates ashes is important to aficionados. All of those elements combined are what determines the quality of the cigar and pleasure of the overall experience.

All those wonderful ancient earthy scents and subtle flavors exhaled from the mountains of tobacco bales and fragrant cigar smoke that once wafted through the air in Ybor City are now long gone.

Stanford Newman

J. C. Newman Cigar Company headquarters

 If the F.D.A. has their way, the J.C. Newman Cigar Company factory, the last premium cigar manufacturer, is about to be driven offshore.  They will join the ranks of all the others that have been forced to leave due to the extraordinarily stringent measures being placed on the industry. The Newman’s factory, El Reloj, employs mostly women who deftly operate antique well-seasoned machines to produce the premium cigars.

Rep. Kathy Castor

“It goes to the heart and soul of Tampa,” said Representative Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat from the area who introduced a bill to try to protect premium cigar manufacturers. “This would be a blow to our cultural history to have the last remaining cigar factory close. (Lizette Alvarez, NY Times July 21, 2014)

Although I have never smoked a cigar, I respect the rights of those who find pleasure in doing so. How sad the love and care that goes into the creation of this naturally produced heritage product by the last remaining Florida manufacturers, the Newman brothers, will soon be lost to the Caribbean. After all that Mr. Ybor did to raise the quality of cigar production and the livelihood he created for tens of thousands of immigrants, the heritage of this National Historic Landmark City is about to be lost forever.

On a lighter note, while we were in the Columbia restaurant a charming couple came in dressed in costume of dancers from the thirties. I couldn't resist speaking to them and asking to take their pictures and make a video. They are Sandy and Daryl known as  "The Joy of Dancing". They perform dances from the big band era in assisted living facilities. What lovely people they are!

Click on the video below for my interview with Sandy and Daryl.

This piece, written by Pat, was originally posted on our website December 16, 2015.

Westerham England - A Tale of Two Heroes

Click on player below to see Pat's video about Westerham.

Doomesday Page showing Westerham or Oisterham

At a time when the current US Administration is massaging its job creation statistics by including the temporary hire of many census workers, one can be confident that it was not handled like that in 1086.  William the Conqueror completed in that year the great survey of England, known as The Domesday Book, setting out what was owned by whom and what taxes were owed on such property.  The Domesday Book included the small town of Westerham, which is located on the border between the English counties of Kent and Surrey and which was settled long before the Norman Conquest. Pat and I visited this picturesque little town (population only 5,000) in June 2010. It is remarkable that such a small community should contain the homes of two Englishmen who, two centuries apart, both made a huge impact on history.  They are today honored by statues on the Westerham village green.

Chartwell as seen from back garden

The first house that we visited was Chartwell, home of Sir Winston Churchill from 1922 until his death in 1965.  Of course, during the years that he was serving as Prime Minister, he lived 25 miles away in London at 10 Downing Street rather than at Chartwell.

I was pleased to observe that the Chartwell fish pond was still full of goldfish and I saw, by the side of the fishpond, the chair in which Churchill would relax while watching and feeding the goldfish. Churchill loved goldfish.

Churchills goldfish pond

It is said that he confessed this to Stalin during one of their meetings during the Second World War, to which Stalin is said to have responded “Would you like some for breakfast, Mr Churchill?” The other living creatures that I noticed on our visit to Chartwell were the black swans, which come from Australia. Chartwell is built on a hillside from which it enjoys sweeping views across the Weald of Kent which is an area, once forested, lying between the chalk escarpments forming the North and South Downs. The word “weald” derives from the German “wald” meaning “forest”.  Chartwell is now owned by The National Trust. The house displays furniture, books, pictures, and other Churchill memorabilia reflecting how the family lived in the 1920s and 1930s.  The extensive gardens are at present magnificently cared for.

Churchill building his brick wall in the garden

The house itself was once a rather gloomy Victorian country mansion, but was redesigned and extended by Churchill himself to create the lovely home that we see today. Churchill was an accomplished bricklayer and even built some of the garden walls with his own hands during the years that he was in the political wilderness.

Churchills statue in Westerham

Pat and I visited the house a few weeks too early, because the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain is to be celebrated at Chartwell in September 2010. The Central Band of the Royal Air Force will play at a concert in the gardens while, in the skies above, “dogfights” between Spitfires and Messerschmitt will re-enact the events of 1940. I am sorry to be missing this, since my memory of the real thing is somewhat hazy.

Quebec House in Westerham

The second house that we saw in Westerham was Quebec House. Churchill was loaded with honors during his lifetime and had time to savor his achievements, before he died of natural causes at the age of 90. On the other hand, Quebec House was the home of Major General James Wolfe who was killed in battle at the age of only 32.

Maj General James Wolfe

Yet Wolfe’s place in history must also rank highly. He was born in Westerham in 1727 and was baptized there at St Mary’s Church.  The actual font in which he was baptized in on display in that church, together with a memorial window dedicated to him.  After a successful Army career, he was given the command of a British expedition to drive the French out of Canada by capturing the city of Quebec. The British were opposed by the strong French force defending Quebec, but Wolfe sailed up the St. Lawrence River and laid siege to the city for many weeks. His problem was that he could not entice the French to fight and, with the approach of winter, his fleet was at risk of being trapped by ice. By the middle of September 1759, time was running out for the British.  Wolfe therefore led his forces to the west of the city, where they climbed the cliffs known as the Heights of Abraham, surprising the French who thought an attack from that direction was impossible.  The British won the ensuing Battle of Quebec and, within a year, the French Army had withdrawn from Canada forever. Wolfe died of the wounds that he suffered during the battle.  A direct consequence of these events is that Elizabeth II is Queen of Canada to this day.  Last year, many Canadians visited Westerham to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Quebec.

Maj Gen James Wolfe’s statue in Westerham

Quebec House is very modest compared with Chartwell. It was Wolfe’s home during his childhood. He was very young when he joined the British Army and most of his adult life was spent serving abroad. Nevertheless Quebec House is an attractive 17th century gabled house which, like Chartwell, is now owned by The National Trust and which displays many prints and pictures from Wolfe’s career, together with detailed information on the Battle of Quebec.

The night before Wolfe left Westerham for the last time to sail to Canada, he stayed at The George and Dragon.  This is a 16th century coaching inn in the center of Westerham, which Pat and I much enjoyed visiting. So there it is. Westerham, a little town, hardly big enough for the home of one national hero, finds itself with two.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on June 22, 2010.

Antigua - Where The Religion Is Cricket

Pat and I spent the past winter as guests of our youngest daughter at her home in Lake County, Florida. In adjacent Sumter County, just a few miles down the road from us, a major prison is located in the town of Coleman.

Robert Stanford going to Court

It was here that Robert Allen Stanford spent the past winter as a guest of the US Federal government, as he began to serve a 110 year sentence for operating a Ponzi scheme which cost his investors over 7 billion dollars.

Stanford was born and raised in Texas, but as a young man he relocated to the Caribbean where he founded the Stanford Financial Group, which became the vehicle for his criminality. Stanford’s modus operandi was similar to that of the more notorious Bernie Madoff. Both men paid their investors such impossibly high rates of return on investment, year in year out, that anyone with half a brain should have smelled something fishy from the outset.

Stanford’s Caribbean odyssey began on island of Montserrat, where he opened a bank in 1985. Following a regulatory crackdown there, he swiftly moved his operations to the nearby island of Antigua where he was very popular with the authorities for over twenty years.

Queen Elizabeth II is still the head of state in Antigua and is sovereign of the Order of the Nation which, on the recommendation of local politicians, grants an Antiguan version of a Knighthood. Through such a recommendation, Stanford eventually became ”Sir Allen”. This Knighthood was revoked when his misdeeds came to light.

Leaving aside his alleged bribery and money laundering activities, Stanford’s popularity sprang from something very unusual, namely he was a Texan who loved cricket and understood the game. He was very generous in his sponsorship of international cricket on Antigua and even had his own cricket ground on the island, known as Sticky Wicket Stadium.

Stanford was shrewd enough to realize that the way to the heart of an Antiguan is cricket, which is treated by the islanders almost as a religion. The main cricket ground on the island is the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, which was built in 2008 at a cost of $60 million. Most of that money came in the form of a grant from the Chinese government, which had doubtless learned from Allen Stanford’s activities that generosity to cricket is the way to gain influence on Antigua.

Bob "at bat" in Antigua Cricket Stadium

I visited Antigua for the first time in late March 2013 and below there is a photograph of me demonstrating a cricket shot with the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in the background. It would look more credible, if only I could have been holding a cricket bat at the time.

In early March, this stadium was the site of a test match (an international match) between the West Indies and Zimbabwe. The West Indian team is drawn from all of the formerly British Caribbean, not just Antigua. I wish that I could have arrived on the island two or three weeks earlier and attended the match. Nevertheless, I much enjoyed my visit, because the climate was perfect and the local people were delightful.

Turquoise water in Antigua

The island has attractive hills and beaches. The sea was the bluest that I have ever seen anywhere in the world. It was a startling turquoise.

Road in Antigua

Now for the criticism! The road system is awful. All the roads on the island are potholed and narrow. They meander and intersect. Worst of all, street names and directional signs are in short supply. What few signs that do exist are colored green and are mostly faded to the point of illegibility. At the bottom of these signs, one can just make out that they were provided by The Stanford Financial Group. Perhaps if Sir Allen’s sojourn on the island had not been so rudely interrupted, sign maintenance would have been better.

Halcyon Cove Hotel

My daughter Anna and I were staying at the Halcyon Cove, a hotel on Dickenson Bay, on the northern coast of the island. We decided to visit English Harbor and Nelson’s Dockyard on the southern tip on the island, a journey of about 12 miles in a straight line. Our journey took a lot of time and was anything but straight. Anna must be given all the credit for the fact that we even arrived at our destination at all, since my contribution was limited to reminding her to drive on the left. The photograph below shows us there shortly after our arrival.

Daughter Anna Patten and Bob visit English Harbor in Antigua

A gigantic yacht was moored in the harbor. It must have required a large crew to operate it. Whose boat was it? I asked all the locals but none of them knew. It must have belonged to a Russian oligarch skilled at preserving his anonymity.

The harbor itself is well protected from the ocean, so much so that British ships in the harbor would survive undamaged, when ships outside the harbor were being destroyed by hurricanes.

Admiral Nelson

Admiral Nelson made it his headquarters in the West Indies from 1784 to 1787. When dying in 1805 from wounds suffered in the Battle of Trafalgar, fought in the stormy Atlantic with winter approaching, how the admiral must have yearned for the warmth and tranquility of English Harbor, Antigua.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on April 24, 2013.

Statues of Liberty

As a tribute to the French people in light of the terrorist attack in Paris on November 13th, 2015, we are re-posting the two pieces Bob wrote about our trips to Paris. Click here to read Bob's second post entitled, Trust in the Power of Prayer.

Statue of Liberty on Island of Swans in Paris France

Pat and I were travelling by boat through the middle of Paris along the River Seine in 1982. As our boat approached a bridge called Pont de Grenelle, a familiar figure came into view. We knew that woman well, even though we had never met her before. She stood on Ile aux Cygnes (Island of Swans), a man made island in mid river adjacent to the bridge. She is a bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty, which stands in New York Harbor. This lady in Paris is much smaller than the American original, given by France to the United States in 1880 to mark the centenary of US independence. She was given to France a few years later by Americans living in Paris in appreciation of France’s larger gift. Who is the lady in both statues? Apparently, she’s something of a mixture. The sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834 – 1904), is said to have used the face of his mother and the body of his wife. He clearly was fearful of omitting either mother or wife from his creation. Until 1937, the smaller statue faced east. This avoided her offending the locals by turning her back on the President of France in the Elysee Palace. Yet she should really have been facing west and looking towards the new world. This she has been allowed to do for the past 75 years.

Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island - 2 minute HD tour

We did not meet the American original until another boat trip, which Pat and I were taking around New York Harbor in the summer of 2011. The lady there is made of copper and is 151 feet tall, if one measures to the top of the torch that she holds aloft in her right hand. She stands on a pedestal on what is now called Liberty Island and the top of that torch is over 300 feet above the waters in the harbor. She dwarfs the little lady that we met in Paris in 1982.

Our ferry circled Liberty Island letting us view the large lady from every angle. The ferry had sailed out of a terminal in Battery Park, which is on the very southern tip of Manhattan Island. It also sailed around a famous adjacent island – Ellis Island. Although we approached these islands from New York, whose pride in these matters extends even to displaying an image of the statue on its auto license plates, these islands are not even located in New York. They are located in the adjoining state of New Jersey, even though New York has sometimes disputed this. However, there’s not much doubt about the issue. The border between the two states runs down the middle of the Hudson River and the islands are clearly closer to the New Jersey shore.

Statue of Liberty faces burning World Trade Center on 9/11

Viewing the American original aroused in us all kinds of emotions that were absent during our peaceful cruise along the Seine nearly thirty years earlier. We gazed towards the solid phalanx of skyscrapers, rising behind the Battery Park terminal on the New York side of the river, as we reflected on how that vista was dramatically changed by the attacks on the twin towers of The World Trade Center on September 11 2001. We remembered the thousands of innocents who died on that day, sometimes sacrificing their own lives in circumstances of great bravery.



Ellis Island

We then turned and looked at Ellis Island, once the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station. There’s a fine museum there now. Here began the American odyssey of millions of souls. Encouraged by the great statue on nearby Liberty Island, they entered the bare processing sheds on Ellis Island anxious not to be sent back across the ocean on health grounds or because of some other bureaucratic decision. Most carried their few possessions in one battered suitcase. Many did not speak English. The American dream for so many newcomers began on this tiny island. They went on from here to build the families and the careers that have helped to make the country great.

No immigrant to the United States (such as I) can fail to be moved by the story of Ellis Island, even if it was not one’s own point of entry. During the past year we have traveled widely, but Pat and I have based ourselves for part of that time on the border between Arizona and Mexico. We are therefore very much aware of the recent entry across that border of many millions of illegal Mexican immigrants. We understand the harm to society that arises from illegal entry on such a scale. What follows is in no way an attempt to excuse those who break into someone else’s country. Yet these Mexicans face huge dangers when attempting to cross the deserts and mountains at this point of entry. Many have died in the attempt. Entry through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954 may have been tough. Yet many would surely prefer an opportunity today to enter there, under the benevolent eye of that famous statue, instead of the possibility of death in the desert.

This story, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website March 6, 2012.

Juarez Mexico - How Juarez has changed !!!

Benito Juarez

In 1848, it was provided by treaty that the Rio Grande would serve as the border between Texas and Mexico.  However that river divided a city, which was discovered as long ago as 1659 by explorers seeking a way through the southern Rocky Mountains.  So there developed two adjoining cities, one in Texas and one in the Chihuahua province of Mexico.  The city in Texas became El Paso.  The city in Mexico became Juarez, after it was eventually named in honor of the Mexican revolutionary, Benito Juarez.

I awoke one morning in a hotel in El Paso, Texas and decided to cross the border that day to take a look at Juarez. I was without a car, but the border itself and Juarez beyond it were both within walking distance of my hotel.

People in line at US Customs Border connecting El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. Date taken 1943 LIFE Photographer Charles E. Steinheimer

I stood in line at the border post.  Everyone else on foot looked to be Mexican and I do not look Mexican.  This was probably why a US border guard walked up to me and said to me in English "Have you heard that the President has been shot?"  I assumed that he was referring to the President of Mexico and I had no idea whether any attempted assassination had proved fatal.  People were still passing through the border checkpoint, so I kept walking with them over a bridge which crossed a very dried up Rio Grande.  Eventually I found myself in the center of the city of Juarez.  It was very picturesque with no shortage of good restaurants.  There was plenty of sightseeing to do and many pretty churches to admire. Quite frankly, I had entirely forgotten about the possible assassination attempt on the President of Mexico. Yet when I attempted to return to El Paso, I found that the border had been closed. I could see El Paso in the distance topped by its forest of US flags. In every case, the stars and stripes were flying at half staff.  I then realized my mistake.

JFK motorcade just before he was shot

The date, of course, was November 22^nd 1963.  Everyone remembers where they were at the time that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas.  The border guard, who had spoken to me earlier, has been referring to JFK rather than to the Mexican president. Now Dallas is 650 miles away from El Paso at the other end of Texas, but that did not matter. The whole Texas/Mexico border had been sealed in both directions and I was unable to return to the USA that day. My stay in Juarez therefore became longer than planned. With some difficulty, I found a hotel room in Juarez where I remained glued to the television. Although Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested in Dallas within a few hours of the assassination, it could not at first be determined whether or not Oswald had been acting alone. Therefore the entire Texas/Mexico border had been sealed to prevent the escape of any possible accomplices. The following day the border was re-opened and I returned to my El Paso hotel. When there, I once again remained glued to the television, on which I then witnessed the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby.

Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald

Although I have just mentioned certain shocking acts of violence in Dallas, the times themselves were not violent. In 1963, I could safely wander across the bridge from Texas into Juarez, alone and on foot. I could then sit in a Juarez café on the sidewalk, contentedly enjoying the music of Mexico and watching the world go by. I would not be bothered by anyone. Yet, in October 2008, the US State Department had to issue an alert cautioning Americans about the dangers of traveling to Mexico. It specifically cited the situation in Juarez as being of special concern. That is because Juarez has now become the epicenter of the drug cartel wars.

Investigators photograph a man stabbed to death in Juarez

Violence in Juarez has now become so widespread that innocent bystanders are becoming victims as a matter of routine. Dozens of journalists have been killed, just because they are journalists. In the past decade, hundreds of young women have been abducted and murdered in this region.

While the drug cartel wars are the main reason for what is happening, the breakdown of law and order is also due to extreme poverty and to government corruption. When governments neglect their basic responsibilities and instead interfere in areas where they have no business to be, this is what happens to society on both sides of the border. 

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on December 7, 2008.

Savannah - America's Youngest Colony

King George II

General James Oglethorpe

What did King George II of England do with the Royal Charter, which he signed on June 9, 1732 and which provided for the settlement of what is now the State of Georgia? The answer is that he gave it to General James Oglethorpe, a 35-year old soldier and member of parliament.

Oglethorpe and a small band of settlers then crossed the Atlantic and reached what is now the mouth of the Savannah River early in 1733. They then sailed 18 miles up river to the site of what is today the City of Savannah. Oglethorpe selected the site as being easy to defend and had soon erected a circle of forts to protect the new city, some of which stand to this day. The King had not turned over to Oglethorpe a land flowing with milk and honey. The area was far to the south of the nearest British colonies in the Carolinas.  The land was swampy and, for much of the year, the climate was humid and unhealthy. To make matters worse, Oglethorpe needed to spend much of his time and resources fighting with the Spaniards who controlled Florida. It is greatly to Oglethorpe's credit that the new colony of Georgia survived and that he founded the City of Savannah.

Savannah laid out in grid pattern

It can be said that Savannah was the first "planned" city in North America. Oglethorpe laid out the roads of Savannah in the shape of a series of 24 squares. In fact Oglethorpe seems to have been a very decent man. He fiercely opposed negro slavery. He worked for good relations with the local Creek Indians. He fought against "the press gang", which forcibly conscripted civilians into the Royal Navy. Finally, he retired to England and enjoyed a long and happy marriage before dying at the age of 88 in 1785.  He therefore lived to see the birth of the new nation, including Georgia as the thirteenth and youngest colony. He much approved of this turn of events and was very happy to welcome John Adams, when he arrived in London as the first US ambassador.

How Cranham Hall looked when Bob purchased it

Oglethorpe married Elizabeth Wrighte, who brought into the marriage a property named Cranham Hall, Essex, which she had inherited from her father and brothers. Cranham Hall lies only 20 miles to the east of Central London. Oglethorpe lived there for the final 30 years of his life. In fact, he died there. The story of James Oglethorpe made a big impact on me. I had learned all about him when I was passing through Savannah in 1963.  Fourteen years later, in 1977, I was therefore intrigued to read in the press, when I was living in London, that Cranham Hall was for sale by auction. I attended that auction. There were plenty of people there, but few bidders.  I was one of the bidders and the property was eventually knocked down to me at a low price. I had become the owner of a historic mansion and six acres of land. It was my plan to restore Cranham Hall as a museum telling the story of Oglethorpe's eventful life, and then to open it to tourists from Georgia.  Perhaps the State of Georgia would even help finance it. There were two major obstacles to my idea. Firstly, Cranham Hall had fallen into disrepair and the costs of its restoration would be huge. Secondly, it was not the actual house in which Oglethorpe had died. The original Cranham Hall was built prior to 1600. It had burned down soon after Oglethorpe's death.

In 1800, the present Cranham Hall was built on the same site and incorporated a small part of the old house. Yet that is not quite the same thing as being the house in which Oglethorpe had died. All Saints Church is adjacent to Cranham Hall.  Oglethorpe and his wife are buried under the center of its chancel, but I still needed the original Cranham Hall to make my scheme credible. Fortunately, I was quickly able to sell the property to a local millionaire at a good profit. He made it his own home and restored it beautifully. The Oglethorpes, resting peaceful in the church next door, must surely approve.

Cranham Hall after renovations

 Another fourteen years passed. I found myself in Savannah once again in 1991.  Pat and I were living in Florida at the time. At the time, our children were enthusiastic Girl Scouts, so the family made a weekend trip to Savannah to visit the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of The Girl Scouts of America.

Birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low

Juliette Gordon Low

The house in which she was born in 1860 is located on Oglethorpe Avenue, Savannah. It is an elegant mansion, built in 1821, furnished in the style of the 19th century and including much of her artwork and memorabilia. It was well worth the visit and the project reminded me very much of what I had once hoped to do for General Oglethorpe at Cranham Hall. Nevertheless, the visit gave me a longer opportunity to inspect the squares with which Oglethorpe had laid out Savannah. The grid pattern is unique. The squares are now full of tall oak trees providing much needed shade from a hot sun. One square contains a statue of Oglethorpe himself.  Another contains a memorial to the Indian chief who permitted Oglethorpe and his party to settle. Square after square of well preserved 18th century houses make this a very special city.

It was thrilling to see the architecture of Oglethorpe form the background to the famous 1997 movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", which is set in Savannah. Today, Savannah pays tribute in many ways to Oglethorpe as its founding father. He surely deserves it.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on November 10, 2008.

Paris France - Trust in the Power of Prayer

In 1980, when Pat and I entered a building in a back street near the center of Paris, we saw the corpse at once. Displayed in an illuminated glass coffin was the body of an elderly lady dressed in the black robes of a French nun. The body had not deteriorated in any way. Indeed, she was so lifelike that she could have been in the middle of a peaceful sleep. The building that we had entered was the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, which is located at 140 Rue du Bac in Paris, France.

Uncorrupted body of Catherine Laboure in glass coffin

In life, this elderly lady had been Catherine Laboure, who was born in the Burgundy region of France in 1806 and who died and was buried in 1876.  Many years later, the Roman Catholic Church was considering conferring sainthood upon her and, in 1933 in relation to that, her body was exhumed.  It was found to be what the Church calls “incorrupt”. In other words, the body was and still is in exactly the same state as at the time of death, despite the fact that no preservatives of any kind had been used. This was the body that we were looking at over a century after her death. The Church considers this to be a miracle. In 1947, it canonized her, not just because of the condition of her body but because of the events in her life that we describe below, and she is now Saint Catherine Laboure.

At the time, Pat and I had needs in our own lives that called for a couple of miracles. We were living in the Marylebone area of London and visited a local church on nine occasions to pray for these miracles to be granted to us. We were undertaking what is known in the Church as a “novena” and selected the Novena of the Miraculous Medal (see below), which brings us back to Saint Catherine Laboure. Her story is that, as a young woman, she became a member of a nursing order founded by St.Vincent de Paul. She was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, particularly after the death of her own mother.  On a number of occasions in 1830, when she was 24 years of age, she believes that she was visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary who showed her certain images. Mary told her to take details of these images to her father confessor and to ask him to create medallions containing them. Mary then told her that all who wear the medallion will “receive great graces”.

Miraculous Medal front and back

The father confessor referred the situation to the church hierarchy. Within a few years, after due investigation of Catherine and her story, a Miraculous Medal containing those images was created by the Church and distributed. This was done without any mention of Catherine. Indeed it was not until after her death many years later that her part in the creation of the Miraculous Medal became known. Catherine lived out the rest of her seventy year life as an ordinary nursing sister, humble and well liked, with her peers unaware that they were in the presence of a saint.

Click on player below to see a video of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

While Pat and I were undertaking our novena, we both wore the Miraculous Medal. Then, to give our nine prayer sessions a special emphasis, we visited the little chapel at 140 Rue du Bac and prayed again in front of Saint Catherine Laboure. Shortly afterwards, our prayers were answered and our miracles arrived. Precisely what we asked for is not relevant to this story. Suffice it is to say that what we were asking for certainly needed miracles. Our medallions were not some kind of good luck charm. Instead, they are a testimony to faith and to the power of trusting prayer.

I recall that, many years ago, my dear mother prayed as hard as any human being could for something that she particularly wanted. She was truly a most deserving person. Yet her prayers went unanswered, for the simple reason that she did not believe that they would be answered. So the moral of this story is to trust in the power of prayer !!!

This piece, written by Bob, originally appeared on our website on June 9, 2010.

A Novena is a series of prayers repeated 9 times. Each day for 9 consecutive days or, if you prefer on a specific day each week for 9 weeks, or once an hour for 9 hours. The prayers below were copied directly from the Novena of the Miraculous Medal prayer book.

Novena of the Miraculous Medal

Begin with the Sign of the Cross...

In the name of the Father

and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Come, O Holy Spirit,

fill the hearts of Your faithful,

and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Send forth Your Spirit,

and they shall be created.

And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O God, who did instruct the hearts

of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit,

grant us in the same Spirit

to be truly wise

and ever to rejoice in His consolation,

through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

O Mary, conceived without sin,

pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Mary, conceived without sin,

pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Mary, conceived without sin,

pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Lord Jesus Christ,

who has vouchsafed to glorify

by numberless miracles the Blessed Virgin Mary,

immaculate from the first moment of her conception,

grant that all who

devoutly implore her protection on earth,

may eternally enjoy Your presence in heaven,

who, with the Father and Holy Spirit,

live and reign, God,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ,

who for the accomplishment of Your greatest works,

have chosen the weak things of the world,

that no flesh may glory in Your sight;

and who for a better

and more widely diffused belief

in the Immaculate Conception of Your Mother,

have wished that the Miraculous Medal

be manifested to Saint Catherine Labouré,

grant, we beseech You,

that filled with like humility,

we may glorify this mystery by word and work.

 Amen.

Memorare

Remember, O most compassionate Virgin Mary,

that never was it known

that anyone who fled to your protection,

implored your assistance,

or sought your intercession was left unaided.

Inspired with this confidence,

we fly unto you,

O Virgin of Virgins, our Mother;

to you we come;

before you we kneel sinful and sorrowful.

O Mother of the Word Incarnate,

despise not our petitions,

but in your clemency hear and answer them.

Amen.

Novena Prayer

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, 

Mother of Our Lord Jesus and our Mother, 

penetrated with the most lively confidence 

in your all-powerful and never-failing intercession, 

manifested so often through the Miraculous Medal, 

we your loving and trustful children 

implore you to obtain for us the graces 

and favors we ask during this novena, 

if they be beneficial to our immortal souls,

and the souls for whom we pray.

(State your intention here...)

You know, O Mary, 

how often our souls have been 

the sanctuaries of your Son who hates iniquity. 

Obtain for us then a deep hatred of sin 

and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone 

so that our every thought, word and deed 

may tend to His greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial 

that we may recover by penance 

what we have lost by sin 

and at length attain to that blessed abode 

where you are the Queen of angels and of men.

Amen.

An Act of Consecration to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

O Virgin Mother of God,

Mary Immaculate,

we dedicate and consecrate ourselves to you

under the title of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

May this Medal be for each one of us

a sure sign of your affection for us

and a constant reminder of our duties toward you.

Ever while wearing it,

may we be blessed by your loving protection

and preserved in the grace of your Son.

O most powerful Virgin,

Mother of our Saviour,

keep us close to you every moment of our lives.

Obtain for us, your children,

the grace of a happy death;

so that, in union with you,

we may enjoy the bliss of heaven forever.

Amen.

O Mary, conceived without sin,

pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Mary, conceived without sin,

pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you.