TRAVELER’S CHECKS

If you loved the Emmy Award-winning PBS series “Downton Abbey,” get yourself to St. Augustine, Florida, before Jan. 7.

The historic coastal city is the last stop on a ninecity tour for the collection of elegant, vintage costumes billed as “Dressing Downton: Changing Fashions for Changing Times.” It runs through the beginning of the new year and brings the Gilded Age — the end of the Civil War to the Stock Market crash in 1929 — into sharp relief.

The exhibit lives on the third-floor Ballroom Gallery in the historic city’s Lightner Museum, where 36 costumes drape mannequins staged in “rooms” decorated with vibrant Asian rugs and turn-ofthe-20th-century fine art and furniture from the museum’s collection.

In a mockup of an early 1910s century room — one of 16 vignettes — a mahogany table from the Blackstone mansion in Chicago is set with Royal Crown Derby china and white, damask linen “lapkins.” Mannequins dressed as Lord and Lady Grantham are posed as if anticipating the arrival of dinner companions.

Nearby, the drape and train of a green silk dress with beaded black net overlay worn by Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) in the show’s first season can be appreciated in a bedroom setting. It’s as if Dockery is preparing for her call to dinner.

The exhibit goes beyond fabric and beads, beyond drape and elegance to explain contextual significance of wealthy British attire. For example, Mary’s 1913 dress isn’t simply lovely garb but a representation of cultural shifts. The curator’s note: “The style of this dress reflects the opulence of the prewar period and the interest in Orientalism, partly sparked by the performance of ‘Scheherazade’ in 1911 by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The asymmetrical hem with beaded fringe is a typically exotic flourish. By 1912, dresses were becoming looser and shorter with high waists, thin belts and narrow skirts.”

This new style is even “boyish” in shape and liberates the wearer from the corsets of previous years. It may be symbolic of easing societal restrictions. Still, this piece and others with the same profile are well-embellished and maintain ample femininity.

When reserving timed tickets for the exhibit, visitors should secure a tea reservation in the museum’s Cafe Alcazar. It’s both an architectural and culinary delight.

First, the architecture: The Lightner Museum was once the Alcazar Hotel, built in the late 1880s by Northern industrialist Henry Flagler. (Flagler, by the way, was John D. Rockefeller’s partner in Standard Oil.) And the café is snugged in the now-empty indoor pool.

Tea ($55) is four courses made in-house with local ingredients. Dining begins with bright-red iced zinger tea and served with soup or salad. Guests then select white, green, black or herbal for a second cuppa. One choice is especially interesting. The dark tea — yaupon — is made not from the commonly imported Camellia Sinensis tea shrub, but from a native holly shrub with naturally occurring caffeine content. Slightly sweet, it’s much like the competitive traditional tea.

The next courses are served simultaneously on a tripletiered tray — crustless sandwiches, delicate scones and delightfully miniature tarts and cookies. For a true British influence, it arrives with clotted cream and raspberry jelly.

If you’ve made the flight from Cleveland to Florida’s northeast corner, stay with the Gilded Age theme and check out St. Augustine’s related architecture found in buildings near the Lightner Museum.

You may need a second day for a 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. tour of Flagler College, just opposite the museum. Housed in the former Ponce de Leon Hotel, the Spanish Renaissance building has retained Gilded Age elegance. An hourlong tour shares how Flagler, both businessman and egoist, built the four-story, 540-room hotel in just 18 months from 1887 to 1888. Observe opulent architectural details from George Willoughby Maynard ceiling murals to the largest private collection of Tiffany glass in the world. The Ponce was one of the nation’s first electrified buildings, four years before the White House was wired.

(Interesting tidbit: Guests were so nervous about electricity that Flagler hired young men to operate light switches for them.)

Flagler’s goal of attracting his friends and other wealthy folks to winter in St. Augustine — $4,000 for three months in the late 19th century (about $100,000 in today’s dollars) — was so successful that he had to build a second hotel a year later to handle overflow. That was the previously mentioned Alcazar Hotel, today’s Lightner Museum.

The Alcazar was slightly less luxurious but brought new amenities such as a spa, a swimming pool, bowling and tennis to guests of both hotels. With judicious planning, you can squeeze in the new “Upstairs, Downstairs” tour of the Alcazar into your schedule.

For this visit, you’ll wander up and down steps to see formerly grand amenities — the marble steam room and a vigorous shower-massage contraption, for example. Then, you’ll discover the fourth floor, where staff had gendersegregated living quarters, like primitive versions of today’s college dorms with limited bathroom facilities. Social stratification is laid bare when you consider the lifestyle differences between upstairs and downstairs.

If you still have time and energy, stroll around the corner to Memorial Presbyterian Church, built by Flagler To get there, fly into Jacksonville, Florida. St. Augustine is an hour ride by rental car or shuttle. City attractions are clustered together making it an easy to walk from place to place. Tired after dinner? Arrange a carriage ride by calling 904-826-1982 and enjoy a historic tour.

FLAGLER’S CONTRIBUTIONS Flagler College: 74 King St., St. Augustine, 904-8296481 or 800-304-4208, flagler.edu Lightner Museum: 75King St., St. Augustine, 904-8242874, lightnermuseum.org Memorial Presbyterian Church: 32 Sevilla St., St. Augustine, 904-829-6451, memorialpcusa.org

LODGING

in 1890 to honor his daughter Jennie Louise. Jenny, who died from complications from childbirth, is entombed there with her infant daughter in her arms. Flagler and his first wife of three wives are also entombed there.

Church architecture is dramatic, inspired by St. Mark’s In addition to an historic four-star hotel, Casa Monica Resort & Spa, the old city of St. Augustine is home to 25 bed-and-breakfast operations. They occupy historic houses, a former funeral home or perch above newly built retail. The ambiance is irresistible. Two possibilities include: Casa de Suenos: 20Cordova St., St. Augustine, 904-8240887, www.casadesuenos. com St. George Inn: 4 St. George St., St. Augustine, 904-8275740 or 888-827-5740, www.stgeorge-inn.com

CULINARY The following venues represent some of the most interesting in a vibrant, city-wide

Basilica in Venice. Materials are local, though, builders using the same construction method as both The Ponce De Leon and Alcazar hotels — poured concrete mixed with crushed coquina stone mined just outside the city. Stainedglass windows and the floor mosaic are treasures of the

The Floridian: 72Spanish St., St. Augustine, 904-8290655, thefloridianstaug.com Hot Shot Bakery & Café: 47 Cordova, St. Augustine, 904824-7898, hotshotcafe.com The Ice Plant Bar: 110Riberia St., St. Augustine, 904-8296553, iceplantbar.com St. Augustine Distillery: 112 Riberia St., St. Augustine, Gift Shop — 904-825-4963, office — 904-825-4962, staugustinedistillery.com

church.

By now, you should be sated with historic information. And you haven’t even touched beach sand or tapped the Spanish heritage that reaches back into the 16th century in America’s oldest city. That will require another trip to St. Augustine.