The Dome House: Part III
February 8, 2013
When we last left the dome house, we knew the weirdo structure was in need of a new deck, dock and water system.
We also knew it was in really rough shape otherwise.
But, that didn’t matter — my love for the structure transcended petty things like tens of thousands of dollars worth of repairs! I mean, really, you can’t beat the location. Or the unbelievably strangeness of it all.
My realtor friend said the Dome House — along with several surrounding properties — had been bought by St. Johns County at the low, low, low — seriously, this is prime waterfront property, people — low price of $1,000. (Just a brief side note, St. Johns County is correct; it’s not St. John’s County. Oh, Florida.) Before that happened, my realtor friend said, it had been abandoned by the owner and, subsequently, the bank.
I sent an email to county administrator Michael Wanchick for confirmation and information on the future of my beloved structure.
For posterity’s sake, here’s what I wrote, in part:
Through emails with a local realtor, I learned the house’s address is 9243 Old A1A in St. Augustine. Through the same email exchange, I learned a few other things — I believe the county purchased the property for around $1,000, but I’m not sure about the time frame for the purchase. Previously, the house had been abandoned by its owners and the bank (I think).I was wondering if you could help me with a few questions, or could direct me to someone who could. Basically, I’m interested in why the county purchased the property, and when — I may be wrong, but I think the county also purchased several other lots in that area, as well. I was also wondering what the future might hold for the dome house. It’s just such a unique structure, though in desperate need of repair (while the fiberglass dome will probably last forever, I noticed the deck of the house likely has to be replaced, among numerous interior repairs necessary).Any help would be much appreciated. I can’t help but be curious about the odd little house.
That very same day, I got a voicemail from Mary Ann Blount, who works in the county’s real estate department. Mr. Wanchick, the administrator, had forwarded my email to her. (And, um, coming from the journalistic perspective of someone who has left waaaayyyyy too many voicemails pleading for a call back: way to go with timeliness, St. Johns County! This is not sarcasm.)
While Ms. Blount did not directly confirm the purchase price of $1,000 in the voicemail, she did confirm the county had purchased the Dome House and several properties around it on the Summer Haven barrier island.
“The bank had taken back over that property,” Ms. Blount said. “You know, the road is washed away and there wasn’t any access to that house, and it was very dilapidated.”
The area around it had, indeed, experienced some major landscape changes over the past few years — for instance, the Summer Haven River has all but closed after storms in 2008 began a steady stream of sand pouring into the body of water. There is a movement to dredge the river, but quite frankly, such a project would be enormously expensive; the group in favor of dredging that has sprung up has a lot of fundraising to do to get to that point.
At the point in time when Ms. Blount left me a voicemail, the dome house was still standing. However, she said, the county received a grant from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “to demolish the structure and to conduct some dune re-vegetation on that property and some of the other county-owned property that’s right there.”
Dune re-vegetation, she explained, would help with the turtle nesting that took place in the area. Remember that? Yeah, we just came full circle.
So, that was that; the county owned the property, and planned to tear down the Dome House — albeit, for a good cause.
On Feb. 1, 2012, I received an email from my mother, Mary Lou, telling me the bad news:
Everything is gone, all the pipes and concrete. It’s like it was never ever there.
She wasn’t sure the exact date it had come down as the bridge separating her house from the beach area, where the Dome House was, was undergoing some serious construction and would have masked the noise of the Dome House’s downfall.
I immediately went into a state of mourning and wore all black for a solid week.
As it turns out, though, there is a silver lining here. St. Johns County has a pretty extensive habitat conservation plan w/r/t turtles on the beaches. It’s Land Acquisition & Management Program (LAMP) and Conservation Advisory Board were created in 1993. Together, the two work to identify and acquire land both for historic and conservation purposes throughout St. Augustine.
Some more information, direct from the county:
The LAMP Board shall assist governing bodies participating in the program to acquire and conserve those lands and/or sites that enhance or promote natural communities, green corridors, water resources, outdoor recreation, historic, educational and scientific activities; in addition to identify, review, evaluate and rank those lands to best achieve the goal, while protecting rare, endangered, threatened natural communities of flora and fauna including species of special concern and they explore means of furthering the educational opportunities of conservation lands.
I’m not sure if these entities were directly involved in identifying the Dome House property and others in the area, but I imagine they were — in the past few years, at least, there have been several sea turtle nests in the very near vicinity of the Dome House, and I’ve gotten to know a few Florida dwellers, up close and personal …
Oh haaaayyyy!
While I will forever miss my beloved Dome House, I’ll concede: at least its demise was for the greater good.
And also, I plan on installing a Dome House Memorial on the site in the near future (just don’t tell the county!).
R.I.P.
7 Comments
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tiltandswing 
That dome looks like it was created by Domes International (now called WORLD DISCOVERIES, INC.). I don’t recall seeing the style of windows offered on their old website. That’s not to say that they may have offered it at one time. Good luck surfing through their current site, it’s sucks ass. I have been considering purchasing a dome from them, at one time they had a facility in Houston, but apparently, it’s shut down.
http://www.domesintl.com/
Hey there!!! As a kid my family vacationed at “The Igloo”, as we called it (and I think the owners called it that too), summers through the 1980’s, again for a week in Spring1993, and again in the Fall of, I think, 1994. I then moved to the Orlando area in my mid-twenties and came back to hang out with my dad and fish there on the beach 1995/96. We have AWESOME memories there!!! When I was a kid, the road leading to the igloo looked a lot like it did in the areal map you displayed, but in your photograph (that I am so excited to see – thank you), there is a washed out area of the road down near the paved road, but it wasn’t washed out at all! The paved road ended and the dirt road continued with grassy dunes on both sides of the dirt road. In the 80’s, the road was actually packed enough to drive a 2WD to the vacation spot, but by the 90’s we had to have a 4WD. Also, in the 90’s, that washed out area that we see on the map was becoming a severe dip in the dirt road (created by high tides/nor’easterns washing through)…at which point I would have to stomp on the gas pedal to get through it in my dad’s 2WD GMC truck with the tires bagged out.
I visited this past Saturday after almost 2 decades and have been mourning the disappearance of the river, the road, the dock and the igloo for the last two days. We used to watch dolphins, manatees and caught trout, flounder, catfish and yellow tail in the river off the dock!! I was able to walk the dunes until I found the actual site of the structure, and as soon as I found the site, the scents of the lush dunes flooded my senses with memories!
I am going to dig up some pictures. Email me if you want me to share them with you.
Also, the foundation with plumbing, etc. next to the igloo (on it’s north side) was a gas station back in the day, per my dad, who said that a hurricane destroyed A1A that used to route through that spot. I’m sure you’ve also seen the remnants of old A1A – chunks of asphalt. As far as I can tell, it was Hurricane Dora that caused A1A to reroute. Lastly, when I was a kid, there was a long, maybe 6 foot, pile of large gray rocks extending all the way from the paved road to the igloo. There is absolutely no sign of them now, nor the grass dune east of the dirt road, nor the dirt road, nor THE RIVER!!! I AM BESIDE MYSELF!!! I did find the dirt road to the south of the igloo – felt like a tiny little hug from the past.
Since you seem as intrigued with “the dome house” (a.k.a. “the igloo”) as I much as I am, maybe you would be interested to know some of the details about the place when it was in good working order. It of course did have full electricity and water, the inside was clean (with some LARGE spiders and roaches that we had to mitigate upon arrival each time we stayed), had a full size kitchen, table, couch (not the one in the pictures) and chair, TV, semi-private bathroom with shower and a mostly private bedroom with bed, table and closet. It had white linoleum floors that I remember my mom sweeping constantly. The deck was awesome!!!! It was a strong structure when I used to stay there. In our early twenties, a couple of our friends slept on an air mattress out on the back deck under the stars for the night – only to realize the next night that the deck was infested with roaches at night!
The bathroom was always a big joke because the walls did not go all the way to the ceiling, so everyone would go quiet when someone was in the restroom so that we could harass the person trying to have some privacy – good times! LOL!!! There was also a shower under the deck that was very convenient.
It was such a private and quiet place that it was alarming when someone drove down that road (that is still there) past the igloo to get to their house. Once when I was a kid, someone with a backpack was hanging out in the old gas station next door. It was just concrete block walls, gutted out inside with concrete (and sand) floors. We were so scared!!!! Now I realize that the igloo had the same fate. It is so sad because was such a safe place for a young family (me as a kid) or a young married couple (me as an adult) with locking glass sliding doors. It was so dark out there at night!!!! Since it was kind of scary at night, it was nice to be able to lock the doors.
That piece of land was like a dream – beach in the front and river on the back. The dock was well built, sturdy and long. It had a fish cleaning table and the dock expand out at the end with a built-in bench in the middle. We were able to use the cast net to catch bait in the shallows, avoiding a large concentration of oyster beds, cut them up on the table and fish from the end of the dock. One rainy October night we used simple rubber lures from Devil’s Elbow and caught 14 speckled trout off that dock! The back deck of the igloo was an awesome place to grill out! I also caught a flounder in the shallow water one time. That was so cool!
It breaks my heart to pieces to remember sitting at the end of the dock watching dolphins swim by, catching fish and fiddler crabs on the shores. We never swam in the river because of the oyster shells and jellyfish.
One time a King Snake came swimming across the river and came up onto the dock. As young adults, with no phones at the time, not knowing what to do, it scared up to death!!!! It was wild out there!
Lastly, my dad used to call that beach shark alley and he wouldn’t surf there. He often caught small sharks right while surf fishing.
If you get back to me, I will scan in some pictures of the igloo / dome house in its hay-day and email that to you.
Take care,
Kim
Kim, thanks so much for commenting with your story! If you could, shoot me an email — jamiebiesiada@gmail.com. I’d appreciate it!
I bought a very similar style (maybe even the exact) dome house in Paw Paw, MI in 2014 on a lake. I tried my hardest to restore it with the help of a contractor but eventually had to tear it down and build amother structure. turns out these things don’t do well in cold climates and they just leak after awhile. we think mine was built in the 1960s and some families lived their year round over the years. after I decided to tear it down I tried my hardest to find someone to dismantle and take it – even for free! but no takes so it’s in a landfill now. I still miss it! email me if you want me to send pics of it but I think it may be the very same design.
Thanks so much for commenting, Todd! Could you shoot me an email? jamiebiesiada@gmail.com. Thank you!