St. Augustine, Florida
Encyclopedia
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of St. Johns County, Florida
St. Johns County, Florida
St. Johns County is a county located in northeastern Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 190,039. The county seat is St. Augustine. Due to the inclusion of Ponte Vedra Beach, it is one of the highest-income counties in the United States....

, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer, best remembered for founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. This was the first successful Spanish foothold in La Florida and remained the most significant city in the region for several hundred years. St...

, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States. St. Augustine lies in a region of Florida known as "The First Coast
First Coast
The First Coast is a region of Florida, in the United States. It extends along the Atlantic, or eastern, coast of the state, from the Georgia border, past the southern end of Anastasia Island, to Marineland....

", which extends from Amelia Island
Amelia Island
Amelia Island is one of the southernmost of the Sea Islands, a chain of barrier islands that stretches along the east coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida. It is long and approximately 4 miles wide at its widest point. Amelia Island is situated off the coast in Nassau County,...

 in the north to Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

, St. Augustine, and Palm Coast
Palm Coast, Florida
Palm Coast is a city in Flagler County, Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 75,180; it is the most populous city or town in Flagler County. Palm Coast is a principal town of the Palm Coast, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, designated in 2007...

 in the south. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 12,975. St. Augustine is the headquarters for the Florida National Guard
Florida National Guard
The Florida National Guard is the National Guard force of the U.S. state of Florida. It comprises the Florida Army National Guard and the Florida Air National Guard.The United States Constitution charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions...

.

Early exploration and attempts at settlement

The vicinity of St. Augustine was first explored in 1513 by Spanish explorer and governor of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named...

, who claimed the region for the Spanish crown. Prior to the founding of St. Augustine in 1565, several earlier attempts at European colonization in what is now Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 were made by both Spain and France, but all failed.

The French exploration of the area began in 1562, under the Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 captain Jean Ribault
Jean Ribault
Jean Ribault was a French naval officer, navigator, and a colonizer of what would become the southeastern United States. He was a major figure in the French attempts to colonize Florida...

. Ribault explored the St. Johns River
St. Johns River
The St. Johns River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant for commercial and recreational use. At long, it winds through or borders twelve counties, three of which are the state's largest. The drop in elevation from the headwaters to the mouth is less than ;...

 to the north of St. Augustine before sailing north, ultimately founding the short-lived Charlesfort on what is now known as Parris Island, South Carolina
Parris Island, South Carolina
Parris Island is a former census-designated place , currently a portion of Port Royal in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 4,841 at the 2000 census. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Parris Island is included within the Beaufort Urban Cluster and the larger...

. In 1564, Ribault's former lieutenant René Goulaine de Laudonnière
René Goulaine de Laudonnière
René Goulaine de Laudonnière was a French Huguenot explorer and the founder of the French colony of Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida...

 headed a new colonization effort. The Laudonnière explored St. Augustine Inlet and the Matanzas River
Matanzas River
Matanzas River is a body of water located in St. Johns and Flagler counties in Florida. It is a narrow saltwater bar-bounded estuary sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by Anastasia Island....

, which the French named the River of Dolphins. There they made contact with the local Timucua
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the...

 chief, probably Seloy, a subject of the powerful Saturiwa
Saturiwa
The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered around the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Timucuan and lived in the coastal areas...

 chiefdom, before heading north to the St. Johns River. There they established Fort Caroline
Fort Caroline
Fort Caroline was the first French colony in the present-day United States. Established in what is now Jacksonville, Florida, on June 22, 1564, under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière, it was intended as a refuge for the Huguenots. It lasted one year before being obliterated by the...

.

Later that year some mutineers from Fort Caroline fled the colony and turned pirate, attacking Spanish vessels in the Caribbean. The Spanish used this as a catalyst to locate and destroy Fort Caroline, fearing it would serve as a base for future piracy, and wanting to dissuade further French colonization. The Spanish quickly dispatched Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer, best remembered for founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. This was the first successful Spanish foothold in La Florida and remained the most significant city in the region for several hundred years. St...

 to go to Florida and establish a base from which to attack the French.

Founding of St. Augustine

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sighted land on August 28, 1565. As this was the feast day of Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

, the territory was named San Agustín. The Spanish sailed through the St. Augustine Inlet into Matanzas Bay
Matanzas Bay
Matanzas Bay is a saltwater bay in St. Johns County, Florida, the entrance to the bay from the South Atlantic is via St. Augustine inlet. Bodies of water that connect to the bay in addition to the South Atlantic are clockwise from the inlet;...

 and disembarked near the Timucua
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the...

 town of Seloy on September 7. Menéndez's goal was to dig a quick fortification to protect his people and supplies as they were unloaded from the ships, and then to take a more proper survey of the area to determine the best location for the fort. The location of this early fort has been confirmed through archaeological excavations directed by Kathleen Deagan on the grounds of what is now the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is a privately owned park in St. Augustine, Florida, located along Hospital Creek, part of the Intracoastal Waterway. It is touted as being the original landing site in Florida in 1513, of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, however recent historical research...

. It is known that the Spanish occupied several structures in Seloy, the chief of which, known as Chief Seloy, was allied with the Saturiwa
Saturiwa
The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered around the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Timucuan and lived in the coastal areas...

, Laudonnière's allies. It is possible, but undemonstrated, that Menéndez fortified one of the occupied Timucua structures as this first fort at Seloy.

In the meantime, Jean Ribault, Laudonnière's old commander, arrived at Fort Caroline with more settlers for the colony, as well as soldiers and weapons to defend them. He also took over the governorship of the settlement. Despite Laudonnière's wishes, Ribault put most of these soldiers aboard his ships for an assault on St. Augustine. However, he was surprised at sea by a violent storm lasting several days. This gave Menéndez the opportunity to march his forces overland for surprise dawn attack on the Fort Caroline garrison, which then numbered several hundred people. Laudonnière and some survivors fled to the woods, and the Spanish killed almost everyone in the fort except for the women and children. With the French displaced, Menéndez rechristened the fort as San Mateo, and appropriated it for his own purposes. The Spanish then returned south and eventually encountered the survivors of Ribault's fleet near the inlet at the southern end of Anastasia Island
Anastasia Island
Anastasia Island is a barrier island which is approximately long located off the northeast Atlantic coast of Florida in the United States. The island is located east and southeast of St. Augustine. It is separated from the mainland by the Matanzas River, part of the Intracoastal waterway, Matanzas...

. Menéndez executed most of the survivors, including Ribault; the inlet was thus named for the Spanish word for slaughters, matanzas.

The first slaves in the territory that we now regard as the United States were brought to St. Augustine on the day it was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on September 8, 1565. Menéndez’s contract with King Phillip afforded him three years to import 500 African slaves. In 1566, Martín de Argüelles
Martin de Arguelles
Martín de Argüelles, Jr. was the first known child of European descent born in what is now the continental United States. His birthplace in St. Augustine, Florida marks the oldest continuously occupied European-founded city anywhere in the continental United States.-Birth:Martín was born in 1566...

 was born in San Agustín, the first European child who was recorded as born in the continental United States. Argüelles was born in San Agustín 21 years before the English settlement at Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County near the coast of North Carolina, United States. It was named after the historical Roanoke Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English exploration....

 in Virginia Colony, and 42 years before the successful settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

, and Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...

. Additionally, the first recorded birth of a black child in the continental United States is in the Cathedral Parish Archives. Augustin was recorded as born in the year 1606, thirteen years before enslaved Africans were first brought to the English colony at Jamestown in 1619. In territory under the jurisdiction of the United States, only Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 has continuously occupied European-established settlements older than St. Augustine.

Spanish rule

St. Augustine was intended to be a base for further colonial ventures across what is now the Southeastern United States, but such efforts were hampered by apathy and hostility on the part of the Native Americans towards becoming Spanish subjects. The Saturiwa, one of the two principle chiefdoms in the area, remained openly hostile. In 1566 the Saturiwa burned down St. Augustine and the settlement had to be relocated. Traditionally it was thought to have been moved to its present location, though some documentary evidence suggests it was first moved to a location on Anastasia Island
Anastasia Island
Anastasia Island is a barrier island which is approximately long located off the northeast Atlantic coast of Florida in the United States. The island is located east and southeast of St. Augustine. It is separated from the mainland by the Matanzas River, part of the Intracoastal waterway, Matanzas...

. At any rate, it was certainly in its present location by the end of the 16th century.

The settlement also faced attacks from European forces as well. In April 1568 the French soldier Dominique de Gourgues led an attack on Spanish holdings. With the aid of the Saturiwa, Tacatacuru
Tacatacuru
The Tacatacuru were a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Timucuan and lived in the coastal areas of...

, and other Timucua peoples who had been friendly with Laudonnière, de Gourgues attacked and burned Fort San Mateo, the former Fort Caroline. He then executed his prisoners in revenge for the 1565 massacre, but he did not approach St. Augustine itself. Additional French expeditions were primarily raids and were unable to dislodge the Spanish from St. Augustine. The English also believed Admiral Avilés and the Catholic Spanish were responsible for the disappearance of the English fishing settlements in America which had been established by John Cabot
John Cabot
John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the continent of North America since the Norse Vikings in the eleventh century...

. Thus, following the disappearance of the Roanoke colony in Virginia, the blame was immediately leveled at St. Augustine. Consequently, in 1586 St. Augustine was attacked and burned by English privateer Sir Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...

 and the surviving Spanish settlers were driven into the wilderness. However, lacking sufficient forces or authority for permanently establishing a settlement, Drake left the area.

In 1668 St. Augustine was attacked and plundered by English privateer Robert Searle. In the aftermath of his raid, the Spanish began in 1672 the construction of a more secure fortification, the Castillo de San Marcos
Castillo de San Marcos
The Castillo de San Marcos site is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. It is located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. Construction was begun in 1672 by the Spanish when Florida was a Spanish territory. During the twenty year period of British possession from 1763 until 1784, the...

, which still stands today as the nation's oldest fort. Its construction took a quarter of a century, with many later additions and modifications.

The Spanish did not have as many slaves in Florida as the English Americans had in their colonies to the north, as it was basically a military outpost rather than a plantation economy. As the British settlements moved farther and farther south, the Spanish adopted the policy of giving sanctuary to slaves who could escape from British plantations and make their way to Florida. Thus did it become the focal point of the first Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

. Blacks were given sanctuary, arms, and supplies if they joined the Catholic Church and swore allegiance to the king of Spain. As the British established settlements closer to Spanish territory, with Charleston in 1670 and Savannah in 1733, Spanish Governor Manual de Montiano in 1738 established the first legally recognized free community of ex-slaves as the northern defense of St. Augustine, known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose.

In 1740 St. Augustine was unsuccessfully attacked by British forces from their colonies in the Carolinas and Georgia
Province of Georgia
The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States...

. The largest and most successful of these was organized by Governor and General James Oglethorpe
James Oglethorpe
James Edward Oglethorpe was a British general, member of Parliament, philanthropist, and founder of the colony of Georgia...

 of Georgia who managed to break the Spanish-Seminole alliance when he gained the help of Ahaya the Cowkeeper
Cowkeeper
Cowkeeper, also known as Ahaya in Mikasuki , was the first recorded chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe. This was the name which the English used, as he held a very large herd of cattle.-Early life and education:...

, chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

 tribe.

In the subsequent campaign Oglethorpe, supported by several thousand colonial militia and British regulars along with Seminole warriors, invaded Spanish Florida and conducted the Siege of St. Augustine
Siege of St. Augustine
The Siege of St. Augustine took place in July 1740 during the War of Jenkins' Ear, in which Britain and her colonies attacked Spanish colonies in the Americas.-Background:...

 during the War of Jenkin's Ear. During this siege the black community of St. Augustin proved its worth when during the siege it proved decisive in stopping the city's take-over by the British. The leader of Fort Mose during the battle was the legendary Capt. Francisco Menendez (creole)
Francisco Menendez (creole)
Francisco Menendez was a free black military leader serving the Spanish Crown in 18th century St. Augustine, Florida. He is first traceable as a slave in South Carolina who, like many of his contemporaries, escaped to St. Augustine, Florida...

, who was born in Africa, twice escaped from slavery, and played an important role in defending St. Augustine from raid by British colonists to the north. The Fort Mose site is now owned by the Florida Park Service, and recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

British rule

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...

 ended the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

 and gave Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and St. Augustine to the British, in exchange for the British relinquishing control of occupied Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

. With the change of flags, almost all of the population of 3,100 Spaniards departed from St. Augustine.

James Grant was appointed the first governor of East Florida
East Florida
East Florida was a colony of Great Britain from 1763–1783 and of Spain from 1783–1822. East Florida was established by the British colonial government in 1763; as its name implies it consisted of the eastern part of the region of Florida, with West Florida comprising the western parts. Its capital...

, and served from 1764 until 1771, when he returned to Britain due to illness. He was replaced as governor by Patrick Tonyn
Patrick Tonyn
Patrick Tonyn was a British General who served as the second colonial governor of East Florida from 1775 to 1783.Tonyn was from a military background. His father, Charles Tonyn, was a Colonel in the 6th Inniskillen Dragoons...

.

During this time the British converted the monks quarters of the former Franciscan monastery into military barracks which were named St. Francis Barracks
St. Francis Barracks
St. Francis Barracks is a historic structure constructed of coquina stone located on Marine Street in St. Augustine, Florida named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. The barracks were constructed between 1724 - 1755 by monks of the Order of St...

. They also built The King's Bakery
The King's Bakery
The King's Bakery is a coquina stone structure in St. Augustine, Florida built during the British colonial period in Florida . The building located on Marine Street, with the rear facing Matanzas Bay, was constructed to supply bread to the British troops quartered across the street at the St...

 which is believed to be the only extant structure in the city built entirely in British period.

The Lieutenant Governor of East Florida under Governor Grant was John Moultrie
John Moultrie (politician)
John Moultrie was a deputy governor of East Florida in the years before the American Revolutionary War. He became acting governor when his predecessor, James Grant, was invalided home in 1771...

 who was born in South Carolina, he had served under Grant as a major in the Cherokee War
Anglo-Cherokee War
The Anglo-Cherokee War , also known as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, the Cherokee Rebellion, was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee Indians during the French and Indian War...

 and remained loyal to the British Crown. Moultrie's brother William Moultrie
William Moultrie
William Moultrie was a general from South Carolina in the American Revolutionary War.He was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He fought in the Anglo-Cherokee War and served in the colonial assembly before the advent of the American Revolution....

 of whom Fort Moultrie in South Carolina is named was a general in the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...

. His brother Thomas was a captain in the American 2nd South Carolina Regiment
2nd South Carolina Regiment
The 2nd South Carolina Regiment was raised on June 6, 1775, at Charleston, South Carolina, for service with the Continental Army. The regiment saw action at the Siege of Savannah and the Siege of Charleston. The regiment was captured by the British Army at Charleston on May 12, 1780, together with...

 who was killed in the Battle of Charleston
Battle of Charleston
The Battle of Charleston can refer to several historical battles:* The Siege of Charleston - American Revolution, arguably the worst in the southern theatre.* The Battle of Charleston Harbor I...

, while his half-brother Alexander became the first Attorney General in South Carolina and was held prisoner in St. Augustine while John was acting British Lieutenant Governor. Moultrie was granted large tracts of land in the St. Augustine vicinity upon which he established the plantation of "Bella Vista" he owned another 2000 acres (8.1 km²) plantation in the Tomoka River
Tomoka River
The Tomoka River is a north-flowing river in Volusia County, Florida, United States. It drains an area of about and is the longest river in Volusia County , with a length of .- Geography :...

 basin named "Rosetta". While acting as the lieutenant governor he lived in the Peck House on St. George Street.

Another large development effort during the British period was the establishment in 1768 of the colony of New Smyrna, by Andrew Turnbull a friend of Grants. Turnbull recruited indentured servants from the Mediterranean, primarily from the island of Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....

. The conditions at New Smyrna were abysmal, prompting the settlers to rebel en masse in 1777 and walk the 70 miles (112.7 km) to St. Augustine, where Grant gave them refuge.

The story of the Minorcan colony (as the entire group came to be known) is told, fictionally, in the book Spanish Bayonet by Stephen Vincent Benet
Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By...

, a prominent descendant of one of the leading Minorcan families of St. Augustine. The Minorcans, stayed on in St. Augustine through all the subsequent changes of flags, to become the venerable families of the community, marking it with language, culture, cuisine and customs.

Second Spanish rule

The Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...

 in 1783, gave the American colonies north of Florida their independence, and ceded Florida to Spain in recognition of Spanish efforts
Spain in the American Revolutionary War
Spain actively supported the Thirteen Colonies throughout the American Revolutionary War, beginning in 1776 by jointly funding Roderigue Hortalez and Company, a trading company that provided critical military supplies, through financing the final Siege of Yorktown in 1781 with a collection of gold...

 on behalf of the American colonies during the war.

On September 3, 1783, by Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...

, Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain, and (provisionally) with the Netherlands. In the treaty with Spain, the colonies of West Florida, captured by the Spanish, and East Florida were returned to Spain, as was the island of Minorca, while the Bahama Islands, Grenada and Montserrat, captured by the French and Spanish, were returned to Britain.

Florida was under Spanish control again from 1781 to 1821, but St. Augustine since 1784. During this time, Spain was being invaded by Napoleon between 1808 and 1814 and was struggling to retain its colonies. Florida no longer held its past importance to Spain, thus, in 1821 the Adams–Onís Treaty peaceably turned the Spanish colonies in Florida and, with them, St. Augustine, over to the United States as a way of compensating the American government for the civil claims that were in part caused by undefined border areas with Spanish territories.

American Rule

Florida was ceded to the United States by Spain in the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty, ratification of the treaty took place in 1821 and it officially became a U.S. possession as the Florida Territory
Florida Territory
The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Florida...

, in 1822, with future president Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 as the military governor, succeeded by William Pope DuVal as territorial governor. Florida gained statehood
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 in 1845.

After the U.S. took possession of Florida in 1821, the Castillo de San Marcos (British, Fort St. Marks) was renamed Fort Marion for Francis Marion
Francis Marion
Francis Marion was a military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. Acting with Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, he was a persistent adversary of the British in their occupation of South Carolina in 1780 and 1781, even after the Continental Army was driven...

, the "Swamp Fox" of the American Revolution.

During the Second Seminole War
Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars...

 of 1835–1842 the fort served as a prison for Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

 captives including the famed leader Osceola
Osceola
Osceola, also known as Billy Powell , became an influential leader with the Seminole in Florida. He was of Creek, Scots-Irish and English parentage, and had migrated to Florida with his mother after the defeat of the Creek in 1814.Osceola led a small band of warriors in the Seminole resistance...

, the black Seminole, John Cavallo (John Horse) as well as Coacoochee (Wildcat
Wild Cat (Seminole)
Wild Cat, born Coacoochee or Cowacoochee , was a leading Seminole chieftain during the later stages of the Second Seminole War as well as the nephew of Micanopy....

), who made a daring escape from the fort with 19 other Seminoles.
In 1861, the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 began and Florida seceded from the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

 and joined the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

. On January 7, 1861, prior to Florida's formal secession, a local militia unit, the St. Augustine Blues, took possession of St. Augustine's military facilities, including Fort Marion
Castillo de San Marcos
The Castillo de San Marcos site is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. It is located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. Construction was begun in 1672 by the Spanish when Florida was a Spanish territory. During the twenty year period of British possession from 1763 until 1784, the...

 and the St. Francis Barracks
St. Francis Barracks
St. Francis Barracks is a historic structure constructed of coquina stone located on Marine Street in St. Augustine, Florida named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. The barracks were constructed between 1724 - 1755 by monks of the Order of St...

, from the lone Union ordnance sergeant on duty.

Crew from the USS Wabash
USS Wabash
Four ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Wabash, after the Wabash River of Ohio and Indiana.* The first was a screw frigate in commission from 1856 to 1874, then in use as a receiving ship until 1912....

  reoccupied the city for the United States government without opposition on March 11, 1862, and it remained under union control for the remainder of the war. In 1865, Florida rejoined the United States.

After the war, former slaves in St. Augustine established the community of Lincolnville
Lincolnville Historic District
The Lincolnville Historic District covering the southwest peninsula of the "nation's oldest city," is a U.S. Historic District located in St. Augustine, Florida. The district is bounded by Cedar, Riberia, Cerro and Washington Streets and DeSoto Place...

 in 1866, named after President Abraham Lincoln. Lincolnville, with the largest concentration of Victorian Era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 homes in St. Augustine, also became a key setting for the Civil Rights Movement a century latter.
After the Civil War, Fort Marion was used twice, in the 1870s and then again in the 1880s, to house first Plains Indians and then Apaches who were captured in the west. The daughter of Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...

 was born at Fort Marion, and was named Marion, though she later chose to change her name. The fort was also used as a military prison during the Spanish-American War of 1898. It was finally removed from the Army's active duty rolls in 1900 after 205 years of service under five different flags. It is now run by the National Park Service, and called the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.

Flagler era

Henry Flagler, a partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

 arrived in St. Augustine in the 1880s and was the driving force behind turning the city into a winter resort for the wealthy northern elite. Flagler bought a number of local railroads which were incorporated into the Florida East Coast Railway
Florida East Coast Railway
The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida; in the past, it has been a Class I railroad.Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a project of Standard Oil principal Henry Morrison...

, which built its headquarters in St. Augustine.

Flagler contracted the New York architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings , located in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership operated from 1885 until 1911, when Carrère was killed in an automobile accident...

 to design a number of extravagant buildings in St. Augustine, among them the Ponce de Leon Hotel
Ponce de León Hotel
The Ponce de León Hotel was an exclusive hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and completed in 1888. The Hotel Ponce de Leon was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style by the New York architects John Carrere and Thomas...

 and the Alcazar Hotel
Lightner Museum
The Lightner Museum is a museum of antiquities, mostly American Victorian, housed within a historic hotel building in downtown St. Augustine, Florida, USA. The building, in a Spanish Renaissance Revival style, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.The museum occupies three...

 built partly on land purchased from Flaglers' friend and associate Andrew Anderson
Markland (St. Augustine, Florida)
Markland is a historic mansion in St. Augustine, Florida. Construction on the original part of the coquina shellstone mansion was begun by New York doctor Andrew Anderson Sr. in 1839 just prior to his death in a yellow fever epidemic. Anderson had first arrived in St...

 and partly on the bed of Maria Sanchez Creek, which Flagler had filled with the archaeological remains of the original Fort Mose. Flagler built or contributed to several churches, including Grace Methodict, Ancient City Baptist, and, most ornate, the Venetian-style Memorial Presbyterian Church
Memorial Presbyterian Church
The Memorial Presbyterian Church is an historic church located a 36 Valencia Street in St. Augustine, Florida. The church was built in 1889 by business tycoon and St...

.

Flagler had Albert Spalding
Albert Spalding
Albert Goodwill Spalding was a professional baseball player, manager and co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company.-Biography:...

 design a baseball park in St. Augustine, and the waiters at his hotels, under the leadership of Frank P. Thompson, formed one of America's pioneer professional black baseball teams, the Ponce de Leon Giants. It later became the Cuban Giants, and one of the team members, Frank Grant
Frank Grant
* , Personal profiles at Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. – identical to Riley -External links:* – unknown content, URL confirmed 2010-04-16...

, has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the 1880s, there was no public hospital between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. On May 22, 1888, Flagler invited St. Augustine's most influential ladies to his Ponce de León Hotel and offered them a hospital if the community would commit to operate and maintain the facility. The Alicia Hospital opened March 1, 1890, as a not-for-profit institution, but was renamed Flagler Hospital
Flagler Hospital
Flagler Hospital, based in St. Augustine, Florida, is a not-for-profit facility established in 1889. The organization has received numerous accolades and offers "Centers of Excellence" in bariatrics, heart, cancer, maternity, orthopedics and sinus....

 in 1905.

The extravagant Florida Land Boom of the 1920s left its mark on St. Augustine with the establishment (though not completion) of Davis Shores, a landfill project on the marshy north end of Anastasia Island, which was promised to be "America's Foremost Watering Place". It was reached, from downtown St. Augustine by the Bridge of Lions
Bridge of Lions
The Bridge of Lions is a bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. A pair of Medici lions made of marble guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927 across Matanzas Bay...

, billed as "The Most Beautiful Bridge in Dixie".

During World War II, St. Augustine hotels were used for the training of Coast Guardsmen, including the celebrated artist Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...

 and actor Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...

. It was also a popular place for R&R for soldiers from nearby Camp Blanding, including Andy Rooney and Sloan Wilson
Sloan Wilson
Sloan Wilson was an American author.-Reporter:Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Wilson graduated from Harvard University in 1942. He served in World War II, serving in the United States Coast Guard, commanding a naval trawler on the Greenland patrol and an army supply ship in the Pacific Ocean.After...

 who went on to write the classic 1950s novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson, is a 1955 novel about the American search for purpose in a world dominated by business. Tom and Betsy Rath share a struggle to find contentment in their hectic and material culture while several other characters fight essentially the same battle,...

.

Civil rights movement

St. Augustine was a pivotal site for the Civil Rights Movement in 1963–1964.

Efforts by African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s to integrate the public schools and public accommodations such as lunch counters were met with arrests and Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 violence. Non-violent
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...

 protesters were arrested for participating in peaceful picket lines, sit-ins, and marches. Homes were firebombed, black leaders were assaulted and threatened with death, and fired from their jobs.

In the spring of 1964, St. Augustine civil rights leader Robert Hayling asked the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...

 (SCLC) and its leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

 for assistance. From May until July 1964, they carried out marches, sit-ins, and other forms of peaceful protest in St. Augustine.

Hundreds of black and white civil rights supporters were arrested, and the jails were filled to overflowing. At the request of Hayling and King, white civil rights supporters from the north, including students, clergy, and well known public figures, came to St. Augustine and were arrested.

The KKK responded with violent attacks that were widely reported in national and international media. Popular revulsion against the Klan violence generated national sympathy for the black protesters and became a key factor in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...

.

In 2010, former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young premiered his movie, "Crossing in St. Augustine" about the 1964 struggles against Jim Crow segregation. Young is now working to establish a National Civil Rights Museum in St. Augustine, which could be part of a St. Augustine National Historical Park and Seashore.

Modern Era

The city is a popular tourist attraction, for its Spanish Colonial buildings as well as elite 19th century architecture. The city's historic center is anchored by St. George Street, which is lined with historic homes from various periods. Most of these homes are reconstructions of buildings that had been burned or demolished over the years, though a few of them are original.

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm, incorporated in 1908, is one of the oldest commercial tourist attractions in Florida, as is the Fountain of Youth
Fountain of Youth
The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years, appearing in writings by Herodotus, the Alexander romance, and the stories of Prester John...

, which dates from the same time period. The city is one terminus of the Old Spanish Trail
Old Spanish Trail (auto trail)
The Old Spanish Trail auto highway once spanned the country with a full of roadway from ocean to ocean crossing 67 counties and eight states along the Southern border of the United States. Work on the auto highway began in 1915 and, by the 1920s, the trail linked St. Augustine, Florida, to San...

, a promotional effort of the 1920s linking St. Augustine to San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

 with 3000 miles (4,828 km) of roadways.

The city has a privately funded Freedom Trail of historic sites of the civil rights movement, and a museum at the Fort Mose site, the location of the 1738 free black community. Historic Excelsior School, built in 1925 as the first public high school for blacks in St. Augustine, became the city's first museum of African-American history. In 2011, the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument is located near the corner of King St. and Charlotte St. in the Southeast corner of the Plaza De La Constitucion , an historic public park in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. It is in remembrance of the people who engaged in various forms of peaceful protest in St...

, a remembrance of participants in the civil rights movement, was dedicated in the downtown plaza, a few feet from the Slave Market. Robert Hayling, the leader of the St. Augustine movement, and Hank Thomas, who grew up in St. Augustine and was one of the original Freedom Riders, spoke at the dedication ceremony. Another corner of the plaza was designated "Andrew Young Crossing" in honor of the civil rights leader
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...

, who received his first beating in the movement in St. Augustine in 1964. Bronze replicas of Young's footsteps have been incorporated into the sidewalk that runs diagonally through the plaza, along with quotes expressing the importance of St. Augustine to the civil rights movement. That project was publicly funded. Some important landmarks of the civil rights movement, including the Monson Motel and the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge, had been demolished in 2003 and 2004.

Geography and climate

St. Augustine is located at 29°53′39"N 81°18′48"W (29.89785, -81.31151).
According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the city has a total area of 10.7 square miles (27.8 km²), of which, 8.4 square miles (21.7 km²) of it is land and 2.4 square miles (6.1 km²) of it (21.99%) is water. Access to the Atlantic Ocean is via the St. Augustine Inlet of the Matanzas River
Matanzas River
Matanzas River is a body of water located in St. Johns and Flagler counties in Florida. It is a narrow saltwater bar-bounded estuary sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by Anastasia Island....

.

In modern times, St. Augustine has mostly been spared the wrath of tropical cyclones. The only direct hit was Hurricane Dora
Hurricane Dora
Hurricane Dora was the first tropical cyclone on record to make landfall over the extreme northeast coast of Florida. Dora was also the first storm to produce hurricane force winds to Jacksonville, Florida in the almost 80 years of record keeping. Dora killed five people and left over...

, which came ashore just after midnight on September 10, 1964. Hurricane Donna in 1960, and unnamed hurricanes in 1944 and 1950 also affected the area.

Demographics

As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 9,592 people, 4,963 households, and 2,600 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,384.6 people per square mile (534.7/km²). There were 5,642 housing units at an average density of 673.9 per square mile (260.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 81.21% Caucasian, 15.07% African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.72% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 0.88% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 1.61% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.11% of the population.

There were 4,963 households out of which 18.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.4% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.6% were non-families. 36.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.11 and the average family size was 2.76.

In the city the population was spread out with 16.1% under the age of 18, 15.3% from 18 to 24, 23.9% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, and 19.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 84.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $32,358, and the median income for a family was $41,892. Males had a median income of $27,099 versus $25,121 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $21,225. About 9.8% of families and 15.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.8% of those under age 18 and 10.0% of those age 65 or over.

Highways

  • Interstate 95
    Interstate 95
    Interstate 95 is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States, running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Florida and serving some of the most populated urban areas in the country, including Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore,...

     runs north-south.
  • U.S. Route 1
    U.S. Route 1
    U.S. Route 1 is a major north–south U.S. Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs 2,377 miles from Fort Kent, Maine at the Canadian border south to Key West, Florida. U.S. 1 generally parallels Interstate 95, though it is significantly farther west between...

     runs north-south.
  • Florida State Road A1A
    Florida State Road A1A
    State Road A1A is a Florida State Road that runs mostly along the Atlantic Ocean, with sections from Key West at the southern tip of Florida, to Callahan, just south of Georgia. It is the main road through most oceanfront towns. SR A1A is designated the A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway, a...

     runs north-south.
  • Florida State Road 16 runs east-west
  • Florida State Road 207 runs northeast to southwest
  • Florida State Road 312 runs east-west

Buses

Bus service is operated by the Sunshine Bus Company. Buses operate mainly between shopping centers across town, but a few go to Hastings and Jacksonville, where one can connect to JTA
Jacksonville Transportation Authority
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is the independent agency responsible for public transit in the city of Jacksonville, Florida, and roadway infrastructure that connects northeast Florida. However, they do not maintain any roadways.-History:...

 for additional service across Jacksonville.

Airport

St. Augustine has one public airport 5 miles (8 km) north of town. It has 5 runways (2 of them water for sea planes), and was once served by Skybus
Skybus Airlines
Skybus Airlines Inc. was a privately held airline based in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It operated as an ultra-low-cost carrier modeled after the European airline Ryanair, and aimed to be the least expensive airline in the United States...

, however Skybus ceased operations as of April 4, 2008. Only private flights and tour helicopters use it today.

Points of interest

Spanish Eras
  • Avero House
    Avero House
    The Avero House, also known as the Site of Minorcan Chapel or the St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, is a historic home in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. It is located at 41 St. George Street. On June 13, 1972, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.The St...

  • Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
    Castillo de San Marcos
    The Castillo de San Marcos site is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. It is located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. Construction was begun in 1672 by the Spanish when Florida was a Spanish territory. During the twenty year period of British possession from 1763 until 1784, the...

  • Fort Matanzas National Monument
    Fort Matanzas National Monument
    Commemorated in 1924, Fort Matanzas National Monument is a United States National Monument run by the National Park Service. The Monument consists of a 1740 Spanish fort, Fort Matanzas, and about 100 acres of salt marsh and barrier islands along the Matanzas River on the northern Atlantic coast...

  • Fort Mose Historic State Park
    Fort Mose Historic State Park
    Fort Mose Historic State Park is a U.S. National Historic Landmark , located two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida, on the eastern edge of a marsh. It is also a Florida State Park...

  • Nombre de Dios
    Nombre de Dios (mission)
    Nombre de Dios is a Spanish Catholic mission in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. The mission traces its origins to September 1565, when Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the city of St. Augustine. A formal Franciscan mission was founded near the city in 1587, perhaps the first mission...

  • Gonzalez-Alvarez House
    Gonzalez-Alvarez House
    The Gonzalez-Alvarez House, also known as The Oldest House, is a historic home in St. Augustine, Florida. It is located at 14 St. Francis Street. On April 15, 1970, it was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark....

  • Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
    Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
    The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is a privately owned park in St. Augustine, Florida, located along Hospital Creek, part of the Intracoastal Waterway. It is touted as being the original landing site in Florida in 1513, of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, however recent historical research...

  • The Spanish Military Hospital Museum
    The Spanish Military Hospital Museum
    The Spanish Military Hospital Museum is located at 3 Aviles Street, St. Augustine, Florida. The museum consists of a reconstruction of a military hospital that stood on the site during the Second Colonial Spanish Period from 1784-1821. The museum showcases areas of military hospital life in 1791...

  • St. Francis Barracks
    St. Francis Barracks
    St. Francis Barracks is a historic structure constructed of coquina stone located on Marine Street in St. Augustine, Florida named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. The barracks were constructed between 1724 - 1755 by monks of the Order of St...

  • Spanish Quarter Village
  • Ximenez-Fatio House
    Ximenez-Fatio House
    The Ximenez-Fatio House is a historic property representing a boarding house from the Florida Territory period. The museum is located at 20 Aviles Street in St. Augustine, Florida. It is owned by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in The State of Florida. On July 25, 1973, it was...

  • Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse
    Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse
    The Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse is a wooden structure located at 14 St. George Street in St. Augustine, Florida near the city gate. It is touted as being the oldest wooden school building in the United States. The exact date of construction is unknown, but it first appears on tax records in 1716....

  • Tolomato Cemetery
    Tolomato Cemetery
    Tolomato Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located on Cordova Street in St. Augustine, Florida. The cemetery was the former site of "Tolomato", a village of Guale Indian converts to Christianity and the Franciscan monks who ministered to them. The site of the village and Franciscan mission was is...

     and Huguenot Cemetery
    Huguenot Cemetery
    The Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida located across from the historic City Gate was a Protestant burial ground between the years 1821 and 1884. The Spanish colonial city of St. Augustine, along with the entire Florida Territory became defacto American possessions after the 1819 signing...


British Era
  • The King's Bakery
    The King's Bakery
    The King's Bakery is a coquina stone structure in St. Augustine, Florida built during the British colonial period in Florida . The building located on Marine Street, with the rear facing Matanzas Bay, was constructed to supply bread to the British troops quartered across the street at the St...


Pre-Flagler Era
  • St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum
    St. Augustine Light
    The St. Augustine Light is an active lighthouse on the north end of Anastasia Island, within the current city limits of St. Augustine, Florida. The tower, built in 1874, is owned by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, Inc. , a not-for-profit maritime museum and private aid-to-navigation...

  • Markland Mansion
    Markland (St. Augustine, Florida)
    Markland is a historic mansion in St. Augustine, Florida. Construction on the original part of the coquina shellstone mansion was begun by New York doctor Andrew Anderson Sr. in 1839 just prior to his death in a yellow fever epidemic. Anderson had first arrived in St...


Flagler Era
  • Ponce de León Hotel
    Ponce de León Hotel
    The Ponce de León Hotel was an exclusive hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and completed in 1888. The Hotel Ponce de Leon was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style by the New York architects John Carrere and Thomas...

  • Casa Monica Hotel
    Casa Monica Hotel
    hThe Casa Monica Hotel is a historic hotel located in St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States. The Casa Monica Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in the United States and is a member of the "" National Trust.-History:...

  • Hotel Alcazar
    Lightner Museum
    The Lightner Museum is a museum of antiquities, mostly American Victorian, housed within a historic hotel building in downtown St. Augustine, Florida, USA. The building, in a Spanish Renaissance Revival style, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.The museum occupies three...

  • Zorayda Castle
    Villa Zorayda
    Villa Zorayda at 83 King Street in St. Augustine, Florida was inspired by the 12th-century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. It was built by the eccentric Boston millionaire Franklin W. Smith in 1883 as his private home in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. On September 23, 1993, it...

  • Bridge of Lions
    Bridge of Lions
    The Bridge of Lions is a bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. A pair of Medici lions made of marble guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927 across Matanzas Bay...

  • Old St. Johns County Jail
    Old St. Johns County Jail
    The Old Jail is a historic jail in St. Augustine, Florida. It is located at 167 San Marco Avenue. On August 27, 1987, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The St...

  • Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum located in 1887 mansion of William Worden.
  • Alligator Farm
    St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park
    The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park is one of Florida's oldest continuously running attractions, having opened on May 20, 1893. Not only does it have over 20 species of crocodilians, but also a variety of other reptiles, mammals, and birds, as well as exhibits, animal performances and...

  • J & S Carousel

Historic Churches
  • Grace United Methodist Church
    Grace United Methodist Church (St. Augustine, Florida)
    The Grace United Methodist Church is a historic church which Henry Flagler had constructed in St. Augustine, Florida. It is located at 8 Carrera Street. Built within a one year span , it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979.-References and external links:*...

  • Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine
    Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine
    The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is a historic cathedral in St. Augustine, Florida and the seat of the Catholic Bishop of St. Augustine. It is located at Cathedral Street between Charlotte and St. George Streets. Constructed over five years , it was designated a U.S...

  • Memorial Presbyterian Church
    Memorial Presbyterian Church
    The Memorial Presbyterian Church is an historic church located a 36 Valencia Street in St. Augustine, Florida. The church was built in 1889 by business tycoon and St...

  • Trinity Church of St. Augustine
    Trinity Parish (St. Augustine, Florida)
    Trinity Parish is an historic Episcopal Church at the corner of King and Saint George streets in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. It is the oldest Protestant church in Florida and has some of the oldest and most beautiful stained glass windows in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida.-History:The parish...


Lincolnville National Historic District
Lincolnville Historic District
The Lincolnville Historic District covering the southwest peninsula of the "nation's oldest city," is a U.S. Historic District located in St. Augustine, Florida. The district is bounded by Cedar, Riberia, Cerro and Washington Streets and DeSoto Place...

 – Civil Rights Era
  • Freedom Trail of Historic Sites of the Civil Rights Movement
  • Excelsior School Museum of African American History
  • St. Benedict the Moor School
    St. Benedict the Moor School
    St. Benedict the Moor School, located at 86 Martin Luther King Avenue in the Linconville National Historic District of St. Augustine, Florida was an all black Catholic school built in 1898...



Other
  • Anastasia State Park
    Anastasia State Park
    Anastasia State Recreation Area is a Florida State Park located on a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay from downtown St. Augustine...

  • Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
    Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
    The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is a state-supported boarding school for deaf and blind children established in 1885, in St. Augustine, Florida, USA.-History:...

  • St. Augustine Amphitheatre
    St. Augustine Amphitheatre
    The St. Augustine Amphitheatre is a venue for outdoor concerts and other large gatherings on A1A in St Augustine, Florida, United States. The Amphitheatre seats 3,493 persons, and is managed by the St. Johns County Parks & Recreation department.-History:...

  • World Golf Hall of Fame
    World Golf Hall of Fame
    The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site serves both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 golf organizations from all over the world.The Hall of...



Sister cities

Avilés
Avilés
Avilés is a city in Asturias, Spain. Avilés is with Oviedo and Gijón, one of the main towns in the Principality of Asturias.The town occupies the flattest land in the municipality, in a land that belonged to the sea, surrounded by small promontories, all of them having an altitude of less than...

, Spain Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

 Island of Menorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....

, Spain Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

, Dominican Republic

Education

Primary and secondary
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 education in St. Augustine is overseen by the St. Johns County School District
St. Johns County School District
St. Johns County School District is the public school district for St. Johns County, Florida. St. Johns County is home to three of the nation's best high schools according to Newsweek Magazine in 2008 .-History:*1866 - St...

. There are no county high schools located within St. Augustine's current city limits, but St. Augustine High School
St. Augustine High School
St. Augustine High School is a private Catholic high school for young men under the direction of the Order of Saint Augustine located in the North Park district of San Diego, California and founded in 1922. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.Named after Saint Augustine of...

, Pedro Menendez High School
Pedro Menendez High School
Pedro Menendez High School is a public high school in the St. Johns County School District, located in southern St. Johns County, Florida . It was named for Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, a sixteenth century Spanish admiral and pirate hunter who founded St...

, and St. Johns Technical High School
St. Johns Technical High School
St. Johns Technical High School is a public high school located in St. Augustine, Florida. "St. Johns Technical High School serves the district as a “School of Choice"...

 are located in the vicinity. The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is a state-supported boarding school for deaf and blind children established in 1885, in St. Augustine, Florida, USA.-History:...

, a state-operated boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 for deaf and blind
Blind
Blind may refer to:* The state of blindness, being unable to see* A window blind, a covering for a windowBlind may also refer to:-Electronics, engineering, and science:...

 students, was founded in the city in 1885. The Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine operates the St. Joseph Academy
St. Joseph Academy (St. Augustine, Florida)
St. Joseph Academy Catholic High School is a private Catholic high school in St. Augustine, Florida. It is located in and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. The oldest Catholic high school in Florida, it was founded in 1866....

, Florida's oldest Catholic high school
Catholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...

, to the west of the city.

There are several institutions of higher education in and around St. Augustine. Flagler College
Flagler College
Flagler College, is a private four-year liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida, USA and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008.The college has been named in recent years by US News & World Report as one of the southeast region's best comprehensive liberal arts colleges, and is included on...

 is a four-year liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...

 founded in 1968. It is located in the former Ponce de León Hotel
Ponce de León Hotel
The Ponce de León Hotel was an exclusive hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and completed in 1888. The Hotel Ponce de Leon was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style by the New York architects John Carrere and Thomas...

 in downtown St. Augustine. St. Johns River State College, a state college in the Florida College System, has its St. Augustine campus just west of the city. Also in the area are the University of North Florida
University of North Florida
The University of North Florida is a public university located in Jacksonville, Florida. A member institution of the State University System of Florida, the university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, master’s...

, Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida, on the banks of the St. Johns River. The school was founded in 1934 as a two year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until 1958, when it shifted its focus to four-year university degrees and adopted its...

, and Florida State College at Jacksonville in Jacksonville.

The institution now known as Florida Memorial University
Florida Memorial University
Florida Memorial University is a private coeducational four-year university in Miami Gardens, Florida. One of the 39 member institutions of the United Negro College Fund, and a historically Black, Baptist-related institution which is ranked second in Florida and ninth in the United States for...

 was located in St. Augustine from 1918 to 1968, when it relocated to its present campus in Miami. Originally known as Florida Baptist Academy, then Florida Normal, and then Florida Memorial College, it was a historically black institution and had a wide impact on St. Augustine while it was located there. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 it was chosen as the site for training the first blacks in the U. S. Signal Corps
Signal Corps
The Signal Corps is a military branch, usually subordinate to a country's army, responsible for the military communications .Many countries have a Signal Corps, whose main function is usually communication .* Arma de Comunicaciones, signals branch of the Argentine Army* Arma delle...

. Among its faculty members was Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...

; a historic marker is placed at the house where she lived while teaching at Florida Memorial (and where she wrote her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road.)

Notable residents

  • Jim Albrecht
    Jim Albrecht
    Jim Albrecht , is best known as the longtime tournament director of the World Series of Poker....

    , poker tournament director and commentator
  • Andrew Anderson
    Andrew Anderson (St. Augustine, Florida)
    Dr. Andrew Anderson II was a physician, philanthropist, mayor and benefactor of St. Augustine, Florida. Anderson commissioned multiple works of art to adorn a variety of public spaces in the City of St...

    , doctor, former St. Augustine mayor
  • Murray Armstrong
    Murray Armstrong
    Murray Alexander Armstrong was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and NCAA hockey coach.-Playing career:...

    , hockey coach
  • Jorge Biassou, Haitian revolutionary, and America's first black general
  • Richard Boone
    Richard Boone
    Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...

    , actor
  • James Branch Cabell
    James Branch Cabell
    James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...

    , novelist
  • Doug Carn
    Doug Carn
    Doug Carn is an American jazz musician from St. Augustine, Florida, formerly married to Jean Carne and known for his several albums released for Black Jazz Records....

    , jazz musician
  • Cris Carpenter
    Cris Carpenter
    Cris Howell Carpenter is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He is an alumnus of the University of Georgia....

    , baseball player
  • Ray Charles
    Ray Charles
    Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

    , pianist
  • Earl Cunningham
    Earl Cunningham
    Earl Cunningham was a Twentieth century American Folk artist. Cunnigham was a self-taught artist who painted mostly landscapes of the coasts of Maine, New York, Nova Scotia, Michigan, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He used vivid colors, flat perspective, and a few recurrent themes...

    , artist
  • Alexander Darnes
    Alexander Darnes
    Alexander H. Darnes was an African American born into slavery in the city of St. Augustine, Florida who became one of the first black physicians in the state of Florida...

    , born a slave, became a celebrated physician
  • Edmund Jackson Davis, governor
  • Frederick Delius
    Frederick Delius
    Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...

    , composer
  • Stephen Farrelly, pro wrestler
  • Henry Flagler, industrialist
  • Tom Gabel
    Tom Gabel
    Thomas James "Tom" Gabel is the lead vocalist, songwriter, and a guitarist for Gainesville, Florida punk rock band Against Me!, as well as a solo artist. He was born on Fort Benning, Georgia a US Army post, where his father was stationed. At age 17, he dropped out of high school and formed Against...

    , singer
  • Willie Galimore
    Willie Galimore
    Willie Galimore was an American football running back for the Chicago Bears from 1957-1963. He attended Florida A&M University, working with the legendary coach Jake Gaither...

    , football player
  • Michael Gannon
    Michael Gannon
    Michael Gannon may refer to:*Michael Gannon , U.S. naval historian*Michael Gannon , provided voices for Quake 4 and The Incredible Hulk*Mickey Gannon, fictional character in the Australian TV series Neighbours...

    , historian
  • William H. Gray, U. S. congressman and president of the United Negro College Fund
  • Martin Johnson Heade
    Martin Johnson Heade
    Martin Johnson Heade was a prolific American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, portraits of tropical birds, and still lifes...

    , artist
  • Louise Homer
    Louise Homer
    Louise Homer was an American operatic contralto who had an active international career in concert halls and opera houses from 1895 until her retirement in 1932. After a brief stint as a vaudeville entertainer in New England, she made her professional opera debut in France in 1898...

    , opera star
  • Sidney Homer
    Sidney Homer
    Sidney Homer was a classical composer, primarily of songs.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in 1864 , he was the youngest child of deaf parents. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, in the Class of 1884, but did not attend college. He married contralto Louise Dilworth Beatty in 1895...

    , composer
  • Jack D. Hunter
    Jack D. Hunter
    Jack D. Hunter was an American author and artist, best known for his novel, The Blue Max, which was made into a film of the same name, The Blue Max.-Biography:...

    , novelist, author of The Blue Max
  • Zora Neale Hurston
    Zora Neale Hurston
    Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...

    , novelist and folklorist
  • Lindy Infante
    Lindy Infante
    Gelindo "Lindy" Infante is a former American college football player and assistant coach, who became an offensive coordinator and head coach in both the National Football League and the United States Football League...

    , professional (American) football coach
  • Willie Irvin
    Willie Irvin
    Willie James Irvin was an American football defensive back in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles....

    , pro (American) football player
  • Stetson Kennedy
    Stetson Kennedy
    William Stetson Kennedy was an American author and human rights activist. One of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the twentieth century, he is remembered for having infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, exposing its secrets to authorities and the outside world...

    , author
  • Jack Temple Kirby, historian
  • Scott Lagasse Jr.
    Scott Lagasse Jr.
    Scott Lagasse Jr. is a race car driver on the NASCAR Nationwide Series circuit. He currently drives the #43 Ford for Baker Curb Racing. He is the son of former Sports Car & NASCAR driver Scott Lagasse Sr.. Lagasse Jr is a former member of Chip Ganassi Racing driver development program...

    , race car driver
  • Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...

    , artist
  • John C. Lilly
    John C. Lilly
    John Cunningham Lilly was an American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, psychonaut, philosopher and writer....

    , dolphin scientist
  • William W. Loring
    William W. Loring
    William Wing Loring was a soldier from North Carolina who served in the armies of the United States, the Confederacy, and Egypt.-Early life:...

    , Confederate general
  • Mary MacLane
    Mary MacLane
    Mary MacLane was a controversial Canadian-born American writer whose frank memoirs helped usher in the confessional style of autobiographical writing...

    , author
  • Albert Manucy
    Albert Manucy
    Albert C. Manucy was an author, historian and a Fulbright Scholar of Minorcan descent, from St. Augustine, Florida.Manucy is a descendant of Josef Manucy, who sailed in 1768 from the city of Mahón to work on Andrew Turnbull's plantation in what was to be the failed colony of New Symrna...

    , historian, author, Fulbright Scholar
  • George McGovern
    George McGovern
    George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....

    , U.S. Senator, presidential candidate
  • Howell W. Melton
    Howell W. Melton
    Howell Webster Melton, Sr. is an American lawyer and United States federal judge. He currently serves on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida....

    , United States district judge
  • Howell W. Melton Jr.
    Howell W. Melton Jr.
    Howell W. Melton Jr. was the Managing Partner for Holland & Knight, a global law firm with more than 1,150 lawyers in 17 U.S. offices. Melton was born in St. Augustine, Florida. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree and Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida.His father, Howell W...

    , attorney, law firm managing partner
  • Johnny Mize
    Johnny Mize
    John Robert "Johnny" Mize was a baseball player who was a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and New York Yankees...

    , Hall of Fame baseball player
  • Prince Achille Murat
    Prince Achille Murat
    Achille Charles Louis Napoléon, Crown Prince of Naples, Hereditary Prince of Berg, 2nd Prince Murat was the eldest son of the King of Naples during the First French Empire and later in life mayor of Tallahassee, Florida in the United States.-Early life:Murat was born in the Hôtel de Brienne in...

    , nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte
  • David Nolan
    David Nolan (author)
    David Nolan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1946, the son of journalist Joseph T. Nolan and his artist wife Virginia.He attended the public schools in Bayside, New York and Waterbury, Connecticut, studied at the University of Virginia, and was active in the American Civil Rights Movement of...

    , author and historian
  • Osceola
    Osceola
    Osceola, also known as Billy Powell , became an influential leader with the Seminole in Florida. He was of Creek, Scots-Irish and English parentage, and had migrated to Florida with his mother after the defeat of the Creek in 1814.Osceola led a small band of warriors in the Seminole resistance...

    , Seminole War leader (held prisoner at Fort Marion, now Castillo de San Marcos
    Castillo de San Marcos
    The Castillo de San Marcos site is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. It is located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. Construction was begun in 1672 by the Spanish when Florida was a Spanish territory. During the twenty year period of British possession from 1763 until 1784, the...

    )
  • Tom Petty
    Tom Petty
    Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...

    , rock musician
  • Scott Player
    Scott Player
    Scott Darwin Player is an American football punter who is currently a free agent. He was signed by the Birmingham Barracudas as a street free agent in 1995...

    , pro (American) football punter
  • Richard Henry Pratt
    Richard Henry Pratt
    Richard Henry Pratt is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.-Military career:...

    , soldier and educator
  • Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
    Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
    Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie, also known as The...

    , novelist
  • Marcus Roberts
    Marcus Roberts
    Marcus Roberts is an American jazz pianist who has achieved fame as a stride pianist committed to celebrating classic standards and jazz traditions. Roberts has also distinguished his solos by accompanying himself with walking basslines...

    , musician
  • Gamble Rogers, folksinger
  • John M. Schofield, Union general
  • Steven L. Sears
    Steven L. Sears
    Steven Lee Sears is an American writer and producer primarily working in television. He is perhaps best known for writing and co-executive producing the popular series Xena: Warrior Princess, as well as his subsequent creation Sheena, based on the comic book of the same name.While he initially...

    , television writer/producer
  • Brianne Sloan, novelist, columnist
  • Edmund Kirby Smith
    Edmund Kirby Smith
    Edmund Kirby Smith was a career United States Army officer and educator. He served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, notable for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy after the fall of Vicksburg.After the conflict ended Smith...

    , Confederate general
  • Steve Spurrier
    Steve Spurrier
    Stephen Orr Spurrier is an American college football coach and player. Spurrier is the current head coach of the University of South Carolina's Gamecocks football team. He is also a former professional player and coach...

    , college/pro (American) football coach
  • Peter Taylor
    Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor
    For other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer.-Biography:...

    , novelist
  • Tim Tebow
    Tim Tebow
    Timothy Richard "Tim" Tebow is an American football player who is currently the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He was drafted by the Broncos as the 25th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft...

    , NFL football player, Denver Broncos
    Denver Broncos
    The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

  • Travis Tomko
    Travis Tomko
    Travis David Tomko is an American professional wrestler, known by his ring name Tomko, who most recently worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he previously was a member of Christian's Coalition and the Angle Alliance and often worked alongside A.J. Styles. He was also notable for his...

    , pro wrestler
  • Felix Varela
    Félix Varela
    Félix Varela y Morales was a notable figure in the Roman Catholic Church in both Cuba and the United States.-Life:Varela was born in Havana, Cuba and died in St. Augustine, Florida, United States...

    , Cuban national hero
  • Augustin Verot
    Augustin Verot
    Bishop Augustin Verot was the third Bishop of Diocese of Savannah, and the first Bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine....

    , first Bishop of St. Augustine
  • David Levy Yulee
    David Levy Yulee
    David Levy Yulee, born David Levy was an American politician and attorney from Florida, a territorial delegate to Congress, the first Jewish member of the United States Senate, and a member of the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War...

    , first Jewish U.S. Senator, Levy County and Yulee, Florida
    Yulee, Florida
    Yulee is a census-designated place in Nassau County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,392 at the 2000 census. The city was named for David Levy Yulee, Senator from Florida.-Geography:Yulee is located at ....

     namesake
  • DeWitt Webb
    DeWitt Webb
    Dr. DeWitt Webb was a physician, amateur naturalist, and the founder of the St. Augustine Historical Society and Institute of Science. He was the president of the society for 34 years. Webb was a member of the Florida State Legislature and the mayor of the town of St...

    , physician, former St. Augustine mayor, State representative

Additional reading

  • Abbad y Lasierra, Iñigo, "Relación del descubrimiento, conquista y población de las provincias y costas de la Florida" – "Relación de La Florida" (1785); edición de Juan José Nieto Callén y José María Sánchez Molledo.
  • Colburn, David, Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 1877–1980 (1985), New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Deagan, Kathleen, Fort Mose: Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom (1995), Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  • Fairbanks, George R. (George Rainsford), History and antiquities of St. Augustine, Florida (1881), Jacksonville, Florida, H. Drew.
  • Gannon, Michael V., The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida 1513–1870 (1965), Gainesville: University Presses of Florida.
  • Graham, Thomas, The Awakening of St. Augustine, (1978), St. Augustine Historical Society
  • Hanna, A. J., A Prince in Their Midst, (1946), Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Harvey, Karen, America's First City, (1992), Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Tailored Tours Publications.
  • Harvey, Karen, St. Augustine Enters the Twenty-first Century, (2010), Virginia Beach, VA: The Donning Company.
  • Landers, Jane, Black Society in Spanish Florida (1999), Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  • Lardner, Ring, Gullible's Travels, (1925), New York: Scribner's.
  • Lyon, Eugene, The Enterprise of Florida, (1976), Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  • Manucy, Albert, Menendez, (1983), St. Augustine Historical Society.
  • McCarthy, Kevin (editor), The Book Lover's Guide to Florida, (1992), Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press.
  • Nolan, David, Fifty Feet in Paradise: The Booming of Florida, (1984), New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Nolan, David, The Houses of St. Augustine, (1995), Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press.
  • Porter, Kenneth W., The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People, (1996), Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  • Reynolds, Charles B. (Charles Bingham), Old Saint Augustine, a story of three centuries, (1893), St. Augustine, Florida E. H. Reynolds.
  • Torchia, Robert W., Lost Colony: The Artists of St. Augustine, 1930-1950, (2001), St. Augustine: The Lightner Museum.
  • Turner, Glennette Tilley, Fort Mose, (2010), New York: Abrams Books.
  • United States Commission on Civil Rights, 1965. Law Enforcement: A Report on Equal Protection in the South. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
  • Warren, Dan R., If It Takes All Summer: Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964, (2008), Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
  • Waterbury, Jean Parker (editor), The Oldest City, (1983), St. Augustine Historical Society.

Images

  • Freedom Trail information about the civil rights movement in St. Augustine and the Freedom Trail that marks its sites.
  • St. Augustine Pics Daily pictures of St. Augustine, Florida.
  • Twine Collection Over 100 images of the St. Augustine community of Lincolnville between 1922 and 1927. From the State Library & Archives of Florida.

External links

Government resources

Local news media

Historical

Higher education
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