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On September 8, 1565, the first permanent European settlement in the United States was founded at St. Augustine, Florida. From the article:
"HISTORY & CULTURE
St. Augustine History and Culture
From Spanish colony to British rule to statehood, St. Augustine’s long history and varied cultural influences are evident in its streets, buildings and the people who call it home.
King Phillip II of Spain named Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Spain’s most experienced admiral, Governor of Florida, and instructed him to explore and to colonize the territory. When Menendez arrived off the coast of Florida, it was August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine. Eleven days later, he and his 600 soldiers and settlers came ashore at the site of the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy with banners flying and trumpets sounding. He hastily fortified the fledgling village and named it St. Augustine.
Utilizing brilliant military maneuvers, Menendez destroyed the French garrison on the St. Johns River and, with the help of a hurricane, also defeated the French fleet. With the coast of Florida firmly in Spanish hands, he then set to work building the town, establishing missions to the Indians for the Church, and exploring the land.
Thus, St. Augustine was founded forty-two years before the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts – making it the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent.
From Spanish colony to British rule to statehood, St. Augustine’s long history and varied cultural influences are evident in its streets, buildings and the people who call it home. St. Augustine’s historic sites and museums are great places to learn more about the history and culture of this unique city.
Historic Sites
St. Augustine wouldn’t be the nation’s oldest continually occupied European settlement without many of the historical landmarks that tell of the city’s storied past. From Native Americans, Spanish settlers, British soldiers and the occasional pirate to 18th century dilettantes, tycoons and eccentric millionaires, St. Augustine has been home to a wide range of cultures, which are still preserved through the city’s historical sites.
Our oldest relics date back to the 1500’s when Pedro Menendez de Aviles established America’s oldest city at the Mission de Nombre de Dios. The grand coquina fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, and the historic city gates serve as an imposing reminder of the Spanish Empire who once ruled these cobblestone streets.
In the 1800’s St. Augustine began its renaissance with the arrival of Henry Flagler. The railroad tycoon constructed several decadent hotels including the Flagler Hotel (now Flagler College), the Alcazar Hotel (now the Lightner Museum and City of St. Augustine offices) and the Casa Monica (recently restored and returned to its roots as a beautiful hotel).
Strolling around the downtown historic district, you will find that discerning the true historic sites from the gorgeous town around them is both a fun and educational challenge. Come discover four centuries of Floridian and American history.
Museums
Informative, fun and extremely eclectic, St. Augustine museums are some of the best the state has to offer. The Lightner Museum, housed inside one of Henry Flagler’s former hotels, offers a wide variety of artifacts including an ancient mummy and a stuffed lion that once belonged to Winston Churchill. Nearby, the very first Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum is located inside the historic Castle Warden. First built as a private residence, the building was remodeled during the WWII era and turned into hotel where famed author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings once kept an apartment.
Touring these museums, you will find that it’s hard to pinpoint what’s more impressive—the collections and artifacts on display or the historic buildings themselves. Either way, both are worth the visit!"
"HISTORY & CULTURE
St. Augustine History and Culture
From Spanish colony to British rule to statehood, St. Augustine’s long history and varied cultural influences are evident in its streets, buildings and the people who call it home.
King Phillip II of Spain named Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Spain’s most experienced admiral, Governor of Florida, and instructed him to explore and to colonize the territory. When Menendez arrived off the coast of Florida, it was August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine. Eleven days later, he and his 600 soldiers and settlers came ashore at the site of the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy with banners flying and trumpets sounding. He hastily fortified the fledgling village and named it St. Augustine.
Utilizing brilliant military maneuvers, Menendez destroyed the French garrison on the St. Johns River and, with the help of a hurricane, also defeated the French fleet. With the coast of Florida firmly in Spanish hands, he then set to work building the town, establishing missions to the Indians for the Church, and exploring the land.
Thus, St. Augustine was founded forty-two years before the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts – making it the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent.
From Spanish colony to British rule to statehood, St. Augustine’s long history and varied cultural influences are evident in its streets, buildings and the people who call it home. St. Augustine’s historic sites and museums are great places to learn more about the history and culture of this unique city.
Historic Sites
St. Augustine wouldn’t be the nation’s oldest continually occupied European settlement without many of the historical landmarks that tell of the city’s storied past. From Native Americans, Spanish settlers, British soldiers and the occasional pirate to 18th century dilettantes, tycoons and eccentric millionaires, St. Augustine has been home to a wide range of cultures, which are still preserved through the city’s historical sites.
Our oldest relics date back to the 1500’s when Pedro Menendez de Aviles established America’s oldest city at the Mission de Nombre de Dios. The grand coquina fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, and the historic city gates serve as an imposing reminder of the Spanish Empire who once ruled these cobblestone streets.
In the 1800’s St. Augustine began its renaissance with the arrival of Henry Flagler. The railroad tycoon constructed several decadent hotels including the Flagler Hotel (now Flagler College), the Alcazar Hotel (now the Lightner Museum and City of St. Augustine offices) and the Casa Monica (recently restored and returned to its roots as a beautiful hotel).
Strolling around the downtown historic district, you will find that discerning the true historic sites from the gorgeous town around them is both a fun and educational challenge. Come discover four centuries of Floridian and American history.
Museums
Informative, fun and extremely eclectic, St. Augustine museums are some of the best the state has to offer. The Lightner Museum, housed inside one of Henry Flagler’s former hotels, offers a wide variety of artifacts including an ancient mummy and a stuffed lion that once belonged to Winston Churchill. Nearby, the very first Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum is located inside the historic Castle Warden. First built as a private residence, the building was remodeled during the WWII era and turned into hotel where famed author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings once kept an apartment.
Touring these museums, you will find that it’s hard to pinpoint what’s more impressive—the collections and artifacts on display or the historic buildings themselves. Either way, both are worth the visit!"
St. Augustine, Florida | OldCity.com
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The Legacy of St. Augustine: Myth, History & the Story of America's Oldest City
J. Michael Francis discussed the Spanish founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and its long and varied cultural heritage. Speaker Biography: J. Michael Francis...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on September 8, 1565, the first permanent European settlement in the United States was founded at St. Augustine, Florida.
The Legacy of St. Augustine: Myth, History & the Story of America's Oldest City
"J. Michael Francis discussed the Spanish founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and its long and varied cultural heritage."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwmFDWXz1eI
Images
1. Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the Spanish Explorer who founded St. Augustine in 1565
2. The Castillo de San Marcos, constructed to protect St. Augustine in 1672, is the oldest masonry fort in America.
3. Plan of the Town of St. Augustine, the capital of East Florida, 1777
4. Gonzalez Alvarez House, St. Augustine, Florida USA The Oldest house
Background from {[https://www.citystaug.com/693/Our-History]}
Our History
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spanish established at St. Augustine this nation's first enduring settlement.
Architecture
The architectural legacy of the city's past is much younger, testimony to the impermanent quality of the earliest structures and to St. Augustine's troubled history. Only the venerable Castillo de San Marcos, completed in the late seventeenth century, survived destruction of the city by invading British forces in 1702.
Vestiges of the First Spanish Colonial Period (1565 to 1764) remain today in St. Augustine in the form of the town plan originally laid out by Governor Gonzalo Méndez de Canzo in the late sixteenth century and in the narrow streets and balconied houses that are identified with the architecture introduced by settlers from Spain. Throughout the modern city and within its Historic Colonial District, there remain thirty-six buildings of colonial origin and another forty that are reconstructed models of colonial buildings.
St. Augustine can boast that it contains the only urban nucleus in the United States whose street pattern and architectural ambiance reflect Spanish origins.
Discovery of Florida
Historians credit Juan Ponce de Leon, the first governor of the Island of Puerto Rico, with the discovery of Florida in 1513. While on an exploratory trip in search of the fabled Bimini he sighted the eastern coast of Florida on Easter Sunday, which fell on March 27 that year. Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for the Spanish Crown and named it Florida after the Easter season, known in Spanish as Pascua Florida. This newly claimed territory extended north and west to encompass most of the known lands of the North American continent that had not been claimed by the Spanish in New Spain (Mexico and the Southwest).
Settlement
In the following half century, the government of Spain launched no less than six expeditions attempting to settle Florida; all failed. In 1564 French Huguenots (Protestants) succeeded in establishing a fort and colony near the mouth of the St. Johns River at what is today Jacksonville. This settlement posed a threat to the Spanish fleets that sailed the Gulf Stream beside the east coast of Florida, carrying treasure from Central and South America to Spain. As Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was assembling a fleet for an expedition to Florida, the French intrusion upon lands claimed by Spain was discovered. King Philip II instructed Menéndez, Spain's most capable admiral, to remove the French menace to Spain's interests.
Naming St. Augustine
On September 8, 1565, with much pomp and circumstance and 600 voyagers cheering, Menéndez set foot on the shores of Florida. In honor of the saint whose feast day fell on the day he first sighted land, Menéndez named the colonial settlement St. Augustine. Menéndez quickly and diligently carried out his king's instructions. With brilliant military maneuvering and good fortune, he removed the French garrison and proceeded to consolidate Spain's authority on the northeast coast of Florida. St. Augustine was to serve two purposes: as a military outpost, or Presidio, for the defense of Florida, and a base for Catholic missionary settlements throughout the southeastern part of North America.
Military Colony
Maintaining St. Augustine as a permanent military colony, however, was a mighty task. Without the courage, perseverance, and tenacity of the early settlers, it is doubtful that the community would have survived.
English pirates and corsairs pillaged and burned the town on several occasions in the next century. Clashes between the Spaniards and the British became more frequent when the English colonies were established in the Carolinas, and later, in Georgia. As a consequence, the Spanish moved to strengthen their defenses, beginning in 1672 construction of a permanent stone fortress. The Castillo de San Marcos was brought to completion late in the century, just in time to meet an attack by British forces from the Carolinas in 1702. Unable to take the fort after a two-month siege, the British troops burned the town and retreated.
Underground Railroad
British attacks continued, however. Plantation and slave owners in the English colonies resented the sanctuary that Spanish Florida afforded escaped slaves who successfully made their way to St. Augustine, which became a focal point for the first Underground Railroad. There, escaped slaves were given their freedom by the Spanish Governor if they declared allegiance to the King of Spain and embraced the Catholic religion. In 1738 the first legally sanctioned free community of former slaves, Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, was established as part of the presidio’s northern defenses.
In 1740, an even stronger attack on St. Augustine was mounted by the Governor of the British colony of Georgia, General James Oglethorpe. He also failed to take the fort.
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris in 1763, ending the French and Indian War, gave Florida and St. Augustine to the British, accomplishing by the stroke of a pen what pitched battles had failed to do. St. Augustine came under British rule for the first time and served as a Loyalist (pro-British) colony during the American Revolutionary War. A second Treaty of Paris (1783), which gave America's colonies north of Florida their independence, returned Florida to Spain, a reward for Spanish assistance to the Americans in their war against England.
Upon their return, the Spanish in 1784 found that St. Augustine had changed. Settlers from a failed colony in New Smyrna (south of St. Augustine) had moved to St. Augustine in 1777. This group, known collectively as Minorcans, included settlers from the western Mediterranean island of Minorca. Their presence in St. Augustine forever changed the ethnic composition of the town.
Second Spanish Period
During what is called by historians the Second Spanish Period (1784 to 1821), Spain suffered the Napoleonic invasions at home and struggled to retain its colonies in the western hemisphere. Florida no longer held its past importance to Spain. The expanding United States, however, regarded the Florida peninsula as vital to its interests. It was a matter of time before the Americans devised a way to acquire Florida. The Adams-Onîs Treaty, negotiated in 1819 and concluded in 1821, peaceably turned over the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida and, with them, St. Augustine, to the United States.
Florida Becomes a State
For the next twenty-four years, East Florida and with it St. Augustine remained a territorial possession of the United States. Not until 1845 was Florida accepted into the union as a state. The Territorial Period (1821-1845) was marked by an intense war with native Indians, the so-called Second Seminole War (1835-1842). The United States Army took over the Castillo de San Marcos and renamed it Fort Marion.
Civil War
In 1861, the Civil War began. Florida joined the Confederacy, but Union troops loyal to the United States Government quickly occupied St. Augustine and remained in control of the city throughout the four-year long war. St. Augustine was thus one of the few places in the United States where Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1862, actually freed any slaves. After the war, land was leased to freed slaves on what was then the west bank of Maria Sanchez Creek. Initially called Africa, the settlement later became Lincolnville and is today listed in the National Register of Historic Places, along with three other historic districts in the city.
Vacation Town
Twenty years after the end of the Civil War, St. Augustine entered its most glittering era. Following a visit to the crumbling old Spanish town, Henry Flagler, a former partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company, decided to create in St. Augustine a winter resort for wealthy Americans. He owned a railroad company that in 1886 linked St. Augustine by rail with the populous cities of the east coast. In 1887, his company began construction of two large and ornate hotels and a year later added a third that had been planned and begun by another developer. Flagler's architects changed the appearance of St. Augustine, fashioning building styles that in time came to characterize the look of cities throughout Florida. For a time, St. Augustine was the winter tourist mecca of the United States.
Newport of the South
In the early twentieth century, however, the very rich found other parts of Florida to which they could escape. With them fled Flagler's dream of turning St. Augustine into the "Newport of the South." St. Augustine nevertheless remained a tourist town. As Americans took to the highways in search of a vacation land, St. Augustine became a destination for automobile-borne visitors. The tourism industry came to dominate the local economy.
Restoration
The city celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1965 and undertook in cooperation with the State of Florida a program to restore parts of the colonial city. The continuation of an effort actually begun in 1935, what became known as the "Restoration" resulted in preserving the thirty-six remaining buildings from the colonial era and the reconstruction of some forty additional colonial buildings that had previously disappeared, transforming the appearance of the historic central part of St. Augustine. It was in great part a tribute to such efforts that King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia made this small city a part of their 2001 visit to the United States.
Civil Rights Era
In 1964, St. Augustine played a role in America’s civil rights struggle when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a local campaign to dramatize national efforts designed to secure Congressional approval of what became the landmark Civil Rights Act of that year. The city now contains a series of historical markers noting sites associated with the civil rights movement here.
Flagler's Hotels
The first of Henry Flagler's three great hotels, the Ponce de Leon, was adapted for use as an institution of higher learning in 1971. As Flagler College, it expanded to embrace a student body of some 1,700 by the end of the century, offering a traditional four-year arts and science degree program. The second of his hotels, the Alcazar, has since 1948 contained the Lightner Museum, (and in 1973 the City of St. Augustine municipal offices). The third Flagler hotel, originally called the Casa Monica, stood vacant for thirty-five years before St. Johns County converted it for use a county courthouse in 1965. In 1999, under private ownership, the building was restored to its original function, and is now the only one of Flagler's three great hotels still serving that purpose.
St. Augustine Attracts Visitors
Some 2 million visitors annually make their way to St. Augustine, lured by the sense of discovering a unique historic part of America. While the venerable Castillo de San Marcos remains the traditional magnet for visitors, there are many other appealing historical sites and vistas.
The City of St. Augustine maintains architectural control over the colonial city, insuring that the inevitable change which occurs in a living urban area respects the past.
Historical Timelines
View the Periods of History in St. Augustine
• Before 1492: Pre-Columbian or Pre-Historic Period
• 1513 to 1565: Discovery Period
• 1565 to 1763: First Spanish Colonial Period
• 1763 to 1784: British Colonial Period
• 1784 to 1821: Second Spanish Colonial Period
• 1821 to 1845: U.S. Territorial Period
• 1845 to 1861: Early Statehood Period
• 1861 to 1865: U.S. Civil War
• 1865 to 1885: Post-Civil War Period
• 1885 to 1913: Flagler Era
• 1913 to 1919: World War I Era
• 1920 to 1926: Boom Time
• 1926 to 1941: Depression Era (Florida)
• 1941 to 1945: World War Two
FYI Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen MSG Felipe De Leon Brown SGT Robert Pryor SSG Robert "Rob" Wentworth SPC Randy Zimmerman SGT Michael HearnMSG Tom Earley TSgt David L. LTC Greg Henning COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC (Join to see) Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SGT Denny Espinosa SSgt Marian Mitchell
.
The Legacy of St. Augustine: Myth, History & the Story of America's Oldest City
"J. Michael Francis discussed the Spanish founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and its long and varied cultural heritage."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwmFDWXz1eI
Images
1. Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the Spanish Explorer who founded St. Augustine in 1565
2. The Castillo de San Marcos, constructed to protect St. Augustine in 1672, is the oldest masonry fort in America.
3. Plan of the Town of St. Augustine, the capital of East Florida, 1777
4. Gonzalez Alvarez House, St. Augustine, Florida USA The Oldest house
Background from {[https://www.citystaug.com/693/Our-History]}
Our History
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spanish established at St. Augustine this nation's first enduring settlement.
Architecture
The architectural legacy of the city's past is much younger, testimony to the impermanent quality of the earliest structures and to St. Augustine's troubled history. Only the venerable Castillo de San Marcos, completed in the late seventeenth century, survived destruction of the city by invading British forces in 1702.
Vestiges of the First Spanish Colonial Period (1565 to 1764) remain today in St. Augustine in the form of the town plan originally laid out by Governor Gonzalo Méndez de Canzo in the late sixteenth century and in the narrow streets and balconied houses that are identified with the architecture introduced by settlers from Spain. Throughout the modern city and within its Historic Colonial District, there remain thirty-six buildings of colonial origin and another forty that are reconstructed models of colonial buildings.
St. Augustine can boast that it contains the only urban nucleus in the United States whose street pattern and architectural ambiance reflect Spanish origins.
Discovery of Florida
Historians credit Juan Ponce de Leon, the first governor of the Island of Puerto Rico, with the discovery of Florida in 1513. While on an exploratory trip in search of the fabled Bimini he sighted the eastern coast of Florida on Easter Sunday, which fell on March 27 that year. Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for the Spanish Crown and named it Florida after the Easter season, known in Spanish as Pascua Florida. This newly claimed territory extended north and west to encompass most of the known lands of the North American continent that had not been claimed by the Spanish in New Spain (Mexico and the Southwest).
Settlement
In the following half century, the government of Spain launched no less than six expeditions attempting to settle Florida; all failed. In 1564 French Huguenots (Protestants) succeeded in establishing a fort and colony near the mouth of the St. Johns River at what is today Jacksonville. This settlement posed a threat to the Spanish fleets that sailed the Gulf Stream beside the east coast of Florida, carrying treasure from Central and South America to Spain. As Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was assembling a fleet for an expedition to Florida, the French intrusion upon lands claimed by Spain was discovered. King Philip II instructed Menéndez, Spain's most capable admiral, to remove the French menace to Spain's interests.
Naming St. Augustine
On September 8, 1565, with much pomp and circumstance and 600 voyagers cheering, Menéndez set foot on the shores of Florida. In honor of the saint whose feast day fell on the day he first sighted land, Menéndez named the colonial settlement St. Augustine. Menéndez quickly and diligently carried out his king's instructions. With brilliant military maneuvering and good fortune, he removed the French garrison and proceeded to consolidate Spain's authority on the northeast coast of Florida. St. Augustine was to serve two purposes: as a military outpost, or Presidio, for the defense of Florida, and a base for Catholic missionary settlements throughout the southeastern part of North America.
Military Colony
Maintaining St. Augustine as a permanent military colony, however, was a mighty task. Without the courage, perseverance, and tenacity of the early settlers, it is doubtful that the community would have survived.
English pirates and corsairs pillaged and burned the town on several occasions in the next century. Clashes between the Spaniards and the British became more frequent when the English colonies were established in the Carolinas, and later, in Georgia. As a consequence, the Spanish moved to strengthen their defenses, beginning in 1672 construction of a permanent stone fortress. The Castillo de San Marcos was brought to completion late in the century, just in time to meet an attack by British forces from the Carolinas in 1702. Unable to take the fort after a two-month siege, the British troops burned the town and retreated.
Underground Railroad
British attacks continued, however. Plantation and slave owners in the English colonies resented the sanctuary that Spanish Florida afforded escaped slaves who successfully made their way to St. Augustine, which became a focal point for the first Underground Railroad. There, escaped slaves were given their freedom by the Spanish Governor if they declared allegiance to the King of Spain and embraced the Catholic religion. In 1738 the first legally sanctioned free community of former slaves, Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, was established as part of the presidio’s northern defenses.
In 1740, an even stronger attack on St. Augustine was mounted by the Governor of the British colony of Georgia, General James Oglethorpe. He also failed to take the fort.
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris in 1763, ending the French and Indian War, gave Florida and St. Augustine to the British, accomplishing by the stroke of a pen what pitched battles had failed to do. St. Augustine came under British rule for the first time and served as a Loyalist (pro-British) colony during the American Revolutionary War. A second Treaty of Paris (1783), which gave America's colonies north of Florida their independence, returned Florida to Spain, a reward for Spanish assistance to the Americans in their war against England.
Upon their return, the Spanish in 1784 found that St. Augustine had changed. Settlers from a failed colony in New Smyrna (south of St. Augustine) had moved to St. Augustine in 1777. This group, known collectively as Minorcans, included settlers from the western Mediterranean island of Minorca. Their presence in St. Augustine forever changed the ethnic composition of the town.
Second Spanish Period
During what is called by historians the Second Spanish Period (1784 to 1821), Spain suffered the Napoleonic invasions at home and struggled to retain its colonies in the western hemisphere. Florida no longer held its past importance to Spain. The expanding United States, however, regarded the Florida peninsula as vital to its interests. It was a matter of time before the Americans devised a way to acquire Florida. The Adams-Onîs Treaty, negotiated in 1819 and concluded in 1821, peaceably turned over the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida and, with them, St. Augustine, to the United States.
Florida Becomes a State
For the next twenty-four years, East Florida and with it St. Augustine remained a territorial possession of the United States. Not until 1845 was Florida accepted into the union as a state. The Territorial Period (1821-1845) was marked by an intense war with native Indians, the so-called Second Seminole War (1835-1842). The United States Army took over the Castillo de San Marcos and renamed it Fort Marion.
Civil War
In 1861, the Civil War began. Florida joined the Confederacy, but Union troops loyal to the United States Government quickly occupied St. Augustine and remained in control of the city throughout the four-year long war. St. Augustine was thus one of the few places in the United States where Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1862, actually freed any slaves. After the war, land was leased to freed slaves on what was then the west bank of Maria Sanchez Creek. Initially called Africa, the settlement later became Lincolnville and is today listed in the National Register of Historic Places, along with three other historic districts in the city.
Vacation Town
Twenty years after the end of the Civil War, St. Augustine entered its most glittering era. Following a visit to the crumbling old Spanish town, Henry Flagler, a former partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company, decided to create in St. Augustine a winter resort for wealthy Americans. He owned a railroad company that in 1886 linked St. Augustine by rail with the populous cities of the east coast. In 1887, his company began construction of two large and ornate hotels and a year later added a third that had been planned and begun by another developer. Flagler's architects changed the appearance of St. Augustine, fashioning building styles that in time came to characterize the look of cities throughout Florida. For a time, St. Augustine was the winter tourist mecca of the United States.
Newport of the South
In the early twentieth century, however, the very rich found other parts of Florida to which they could escape. With them fled Flagler's dream of turning St. Augustine into the "Newport of the South." St. Augustine nevertheless remained a tourist town. As Americans took to the highways in search of a vacation land, St. Augustine became a destination for automobile-borne visitors. The tourism industry came to dominate the local economy.
Restoration
The city celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1965 and undertook in cooperation with the State of Florida a program to restore parts of the colonial city. The continuation of an effort actually begun in 1935, what became known as the "Restoration" resulted in preserving the thirty-six remaining buildings from the colonial era and the reconstruction of some forty additional colonial buildings that had previously disappeared, transforming the appearance of the historic central part of St. Augustine. It was in great part a tribute to such efforts that King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia made this small city a part of their 2001 visit to the United States.
Civil Rights Era
In 1964, St. Augustine played a role in America’s civil rights struggle when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a local campaign to dramatize national efforts designed to secure Congressional approval of what became the landmark Civil Rights Act of that year. The city now contains a series of historical markers noting sites associated with the civil rights movement here.
Flagler's Hotels
The first of Henry Flagler's three great hotels, the Ponce de Leon, was adapted for use as an institution of higher learning in 1971. As Flagler College, it expanded to embrace a student body of some 1,700 by the end of the century, offering a traditional four-year arts and science degree program. The second of his hotels, the Alcazar, has since 1948 contained the Lightner Museum, (and in 1973 the City of St. Augustine municipal offices). The third Flagler hotel, originally called the Casa Monica, stood vacant for thirty-five years before St. Johns County converted it for use a county courthouse in 1965. In 1999, under private ownership, the building was restored to its original function, and is now the only one of Flagler's three great hotels still serving that purpose.
St. Augustine Attracts Visitors
Some 2 million visitors annually make their way to St. Augustine, lured by the sense of discovering a unique historic part of America. While the venerable Castillo de San Marcos remains the traditional magnet for visitors, there are many other appealing historical sites and vistas.
The City of St. Augustine maintains architectural control over the colonial city, insuring that the inevitable change which occurs in a living urban area respects the past.
Historical Timelines
View the Periods of History in St. Augustine
• Before 1492: Pre-Columbian or Pre-Historic Period
• 1513 to 1565: Discovery Period
• 1565 to 1763: First Spanish Colonial Period
• 1763 to 1784: British Colonial Period
• 1784 to 1821: Second Spanish Colonial Period
• 1821 to 1845: U.S. Territorial Period
• 1845 to 1861: Early Statehood Period
• 1861 to 1865: U.S. Civil War
• 1865 to 1885: Post-Civil War Period
• 1885 to 1913: Flagler Era
• 1913 to 1919: World War I Era
• 1920 to 1926: Boom Time
• 1926 to 1941: Depression Era (Florida)
• 1941 to 1945: World War Two
FYI Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen MSG Felipe De Leon Brown SGT Robert Pryor SSG Robert "Rob" Wentworth SPC Randy Zimmerman SGT Michael HearnMSG Tom Earley TSgt David L. LTC Greg Henning COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC (Join to see) Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SGT Denny Espinosa SSgt Marian Mitchell
.
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(0)
LTC Stephen F.
St Augustine, Florida, USA - Exploring America's Oldest City
Exploring the beautiful city of St Augustine in Florida, USA. St Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers which makes it the oldest continuously in...
St Augustine, Florida, USA - Exploring America's Oldest City
Exploring the beautiful city of St Augustine in Florida, USA.
St Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers which makes it the oldest continuously inhabited settlement of continental United States.
St Augustine is easy to get to from Orlando and even though it’s only two hours away the relaxed atmosphere and its rich history is a million miles away from crowds and queues of the theme parks.
During our stay in St Augustine, we stayed at the pretty waterfront Bayfront Marin House Inn which overlooks Matanzas Bay in the historic centre and is within easy walking distance of the city’s historic sites, museums, art galleries and restaurants.
Take the Red Train Trolley to get to know the layout of the historic city centre. You must visit the Castillo de San Marcos, the first masonry fort in the Americas, the Fountain of Youth, Flagler College (formerly Hotel Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel) and the St Augustine Lighthouse.
Here is the list of all the exciting places we visited in St Augustine on Florida’s Historic Coast
0:00 Intro to St Augustine
0:28 Red Train Trolley Tour, St Augustine
0:50 Castillo de San Marcos
4:13 Plaza de la Constitucion
4:22 Aviles Street, St Augustine
4:56 Spanish Military Hospital Museum
6:23 Flager College
7:42 St Augustine Distillery
8:22 Ghosts and Gravestones Tour
10:15 Savory Faire Food Tour
14:12 Bayfront Marin House Inn
14:40 St Augustine Lighthouse
16:04 Fountain Of Youth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcMtjaIlBBU
Images:
1. St. Augustine Florida's Governor, William Sherman Jennings, early 1900s
2. Castillo de San Marcos - Fort Marion in the background
3. Native American Prisoners Within The Walls of The Fort. Saint Augustine
4. City gates to Saint Augustine 1865
5. Castle Ottitis photo by Chris Crowly.
Background from {[ https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/St_Augustine_Town_Plan_Historic_District.html]}
St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District, St. Augustine, Florida
On a September day in 1565, Spanish Explorer Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sailed into Matanzas Bay and established the colony of St. Augustine. Though Ponce de León had already claimed the lands of Florida for Spain during a 1513 expedition, Menéndez’s mission was the first to create a successful permanent settlement. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown, and 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Spain’s St. Augustine became the very first European colony in what is now the continental United States. The Spanish constructed a military base guarded by a large fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, and the settlement developed and evolved into a sophisticated town with gridded streets and a central plaza. Burgeoning St. Augustine would remain the seat of Spanish power in Florida throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
The city is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States. The St. Augustine Town Plan National Historic Landmark District is the earliest extant example of a European planned community with a distinctive layout of a 16th century Spanish colonial town. The Spanish emphasized town planning and developed specifications for laying out new colonial towns in their 1573 Laws of the Indies. The 16th century Plaza de la Constitución still sits at St. Augustine’s center – the metaphoric heart of the strong Spanish heritage thoughtfully preserved throughout the city.
Set among the network of narrow, sometimes winding streets, the district’s existing architectural heritage spans nearly 300 years, but the district and the city are most renowned for the early Spanish colonial buildings. The district also boasts impressive buildings from the Territorial Period (1821-1845), the Flagler Era (1880s-1890s) and the Florida Boom (1920s). St. Augustine showcases this mosaic of architectural styles, materials and typologies alongside traditions and practices inspired by over 400 years of Spanish-Floridian culture.
HISTORIC BACKGROUND
After Spanish Explorer Ponce de León discovered the Florida Peninsula in 1513, Spain immediately recognized the land as an instrumental point of defense for the Gulf of Mexico and the powerful Gulf Stream--both of which Spain heavily used for trade and transport between the motherland and her South American Colonies. After repeated attempts by the Spanish to colonize Florida, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in 1565 under orders from King Philip II and the town began to be laid out in 1603. The coastal colony originally served as a military outpost and a base for Catholic missionary efforts. As the town began to grow, a distinct pattern of streets emerged based on Spanish colonial city planning law that called for the laying out of towns in a gridiron with a symmetrical network of streets running both parallel and perpendicular to a central town plaza. Important civic and religious buildings were to front the plaza and provide a strong moral and governmental core to new cities.
St. Augustine’s layout reflected this early Spanish planning. The grid of streets expanded out from the main plaza, which faced the sea, and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, plots around the plaza housed the city’s main church, the Bishop’s house, the town hall, customs house, treasury building, arsenal, the hospital, guardhouses and various monuments.
During this early colonial period, St. Augustine was strategically important and routinely suffered attacks from the French and British colonists living to the north in present-day Georgia and South Carolina. Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos began in 1672 to help protect the important Spanish stronghold. The Castillo is all that remains of St. Augustine’s earliest architecture as a British attack in 1702 completely leveled the rest of the city. The large masonry fort is the oldest extant structure in St. Augustine, and the oldest of its kind in the United States. The National Park Service administers the Castillo de San Marcos as a National Monument. More information about the fort can be found here.
The St. Augustine plaza in the center of town also dates from the early Spanish colonial period. Today, religious, commercial and governmental buildings from various periods surround the plaza, including the Cathedral of St. Augustine, the vernacular public marketplace (1824), and the Gothic Revival Trinity Episcopal Church (1825). Within the interior of the plaza is the Spanish Constitution Obelisk (1814).
Located north of the central plaza along Matanzas Bay is the oldest and most imposing structure in the district, the Castillo de San Marcos. Originally constructed between 1672 and 1695, this impressive fortification has had many improvements and repairs since then. The symmetrical, four-bastioned fortification built around a square courtyard is made of native coquina stone. This National Monument is now a national park, a living history museum offering a range of guided tours, events and educational activities for all ages. A schedule of events for the Castillo can be viewed here.
Interpreted exhibits and events are also available at the St. Augustine Historical Society Oldest House Museum Complex, which includes Florida’s oldest standing Spanish colonial residence, the González-Alvarez House, a National Historic Landmark at 14 St. Francis Street. Beyond the Spanish colonial period, the district contains significant architecture from different periods.
Archeological investigations have helped define the limits of the Spanish colonial city. They also are addressing important questions such as how the townspeople lived and adapted to change during the colonial period and how the town and its plan evolved into this major urban center in the Spanish New World."
FYI CPL Cadrew StricklandPO3 Lynn SpaldingSFC (Join to see)Maj Wayne CristSGM Bill FrazerPO3 Phyllis MaynardSFC (Join to see)SSG Samuel KermonSFC Richard WilliamsonCpl (Join to see) CPL Dave Hoover ]SSG Franklin BriantSPC Chris Bayner-CwikSGT Rick ColburnCSM (Join to see)LT Brad McInnisSSG Jeffrey LeakeCSM Bruce TregoSP5 Dennis Loberger1619267:SPC Michael Duricko-phd]
Exploring the beautiful city of St Augustine in Florida, USA.
St Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers which makes it the oldest continuously inhabited settlement of continental United States.
St Augustine is easy to get to from Orlando and even though it’s only two hours away the relaxed atmosphere and its rich history is a million miles away from crowds and queues of the theme parks.
During our stay in St Augustine, we stayed at the pretty waterfront Bayfront Marin House Inn which overlooks Matanzas Bay in the historic centre and is within easy walking distance of the city’s historic sites, museums, art galleries and restaurants.
Take the Red Train Trolley to get to know the layout of the historic city centre. You must visit the Castillo de San Marcos, the first masonry fort in the Americas, the Fountain of Youth, Flagler College (formerly Hotel Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel) and the St Augustine Lighthouse.
Here is the list of all the exciting places we visited in St Augustine on Florida’s Historic Coast
0:00 Intro to St Augustine
0:28 Red Train Trolley Tour, St Augustine
0:50 Castillo de San Marcos
4:13 Plaza de la Constitucion
4:22 Aviles Street, St Augustine
4:56 Spanish Military Hospital Museum
6:23 Flager College
7:42 St Augustine Distillery
8:22 Ghosts and Gravestones Tour
10:15 Savory Faire Food Tour
14:12 Bayfront Marin House Inn
14:40 St Augustine Lighthouse
16:04 Fountain Of Youth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcMtjaIlBBU
Images:
1. St. Augustine Florida's Governor, William Sherman Jennings, early 1900s
2. Castillo de San Marcos - Fort Marion in the background
3. Native American Prisoners Within The Walls of The Fort. Saint Augustine
4. City gates to Saint Augustine 1865
5. Castle Ottitis photo by Chris Crowly.
Background from {[ https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/St_Augustine_Town_Plan_Historic_District.html]}
St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District, St. Augustine, Florida
On a September day in 1565, Spanish Explorer Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sailed into Matanzas Bay and established the colony of St. Augustine. Though Ponce de León had already claimed the lands of Florida for Spain during a 1513 expedition, Menéndez’s mission was the first to create a successful permanent settlement. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown, and 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Spain’s St. Augustine became the very first European colony in what is now the continental United States. The Spanish constructed a military base guarded by a large fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, and the settlement developed and evolved into a sophisticated town with gridded streets and a central plaza. Burgeoning St. Augustine would remain the seat of Spanish power in Florida throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
The city is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States. The St. Augustine Town Plan National Historic Landmark District is the earliest extant example of a European planned community with a distinctive layout of a 16th century Spanish colonial town. The Spanish emphasized town planning and developed specifications for laying out new colonial towns in their 1573 Laws of the Indies. The 16th century Plaza de la Constitución still sits at St. Augustine’s center – the metaphoric heart of the strong Spanish heritage thoughtfully preserved throughout the city.
Set among the network of narrow, sometimes winding streets, the district’s existing architectural heritage spans nearly 300 years, but the district and the city are most renowned for the early Spanish colonial buildings. The district also boasts impressive buildings from the Territorial Period (1821-1845), the Flagler Era (1880s-1890s) and the Florida Boom (1920s). St. Augustine showcases this mosaic of architectural styles, materials and typologies alongside traditions and practices inspired by over 400 years of Spanish-Floridian culture.
HISTORIC BACKGROUND
After Spanish Explorer Ponce de León discovered the Florida Peninsula in 1513, Spain immediately recognized the land as an instrumental point of defense for the Gulf of Mexico and the powerful Gulf Stream--both of which Spain heavily used for trade and transport between the motherland and her South American Colonies. After repeated attempts by the Spanish to colonize Florida, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in 1565 under orders from King Philip II and the town began to be laid out in 1603. The coastal colony originally served as a military outpost and a base for Catholic missionary efforts. As the town began to grow, a distinct pattern of streets emerged based on Spanish colonial city planning law that called for the laying out of towns in a gridiron with a symmetrical network of streets running both parallel and perpendicular to a central town plaza. Important civic and religious buildings were to front the plaza and provide a strong moral and governmental core to new cities.
St. Augustine’s layout reflected this early Spanish planning. The grid of streets expanded out from the main plaza, which faced the sea, and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, plots around the plaza housed the city’s main church, the Bishop’s house, the town hall, customs house, treasury building, arsenal, the hospital, guardhouses and various monuments.
During this early colonial period, St. Augustine was strategically important and routinely suffered attacks from the French and British colonists living to the north in present-day Georgia and South Carolina. Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos began in 1672 to help protect the important Spanish stronghold. The Castillo is all that remains of St. Augustine’s earliest architecture as a British attack in 1702 completely leveled the rest of the city. The large masonry fort is the oldest extant structure in St. Augustine, and the oldest of its kind in the United States. The National Park Service administers the Castillo de San Marcos as a National Monument. More information about the fort can be found here.
The St. Augustine plaza in the center of town also dates from the early Spanish colonial period. Today, religious, commercial and governmental buildings from various periods surround the plaza, including the Cathedral of St. Augustine, the vernacular public marketplace (1824), and the Gothic Revival Trinity Episcopal Church (1825). Within the interior of the plaza is the Spanish Constitution Obelisk (1814).
Located north of the central plaza along Matanzas Bay is the oldest and most imposing structure in the district, the Castillo de San Marcos. Originally constructed between 1672 and 1695, this impressive fortification has had many improvements and repairs since then. The symmetrical, four-bastioned fortification built around a square courtyard is made of native coquina stone. This National Monument is now a national park, a living history museum offering a range of guided tours, events and educational activities for all ages. A schedule of events for the Castillo can be viewed here.
Interpreted exhibits and events are also available at the St. Augustine Historical Society Oldest House Museum Complex, which includes Florida’s oldest standing Spanish colonial residence, the González-Alvarez House, a National Historic Landmark at 14 St. Francis Street. Beyond the Spanish colonial period, the district contains significant architecture from different periods.
Archeological investigations have helped define the limits of the Spanish colonial city. They also are addressing important questions such as how the townspeople lived and adapted to change during the colonial period and how the town and its plan evolved into this major urban center in the Spanish New World."
FYI CPL Cadrew StricklandPO3 Lynn SpaldingSFC (Join to see)Maj Wayne CristSGM Bill FrazerPO3 Phyllis MaynardSFC (Join to see)SSG Samuel KermonSFC Richard WilliamsonCpl (Join to see) CPL Dave Hoover ]SSG Franklin BriantSPC Chris Bayner-CwikSGT Rick ColburnCSM (Join to see)LT Brad McInnisSSG Jeffrey LeakeCSM Bruce TregoSP5 Dennis Loberger1619267:SPC Michael Duricko-phd]
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I grew up in Jacksonville, FL, SGT (Join to see) (I know you know that), so going to St. Augustine was routine! I have friends who live there still and visited them just last year!
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Definitely a nice place to visit with tremendous historical site in the city and surrounding areas.
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