Exploring the history of St. Augustine

Saint Augustine, FL

The last few days I’ve spent exploring all around St. Augustine but not really taking many pictures because grey skies are not conducive to good pictures. I’ve compiled enough that I thought I’d share these and if I manage to get some better ones I’ll pass those along. You can see from the pictures why I thought I’d arrived in Spain.

It rained quite a lot over night and cooled down considerably, which I’m quite OK about. I prefer low 20’s to upper 20’s especially when you throw in the humidity. I started the grey, but usable day at a weekend Art Show. There were some really great artisans there, and I was sorely tempted but for the most part kept my wallet in my pocket.

I didn’t have a lot of energy today (could it be because I stayed up past midnight watching the last 3 episodes of House of Cards?), and I decided taking the trolley tour would be a good idea. I took it all the way around once, grabbed some lunch on St. George Street in Old Town and then took it around another two times. I found the second time that each of the drivers/narrators tells slightly different stories, so it wasn’t boring and it matched my energy level.

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously and permanently occupied European settlement within the contiguous United States. As you can see there are a lot of qualifiers to that statement, but in any case, it’s been here longer than most. The information I gleaned is no logical order because it came as the particular points of interest come along on the tour. So forgive me if this isn’t coherent.

Juan Ponce de Leon, who came north to St. Augustine exploring and claiming land for Spain, as you might expect has a huge profile in St. Augustine. All sorts of things are named after him. There is a statue of him at the north end of the main Plaza that looks quite small, but in fact is life size. Seems he was only 4’11” inches, but he insisted on being measure wearing his boots and hat and is often noted as being 5’4″ tall.

Here’s a short timeline as best as I can tell:

1513 – Juan Ponce de Leon, Spanish Governor of Puerto Rico, explored north to the area of St. Augustine and claimed the area he called “La Florida” for Spain
1565 – Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles started a settlement which he named St. Augustine (because they first spotted land on August 28th, the first day of the feast of St Augustine)
1668 – English Privateer Robert Searle attacked and plundered St. Augustine
1672 – Spaniards start to build Castillo de San Marcos for the first time
1763 – control take over by the British due to Treat of Paris when Spain ceded Florida to the British
1777 – Minorcans brought over to start failed indigo plant migrate north to St Augustine and establish their roots there
1784 – control returns to Spain due to deals struck with Britain and St Augustine languishes
1821- Florida becomes part of the United States
1845 – Florida becomes the 27th State of the USA
1861- Florida succeeds from Union and joins Confederacy
1862 – returned to Union control
1866 – Lincolnville area was founded by freed black slaves
1880’s – start of Flagler’s development of St. Augustine as a resort community

Also wound into St Augustine’s history are the Seminole Wars. I haven’t learned about those yet.

In the 1960’s, St. Augustine became a hotbed of Civil Rights Activism involving Martin Luther King Junior. This area was heavily involved in the Slave Trade and in fact there was a Slave Market in the main Plaza. Martin Luther King Junior often spoke at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Lincolnville where many of the Civil Rights activist activities were planned including the Woolworths Counter sit-ins. When we were in Washington a few years ago, we saw the counter from the Woolworths on the Plaza in St Augustine which had been moved to the Smithsonian to be put on display there. In many American cities there are streets named after Martin Luther King Jr, but there are only 2 on which he actually marched in protest, here and in South Carolina.

St. Augustine is built around the Plaza de la Constitution and there are many historic buildings within a few block radius of the Plaza, including three former hotels built or bought by Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler as part of his hotel empire. He also founded a railway to get his guests from further north down to his hotels in St. Augustine, Palm Beach, Miami and Key West.

Still around the Plaza de la Constitution are three of the original components:

The Basilica Cathedral of St. Augustine, originally established in 1565 and re-built by 1797, sits on the west side of the Plaza and is the site of the oldest Catholic congregation in America.

Government House is to the south on the Plaza (I didn’t get any good pictures of it yet) and it includes a balcony from which the Governor would read new proclamations to the citizens. Last year, when St. Augustine celebrated it’s 450th anniversary, the King and Queen of Spain stood on that balcony to speak to the people in celebration.

The Market Place, which is the first place in North America to use weights and measures to sell products, is on the north.

I haven’t visited the Castillo de San Marcos yet, but it has a prominent profile on the Matanzas River and I’ll get to it after I visit. I’ve included a couple of pics today as it’s really part of the old town.

Also prominent on the more modern water front is the Bridge of Lions, the first of which was build in 1927 and rebuilt in 2004. An interesting side note is that the young girl chosen to cut the ribbon to open the bridge in 1927 was still alive and in her 90’s when the new bridge was opened in 2004 and they had her cut the ribbon once again.

Today, the old town section of St Augustine is teeming with tourists drawn there by the history and ambiance of the area. St. George Street is a pedestrian street running east-west that is lined with shops, (many of which are jewelry of one type or another), restaurants and bars. (I’m reminded of St. John’s, NL) I’m sure every consevable tourist opportunity has been exploited here. In the old town section every time you turn around there is a fee to see the oldest school house, or the colonial area or the wax museum, or …. you get the picture. In the general area, there are also all sorts of other things like to see like the Alligator Farm, and the first Ripley’s Believe it or Not, competing trolley tour companies, a host of ghosts and graveyard tours, and all sorts of water activities. Not to mention a beautiful beach community just 10 minutes away.

Tonight as I write this, I am reminded of one of the reasons I’m enjoying my trailering adventure. All around me are kids playing (riding bikes, fishing, playing soccer), fires are getting started, smells of barbecues and fire cooked meals are permeating the air, and I’ve had 4 visitors so far. Three ducks, no doubt looking for a hand out and an adorable two year old from next door who wanders over to say hello from time to time.

BTW, I did get my chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick today. It was delicious.