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The Saltbox on Zaragoza


Written By John Melvin
Posted on
Categories: My Historic Home, Pensacola Treasures, Tourism

Many a mile I have walked, traversing the streets of historic Downtown Pensacola. Like an aficionado of fine art sauntering down exhibit aisles, curiosity piqued, eagerly anticipating the next great work to marvel, I gazed upon historic building after historic building in wonder of the fascinating stories they could tell.

My fervor for historic architecture began when I was an undergraduate student at the University of West Florida. I was a history, philosophy, and art history triple major; I loved it all. While completing an historic architecture-related project for an art history course, I took to the streets of Downtown Pensacola having never explored the area before, despite the fact that I was born and raised in North Santa Rosa County. Long story short, those streets became my stomping ground.

Then, one day, I happened upon a real beauty, positioned starkly close to the sidewalk on which I strolled. I don’t know what it is about the Julee Cottage, but something just draws me to it–history aside, I just love the building. Quaint. Humble. Pleasant. Picturesque. These are all descriptors my mind conjures while gazing upon this magnificent structure. Offset only slightly from the charming brick sidewalk, this delightful saltbox-style cottage is only made more appealing by its gorgeous landscaping. I could drone on and on about its aesthetic appeal; nevertheless, as the old adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Then, there’s the history, and in this realm, the Julee Cottage reigns supreme. Constructed between 1790 and 1808, most historical records indicate it was most likely raised between 1804 and 1808. It was around this time that Julee Panton, a “free woman of color,” purchased this cottage and myriad other properties in the area. Anecdotal accounts bedded in Pensacola traditional folklore suggest Julee, despite being a “free woman of color,” actually purchased slaves herself. But, why? Thankfully, Julee’s intentions for making such transactions were virtuous. It’s believed that Julee purchased slaves, allowed them to work for others to earn money to repay their debt, and then set them free!

I just love stories like these, and learning more and more about the rich history of the Julee Cottage only made me grow fonder of the darling structure. Today, the Julee Cottage is quite active, serving as one of many unique and interesting components of historic Downtown Pensacola’s self-guided tours. I encourage you to visit the Julee Cottage for a glimpse into the life of a working-class, African-American family during a fascinating time period in American history–Reconstruction. Tickets and additional information are available at the Tivoli High House, located directly across the street from the Julee Cottage, at 205 E. Zaragoza Street.

Happy history, my friends!

Pensacola Restaurants Serving Up Thanksgiving Meals


Written By Jordan Thames
Posted on
Categories: Family

Find your perfect Thanksgiving meal at a local Pensacola restaurant!

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, everyone seems to be finalizing their plans for this festive, food-oriented holiday, including some of our local restaurants! So for those of you who have yet to decide what table you’ll be gathering around this year, don’t fret. There are plenty of local options where you will be able to dive into a tasty Thanksgiving meal. Take a look at some of the options listed below, you’re sure to find a choice that will make the whole family happy.

 

Five Sisters Blues Café

5 sisters blues cafe

Five Sisters, well known for their southern cooking, will be open this Thanksgiving offering four seating times, 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. They are serving a traditional Thanksgiving menu of three courses at a fixed price of $21.95 for adults, and $12.95 for children. The appetizer will be a choice between crab bisque or house salad, followed by a traditional Thanksgiving plate, ending with a choice dessert, either homemade chess pie or sweet potato pie. The Thanksgiving plate they will be serving comes loaded with herb-brined sliced turkey breast, bourbon-glazed ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, yams, cornbread dressing, and a dinner roll. Reservations are required, so be sure to call 850-912-4856 ahead of time!

In addition to the plated meal, Five Sisters is offering a Thanksgiving Grab and Go service, based on a six-person meal, with a price of $60 plus tax. This meal includes: a 6 lb. turkey, green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, sausage and cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, brown gravy, and dinner rolls. This package does require that orders be placed ahead of time. Five Sisters will be taking orders until 12 p.m. Monday, November 19th, with pickups starting at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 21st. Call the Catering Manager, Lauren Smith, at 850-516-2324, or email lauren@fiivesistersbluescafe.com to place your order. You can also find more information on their Facebook events page, here.

 

The Pensacola Fish House

fish house

Another local favorite, Fish House, will open its doors for us this Thanksgiving. They will open at 11:00 a.m., and will be serving their regular menu all day, in addition to a Thanksgiving turkey plate priced at $24, which they will be serving from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Their turkey plate will be served with all the trimmings, including a slow-roasted garlic and herb turkey breast, southern Applewood-smoked bacon cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, apple and cranberry chutney, whipped garlic mashed potatoes, and homemade giblet gravy. Reservations aren’t required, but are highly recommended! To reserve your table, call 850-470-0003, or check out their Facebook event page here.

 

Jackson’s Steakhouse

Thanksgiving Day at Jackson's

Located downtown, Jackson’s Steakhouse plans to serve up a delicious Thanksgiving meal this upcoming holiday. They will be open 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and will be serving a traditional Thanksgiving plate, alongside their new fall menu. This Thanksgiving plate comes filled with classic favorites, such as oven-roasted sliced turkey, served with garlic buttered green beans, andouille and cornbread stuffing, Anjou pear and cranberry relish, Yukon gold and fresh thyme whipped potatoes, roasted butternut squash, and homemade gravy, all for the price of $29. Call 850-469-9898 to make reservations or check out their Facebook event page, here for more information.

 

Skopelos at New World – Menu

Skopelos at New World
Skopelos plans to celebrate this Thanksgiving with a feast of their own! They will be open Thanksgiving day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Their holiday plans include a Thanksgiving buffet in the Grand Ballroom, as well as an a la carte menu in their dining rooms.

The Grand Ballroom Thanksgiving Buffet will be $35.95 for adults, $12.95 for kids, and includes vegan and gluten free options. The main dishes consist of roasted turkey with cornbread stuffing and giblet gravy, prime rib with horseradish sauce and au jus, honey glazed ham, seared grouper with corn salsa, impossible meatloaf with mushroom gravy, and roasted stuffed acorn squash. The featured side dishes include green bean casserole, cornbread stuffing, a harvest salad, cranberry sauce, wild rice pilaf, mashed potatoes and much more! There are plenty of dessert choices, including Bourbon pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple turnovers, cookies, brownies truffles, banana pudding, and more.

Skopelos’ Thanksgiving a la carte menu, served in their dining rooms, feature nine different plates, with prices ranging from $20 to $36. They include plates featuring roasted turkey, fried chicken, grouper, shepherd’s pie, filet mignon, and a vegan plate as well. All of these entrees are served with a house salad and soup.

They are now taking reservations, so call 850-432-6565 to make sure you snag a table! You can also find more information, including a full list of their entrees, on their Facebook event page, here. They are not accepting online reservations for Thanksgiving day.

 

The Grand Marlin

The Grand Marlin

If you’re looking to enjoy Thanksgiving Day on the beach, The Grand Marlin is the perfect spot! They will be open 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Their Thanksgiving menu includes roasted butternut squash soup, which is $7.50 per cup and $9.50 per bowl; spinach salad with bacon dressing, which is $9; the dinner plate featured roasted turkey with sausage and herb cornbread stuffing, whipped potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, and glazed broccoli and cauliflower, all for $29. Dessert choices include honey crisp apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie for $7.50. Reservations for this Thanksgiving meal are completely booked, but you can always take your chances with a walk in! Or call 850-677-9153 for more information.

 

Pot Roast & Pinot

Pot Roast & Pinot

This Thanksgiving Day, Pot Roast & Pinot will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., and will be serving their regular dinner menu, alongside a specially prepared Thanksgiving plate! This entrée will feature their signature Turkey Wellington, which has a slow-roasted mix of white and dark turkey meat inside a puff pastry, with traditional style dressing, winter squash and house-made gravy.

Reservations are not required, but recommended! Call 850-607-7336 to reserve your table, or you can find more information on their Facebook event page here.

 

PoFolks Pensacola

Po Folks

If you’re looking for some hearty, home-style cooking for the whole family, PoFolks has you covered! They will be open from 10:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. this Thanksgiving, serving a turkey day plate for just $12. Their dinner plate includes turkey and dressing, with cranberry sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, with pumpkin pie for dessert. PoFolks has a great reputation for their Thanksgiving meals, this year is sure to be no different! Call 850-912-8121 for more information.

 

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

Another home-style favorite, Cracker Barrel, has plenty of options for your family this Thanksgiving. If you want to dine at home without the hassle of cooking, they have catering as well as heat n’ serve family meals to go. For the heat n’ serve option, you can order online and pick up ahead of time for a meal that comes chilled and ready to heat! It features two oven-roasted turkey breasts, cornbread dressing, turkey gravy, cranberry relish, a choice of three country sides, sweet yeast rolls, pumpkin and pecan pie. They recommend ordering at least 24 hours ahead of time.

If you want a hot meal to go, try the Homestyle Tukey n’ Dressing Family Meal To-Go! Perfect for parties or family dinner, it serves up to six and comes with turkey, sugar cured ham, cornbread dressing, turkey gravy, cranberry relish, choice of three sides, and a choice of bread. For this option, they also recommend ordering 24 hours in advance.

If you’re just looking for a prepared dessert, they offer a selection of freshly baked pies that you can order, including pecan, chocolate, apple pecan streusel, all-American apple, and pumpkin.

Cracker Barrel will also be serving a Homestyle Turkey n’ Dressing Meal on Thanksgiving Day, if you’re looking to get out on Thanksgiving Day, starting at 11 a.m. This meal comes with turkey n’ dressing, gravy, sugar cured ham, sweet potato casserole with pecans, cranberry relish, a choice of country side, the choice between buttermilk biscuits or corn muffins, and a slice of pumpkin pie.

Call 850-944-2090 or visit their website https://crackerbarrel.com/order-online/thanksgiving for more information.

 

So whether you’re a college student who’s unable to make it home for the holidays, or if even if you just want to avoid the hassle of cooking a large holiday meal, there is a place this Thanksgiving for everyone, and every budget. Just remember, we all have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, if you choose to eat out be sure to appreciate all of the cooks, waitresses, and staff who are working hard to prepare and serve your holiday meal. Happy Thanksgiving Pensacola!

Happy Thanksgiving Pensacola

 

Long Shadows


Written By Kathlene Rushing
Posted on
Categories: Blog Posts, Flotsam And Jetsam

I like this picture of Benny and me, even though it’s not really of us, but of our shadows. Any viewer knows that a person and a dog stood in this grassy area at a time when the sun was low and that someone took a picture of the shadows and not the person or the dog. These shadows reach far into the yard, much farther than I could stretch my arms or legs. I now see this photo as a metaphor for the reach our lives have on others, even if we’re not physically in the picture.

Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that the presence of that loved one is felt long after he or she is gone. Time, like distance, may distort the loss, much in the same way that the closest shadows near our feet are over-large, whereas our heads, farther into the yard, are disproportionately smaller. This distortion doesn’t cause the viewer to doubt the existence of a person and a dog blocking the sun. But fortunately, the viewer also doesn’t have to put a monetary value on this loss of sunlight, unlike the experience that I had recently serving on a jury tasked with valuing the loss of a loved one’s “sunshine.”

In September 2018, I was part of a jury that was instructed to determine the dollar amounts to award to the widow and three adult children of a man who had died of lung cancer. In a previous trial, the defendant (Philip Morris) had been found guilty of contributing to the smoker’s death, and the plaintiffs (the family) had been awarded economic damages, those damages for which a dollar amount is more easily determined, like expenses and loss of income. For this follow-up trial, the jury was asked to determine the compensation for the family’s “pain and suffering.” So, our question was the following: what, if anything, should the family receive in damages for the emotional trauma they went through as a result of the death? This question proved to be even more difficult than I might have imagined, and I have some experience at valuing things that are difficult to put a dollar number on.

For twenty-five years, I worked for The Dow Chemical Company in research and development. At the time of my retirement, I was a Sr. Director in charge of Intellectual Capital Management. This group of experienced chemists and engineers worked to advise Dow’s businesses on the value and utilization of intellectual capital, which includes the corporation’s intangible assets:  ideas, inventions, and intellectual property, such as patents and trademarks. These assets are not the hard assets, like the bricks and mortar or financial holdings, but they are, as the definition of intangible implies, “not tangible, impalpable, an asset (such as goodwill) that is not corporeal, an abstract quality or attribute” (Merriam-Webster). If “pain and suffering” does not fit in the legal category of economic damages, then it must be considered an intangible, which can certainly have value. So, for the jury, we had to decide the value of this most uneconomic aspect of life, but I think there are parallels to the business world.

For us in the corporate environment, the value of intellectual capital was frequently hard to determine because not only was it usually an anticipated value, a possible future value, but it also was highly context-dependent. For example, an invention may be very valuable to a company that seeks a certain market position, yet not valuable to a company that has no interest in the same market. And in addition, market dynamics are notorious for being unpredictable. I discuss these considerations and others related to the management of intellectual capital in a book chapter published in Cultures of Copyright (Peter Lang, 2015). However, my corporate background did not prepare me for the jury deliberation as much as the intervening two months have, in which I’ve had time to consider the options and what we might have argued.

In this trial, the smoker was a white male, who died of lung cancer at age 42 after a year of illness. He left a wife and three children, ages (if I recall correctly) nine, sixteen, and twenty-one. His death left the family emotionally devastated, and they testified tearfully to the aftermath with its pain and suffering. The jury was told that in the previous trial the family had been awarded economic damages, but we didn’t know how much, nor could we do any background searching. Since we didn’t know how much money the family was awarded in the first trial, we had no idea if they had already received millions of dollars or a thousand dollars. We had to keep in mind that whatever the first settlement was, our decision was a separate issue. What we could know is what their counsel was asking for and what the defendant’s counsel said was a reasonable number. Counsel for the family asked for $1.3 million each for the widow and three children. The Defendant, Philip Morris, said that $50,000 each was a reasonable number. Given the wide disparity in these numbers, the jury had a difficult task, and it was made even more difficult by a similar disparity in the feelings and perceptions of jury members, perspectives that were based on the life experiences of each juror.

Some things we could agree on: the proposed $1.3 million seemed too high possibly because we had no data to justify it; no amount of money was going to bring back the deceased; and the family had, indeed, suffered as a result of the patriarch’s death. Beyond this consensus, our differences in opinion were more intense and more emotional.

The jury consisted of two men and four women. Four jurors felt, at first, that the family should receive nothing. The argument centered around considerations like these: if he had died from heart trouble, for example, the family would have suffered the same pain and suffering yet had no one to sue; money does not bring him back or end the suffering; and he had made a choice to smoke, knowing what the consequences might be. These attitudes came from jurors who had suffered significant personal losses of close family members, were veterans of wars, or were smokers themselves. The unwillingness to make Philip Morris pay for pain and suffering caught me by surprise, and I found the arguments difficult to refute.

I have not lost a close family member to cancer. I haven’t been in the military, and I don’t smoke. I personally could easily understand giving the family some sum that was in between the Plaintiff’s and the Defense’s proposals. Having been in a management role in a large corporation like Philip Morris, I knew how little even $500,000 actually is to such a company, and I could easily imagine how they might have been found contributory to the smoker’s death. But I found my suggestions on how to view why they deserved any compensation didn’t carry much weight.

After a heated deliberation, the best we could agree on was close to the Philip Morris number because even Philip Morris had said that $50,000 each was fair. We awarded the children each $50,000 and the widow $100,000. These numbers seemed like a lot of money to the other juror members, so the award seemed fair to them. I felt that I could live with this decision because $50,000 each might be significant to the family, even though I knew it was a drop in the bucket to Philip Morris. Since this verdict, I’ve had time to consider arguments for why and how much this family might have been awarded, but I’m no lawyer and have no idea which of these arguments could be used in a court of law.

My thought going into the jury deliberation was that we could arrive at a number somewhere between what the Plaintiffs were asking for and what Philip Morris stated was a fair amount. I hoped to agree to about $500,000. A number in this range is one that I could justify based on comparing the widow, for example, to what Philip Morris does for its employees if I considered what she would have cost the company in salary, benefits, and overhead if she had worked for Philip Morris for two years. The smoker suffered for a year battling the lung cancer with the widow caring for him, and then she spent most of another year settling matters after his death, so the situation could be viewed as though she were an employee. If other jurors had thought $500,000 was reasonable, we would have had a short deliberation. There are other ways I could rationalize more money than what we awarded.

Alternatively, we might have considered what the typical employee of Philip Morris might receive in compensation, such as life insurance, in the event of a similar death. The widow would have received some benefits if he had been a Philip Morris employee. What does Philip Morris do for its employee upon an untimely death?

But rather than viewing the family as an extension of Philip Morris employees, we might have taken an approach similar to how companies value something known as “goodwill.” Goodwill is an intangible asset that has value above those assets that can be exchanged, bought, sold, and traded. Goodwill can be defined and calculated in many ways, but a couple of simple ways to view it are the following:  1) for a publicly traded company, goodwill value can be thought of as the market value (stock price times number of outstanding shares) minus the value of the identifiable assets or 2) the purchase price of a company minus the company’s assets that have an identifiable economic value. Applying this view of “goodwill” to the family of the deceased smoker is relevant, but still hard to value.

The smoker had an economic value associated with his death, such as lost income, medical expenses, and funeral expenses, but the loss of his companionship to the widow and parenting to the children are part of his “goodwill” as a member of the family. What was the value of his personal goodwill? No one argues that corporate goodwill exists and is valued. Corporations pay millions and sometimes billions of dollars for goodwill. However, personal goodwill and the loss of it from the smoker’s family is not something Philip Morris and the Plaintiffs agreed on. He had no market value or purchase price from which to subtract his hard assets. But this disparity in valuing intangible assets is typical because the value of the asset is always situation dependent. His life meant something very different to his family than it could ever mean to a large corporation. But these obstacles shouldn’t mean that putting a dollar value on personal goodwill should be impossible.

A study of how corporate goodwill is calculated might shed light on ways that personal goodwill could be argued. For example, the value of Philip Morris’s corporate goodwill could be estimated and compared with its economic assets. Perhaps it’s a number like 50% above its hard assets. So then, what if personal goodwill could be estimated as a percent above the economic assets and other quantifiable numbers? Unfortunately, however, I understand from an attorney that none of these arguments is admissible in a Florida court.

Especially in light of the fact that arguments to justify awarding pain and suffering are not allowable in court, determining the specific value for compensation to a family is never going to be easy. Pain and suffering are not on a family’s balance sheet.  But pain and suffering are, however, quite tangible. They may not be a part of economic compensation, but money does alleviate some financial burdens, which also contribute to the pain and suffering. The definition of intangible is “incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch,” but intangibles are capable of being perceived by the heart, and juries should be able to have guidance in determining the value of personal goodwill to award. I wish that the State of Florida would reconsider the law around what is admissible in court.

As jurors, we knew that the lives of the family had been damaged by the loss of the husband and father, even though we never met him, and he was no longer in the picture. The shadow of his presence still stretches out into time in the lives of the family, and maybe, like Benny’s and my shadows, it becomes smaller and distorted, but it is still real nevertheless.

The House On Lot 23


Written By Kathlene Rushing
Posted on
Categories: Blog Posts, Pensacola Treasures, Tourism

House on Lot 23

The history of Pensacola is rich and enduring, indeed. Known as the “City of Five Flags,” Pensacola has been under the control of five nations since its inception in 1559–Spain, France, England, the Confederacy, and the United States. Consequently, various architectural influences are evident in much of Pensacola’s historic architecture. During the Third Spanish Period (1781-1821), the Isaac Wright House–a modest cottage that has long piqued my interest–was constructed at what is now 431 E. Zaragoza St. in historic downtown Pensacola.

This quaint cottage, as one might expect from a structure initially built approximately 200 years ago, is somewhat shrouded in mystery. A plaque posted next to the front door indicates the house was built in the 1790s. However, there has been contention about the interpretation of historical documents, land deeds, and court records. Leora “Lee” Sutton (1917-2018), prolific Pensacola historian, conducted research on the Isaac Wright House and exposed key discrepancies. Sutton’s research revealed that—contrary to information provided in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) regarding Pensacola’s purported oldest remaining building, which indicates the house located at 431 E. Zaragoza Street is situated on Lot 21 and is associated with Carlos Baron—the Isaac Wright House is in fact located on Lot 23, and no discernable historical records indicate an association with the aforementioned Baron.

During the early 19th century, land deeds were not required to be recorded at the Escambia County Court House, making historic architectural research in Pensacola a bit difficult. Miss Sutton, however, worked closely with Herschel Richards, who purchased the Isaac Wright House in 1944, to fill in the gaps created by inadequate land deed record keeping. Mr. Richards possessed deeds dating back to 1846, when Don Francisco Moreno (1792-1882)–prominent Pensacola banker, politician, and businessman–owned the cottage. Through her efforts, Sutton was able to recognize an apparent error in HABS records—records that associated this iconic property with Lot 21 and a man named Carlos Baron.

Without rehashing the long list of property ownership, I will say this: even a cursory glance of historical documentation related to the Isaac Wright House will reveal that being an historian is much like being a detective. History is not always as it seems. What is clear may not be true. Historians must piece together artifacts much like a puzzle, and, in the same vein, the final product cannot be contrived—the pieces cannot be forced. The mysteries of history are what fascinate me and going to the archives and getting my hands dirty, so to speak, is exciting. Give it a try; you may very well fall in love with history as well.

Sources:

Leora Sutton to Mr. Newton, Dr. Schaeffer, and Linda Ellsworth, May 22, 1970, Pensacola Historical Society.

Music That Inspires And Showcases Our City


Written By PensacolaFlorida.com
Posted on
Categories: Music

One of the greatest things I have loved about Pensacola, Florida is the variety of musicians that come through our little big town.  I’ve lived many places but for a town whose population is around 55K people, we have some of the best and most talented musicians you will find anywhere.  It is not unusual to find live music playing every night in some restaurant in Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola Bay Center does a great job of bringing the biggest names in music to our city from Elton John to the Newsboys.

Live Music and Nightlife

If you are thinking about moving to a city where opportunities are high and talent is much appreciated, then Pensacola is your destination.  We love great music here.  Songwriters, indie artists, jazz musicians, and folk style music are some of our favorites and certainly most captivating after a long week.  So gather with all of us on any Friday night, somewhere in Pensacola, and you will find a favorite song, a new favorite lyric, or a song that just makes you feel better than you did before you heard it.

Isn’t it funny how music knows no barriers, brings strangers together, and unites people who have differences in one room with as little as one guitar and a great song.  That’s what I love about music.  It calms the soul, stills the aching heart, binds up wounds and creates new relationships over a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, or a burger and fries.  I hope that if you read this blog post, you will think and listen to a song that makes life feel just a little bit better, and that you will find some local restaurant, bar, or concert to listen to in our great city.