PARKS & OUTDOORS
Princess Place Preserve
Flagler County · Atlantic Coast
The oldest homestead in Flagler County, an 1886 Adirondack lodge on Pellicer Creek, with Florida's first in-ground swimming pool cut from coquina.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Princess Place Preserve protects Cherokee Grove, the oldest homestead in the county, first granted by Spain in 1791 and planted with orange trees. In 1886 Henry Cutting built a hunting lodge on it in the Adirondack manner, out of what was at hand: coquina, cedar and cabbage palm. He also put in what is described as the first in-ground swimming pool in Florida, fed by an artesian spring. After Cutting died his widow Angela married an exiled Russian prince, and the place has been called Princess Place ever since. It became a county park in 1993. Eight trails total as much as 15.8 miles, among them the Long Leaf Trail at two miles, the Creek View Trail at 1.2, the Artesian Trail at 1.1, the Hardwood Trail at 0.9 and the Oak Trail at 0.7, which is fully accessible. Horses and dogs are allowed on many of them. The preserve runs along Pellicer Creek and the Matanzas River through longleaf pine, hardwood hammock and coastal flatwoods, and the marshes here are spawning ground for mullet and blue crab. Kayaking is easy to arrange. The campground has waterfront sites with their own docks. It is at 2500 Princess Place Road, open daily from 7 to 6, and free to enter
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