Following the Footprints of History

By Barbara Ryan Harris

Molly Verlin has done her homework.

Before she embarked on developing the really cool St. Marys Historical Walking

Tour, Molly delved into the city’s 350-year action-packed history with passion and fervor. And that passion shows as she takes groups around our beautiful town, beguiling them with true tales of heroes and scalawags and all in between.

First stop: the Pavilion at the riverfront end of Osborne where Molly tells how

Georgia was once the southernmost point of the United States directing the group’s gaze to what was Spanish Florida just continued ...

Orange Hall across the water. She tells of the hundreds of tall ships docked in St. Marys’ Harbor during the tall ship era and describes how the Pavilion was once used for social dances after its construction in 1918. A watch tower was erected on top during World War II to warn of approaching enemy craft.

Just across the way, she stops her group at the historic cannon explaining its best theory origin from a Spanish shipwreck off the coast. Molly thinks the first two stops of her tour comprise an interesting narrative of St. Marys in its golden days of prosperous shipbuilding and international trading plus her war-torn history.

At the Historic Riverview Hotel on the corner, she takes her group inside and introduces them to the Brandon sisters (portrait) who ran the hotel in its infancy. Molly talks about how columnist Roy Crane made St. Marys famous by featuring the town in his nationally-syndicated cartoon and shows them the earliest clippings showing Orange Hall, the Riverview, and other locales. She tells of the Carnegies and Rockefellers and other notables who have stayed at the hotel.

At the Spencer House, Molly educates non-southerners about the “haint” blue paint that graces ceilings around town. “The color scares away the haints but also deflects the bugs that think it’s the sky,” she says.

The little Catholic Church on the corner is explained continued ...

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as the first masonry bank building in Georgia. It was donated to the Catholic Church to use until their much bigger building was constructed several blocks away. But the little church remains in service as well.

Molly takes her group inside the charming Goodbread House Bed and Breakfast, revisiting the history of Captain Goodbread who piloted “The Hildegarde” steamboat taking passengers from the Golden Isles to Cumberland Island and Fernandina Beach in the late 1800s.

Two blocks up, she stops at the Washington Oak site. The tree was planted after George Washington’s death in his honor. When it was cut down, the oak was used to restore the USS Constitution.

Molly points out the stately Federal Quarters (once known as the Clark House) and tells of the story about how Aaron Burr escaped to the house to be sheltered by his law school friend Archibald Clark after Burr shot Alexander Hamilton.

At Conyer Street, Molly talks about the Civil War and how the Methodist Church was saved from burning because the Union soldiers used it for a butcher shop.

Just before City Hall, Molly stops at the Toonerville Trolley that was also featured in Roy Crane’s comic strip. The Trolley was the first rail transportation that took passengers from St. Marys to Kingsland. continued ... Federal Quarters

Molly Verlin (far right) with a tour group.

At Orange Hall, she talks about the secret tunnels that lead to the First Presbyterian Church across the way and explains the reason for their existence. You’ll just have to take the tour to find that out and tons of other tidbits that makes St. Marys an intriguing walk through history.

For the more enthusiastic historians, this writer also suggests a visit to the Company House (next to the Riverview Hotel) where they can view a pictorial history of St. Marys in the form of a mural that features major milestones in St. Marys’ history.

Following the footprints of history in St. Marys is a highlight for any visitor, but residents get to immerse themselves in the richness of her spellbinding past every day of the year.

Editor’s Note: St. Marys Historical Walking Tours happen twice daily. For more information and/or reservations, search Eventbrite under “St. Marys Walking Tour,” call 904-735-8243, or email mollysoldsouth@gmail.com.