The second-oldest city
Serene seascapes, colorful history are St. Marys' hallmarks BY ROBERTA SANDLER  | Oak Grove Cemetery holds the remains of early settlers, yellow-fever victims, soldiers who fought in every war (except the Gulf War) and Acadians who were driven out of Nova Scotia. The oldest marked grave dates to 1801. |
It’s a sleepy South Georgia town of 14,000 residents, a quaint seaport nestled against the banks of the St. Marys River. Outdoor enthusiasts delight in nearby Crooked River State Park and shoppers slaver over lovely antiques shops with names like Blue Goose and Golden Pineapple. And for history buffs, there’s no dearth of interest, either. The British established it as a town in 1787, but St. Marys’ first European occupants were the Spanish in 1566–one year after the founding of St. Augustine, Fla., making St. Marys "The Second-Oldest City in America." There are 36 historic sites on its Braille Trail, which leads to shrimp and charter boats as well as to pleasure craft docked along the river. Historical markers are erected for the sighted and vision-impaired alike; the trail is dotted with arts, crafts and antiques shops quartered in demure old homes. St. Marys is also known as "The Rock Shrimp Capital of the United States." Gerry Hernandez, who has lived in St. Marys since 1948 and whose husband is the town’s former mayor, might be inclined to add "Utopia" to her fair city’s designa tions. "It’s quiet and pretty here," she states. "We have a low crime rate, good schools and a terrific city. Why would I want to live anywhere else?" Since St. Marys serves as the gateway to Cumberland Island, day-tripping residents and tourists with beach blankets and picnic baskets gather at the waterfront pavilion to be ferried across by the Cumberland Queen. Keen-eyed observers spot manatees in the water; at the fishing dock, children lean over the wooden railing hoping for a tug at their lines. Connie Sloan brings her granddaughters, Casey and Kayla, here to nab catfish. "When I moved to St. Marys from Atlanta in 1970, I thought I’d go crazy," Connie recalls.
 | The beautifully landscaped Howard Gilman Memorial Park is a recent addition to St. Marys. Notes resident Connie Sloan, "The sun setting on St. Marys is gor-geous"– and the park, which is magnificent at night, is a perfect place for viewing it. |
"It was too quiet. Now, I love it here. We ride our bikes around town, we explore the old graves at Oak Grove Cemetery, we go shell-seeking on Cumberland Island." Orange Hall, named for the sour orange trees on its ground, serves as a welcome center and museum. The house is considered a perfect example of Greek Revival architecture, with Doric columns, wide front steps and period furnishings, and is open for self-guided tours. Orange Hall faces Osborne Street, a pristine pathway to the river and home of the Riverview Hotel as well as several 19th-century houses converted into bed-and-breakfast inns. Directly opposite Orange Hall is the white, wood-framed Jackson-Clark- Bessent-MacDonell House, now a fine antiques shop. Built in 1801, it is St. Marys’ oldest house. Aaron Burr hid there after a duel in 1804 with Alexander Hamilton. First Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Conyers and Osborne streets, was constructed in 1808 and is the second-oldest church in Georgia. Local lore says early smugglers, unable to get past customs officers, hoisted a horse into the church’s belfry. The following morning, townsfolk, sidetracked by the neigh-ing of the horse, were so enmeshed in getting the horse down that the smugglers had sufficient time to get rid of their goods and sail out to sea. One of the most romantic St. Marys legends is that of Sweetwater Branch, located on Old Coast Road. Here, in the 1800s, Mary Jones tearfully confessed to Indian Chief Withlacooch that her fiancé, Ben, had enlisted in the U.S. Army, and she feared he would never return. Withlacooch gathered berries and leaves and scattered them on the waters of Sweetwater Branch to cast a spell: Whoever drank the water would always return. Mary took Ben to the Branch and, it’s said, he safely returned from military duty and they married. Mirroring history rather than alluding to lore, the Washington Oak sits in the grassy median along Osborne Street. In 1799, on the day of George Washington’s burial at Mt. Ver non, Va., services were held nationwide, including at St. Marys, where residents buried a symbolic flag-draped casket. To mark the burial spot, they planted four oaks. Only one stump–the one known as the Washington Oak—survives. (The famed USS Constitution, a 44-gun frigate nicknamed Old Ironsides, owes part of its hull restoration to this oak.) Meanwhile, a well was driven on this spot in the same year. It is known as the Washington Pump.
 | The Toonerville Trolley. Cartoonist Roy Crane featured it, and St. Marys locals, in his strip "Wash Tubbs & Easy," which popularized the phrase "See you in the funny papers!" |
Over on Weed Street, a historical marker indicates the spot where a Rebecca Flood planted the first pecans around 1840, after her husband, Capt. Samuel Flood, found a cask full of nuts floating in the ocean. The pecans from the trees produced by the plantings were dispersed throughout the Southeastern states. The marker declares that Georgia pecans became famous before Texas pecans were known. In 1935, cartoonist Roy Crane stayed at the Riverview Hotel overlooking the St. Marys River. To get there, he took a local 1920s railcar, which he immortalized as the Toonerville Trolley in his comic strip "Wash Tubbs & Easy." Today the dark-green wooden trolley can be viewed from a glass-front house on Osborne Street. Also on Osborne Street, Cumberland Island National Seashore Museum exhibits memorabilia from the Gilded Age as well as African-American and Timucuan Indian history. An aquatic center offering various water activities– including water aerobics, river tubing and sliding down a twostory water slide–is one of St. Marys’ newest sources of pride. St. Marys is also home to the Kings Bay Submarine Base and the Submarine Museum (on St. Marys Street). The museum building, dating to 1911, displays diesel boat models, early submarine designs, submarine support command items and a visitor-operated submarine type-8 periscope that rises out of the roof. Flowered walkways, picket fences, cool verandas, remnants of the past, Southern hospitality floating on a gentle sea breeze–they make St. Marys a lovely discovery and a serene escape.
For more information, contact the St. Marys Tourism Council, P.O. Box 1291, St. Marys, GA 31558, or call (912) 882-4000 or (800) 868-8687. |
