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Media Kit: History
AN ABBREVIATED HISTORY OF ST. AUGUSTINE
Legend has it that Juan Ponce de Leon was seeking "the Fountain of Youth" when he sailed northwest from Puerto Rico in 1513. There is no doubt, however, that he was seeking to claim possession for Spain of any land he might discover along the Atlantic Coast. On April 2, he sighted land. Because of its "delightful" appearance, and because it was the season of Pascua Florida, he named it "La Florida." The subsequent brief landing was somewhere between the mouth of the St. Johns River and Cape Canaveral.
Spain sent out other expeditions to explore La Florida but concentrated on the west coast until, in 1562, the presence of a French Huguenot settlement on the Atlantic troubled Phillip II. At his order, the able naval commander, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, gathered an expedition in the summer of 1565 and sailed for Florida.
The destruction of the French colony at the mouth of the St. Johns River being his first duty, Menendez led his ships north along the coast, investigating along the way a harbor which he named "San August'n" and where he left a small force to make camp.
After a brief and inconclusive encounter with the Spaniards, the French ships at the river put to sea and Menendez sailed back to his San August'n camp, the site of the Timucua village, Seloy. On September 8, 1565, Menendez ceremoniously landed there, heard Mass and took possession of Florida in the name of the Spanish king, while the Timucuans observed the occasion with interest.
Before Menendez could feel secure, he had to deal with the French settlement. With a force, he attacked and killed the occupants on September 20, sparing only the women and children. Not many days later survivors of the French fleet, shipwrecked down the coast, were massacred on Anastasia Island.
Such were the earliest days of St. Augustine, the oldest, continually occupied European city in the United States.
St. Augustine continued as the center of Spanish control along the Atlantic coast with missions established inland. Sir Francis Drake burned the town in 1586 and later pirates and Indians threatened its existence until the great defensive fort Castillo de San Marcos was constructed. In the 1700s, the British twice attacked from bases in Georgia without success. In 1763, the British acquired Florida from Spain by a stroke of the pen, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the French and Indian War.
The British saw their new possession as a land where a plantation economy could flourish. Trade and commerce got off to a good start, and the population grew when 600 Minorcans sought asylum from Dr. Andrew Turnbull's repressive plantations at New Smyrna. They and their descendants were to remain an integral part of St. Augustine's culture and economy into the 20th century.
After a brief 20 years, in a 1783 pact, the British, returned the peninsula to Spain. The new United States hungrily eyed the foreign presence at its southern border. Tentative Spanish-American negotiations coincided with intermittent armed incursions from the north until, in 1821, a peaceful transfer from Spain brought Florida into the United States as a territory.
In 1835, threatened by increasing American occupation of what had been their land, Indians struck back at plantations south of St. Augustine. Before the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, the rural economy throughout the territory was in ruins and the Indians had lost their lands.
Florida became a state in 1845 and 16 years later seceded, joining the Confederacy in 1861. In March 1862, St. Augustine surrendered peacefully to Union forces. For the balance of the Civil War, it was an occupied city while Florida west of the St. Johns River remained Confederate. Local slaves were emancipated in 1863.
When peace came, unravaged St. Augustine was ripe for growth and new economy. Northerners came south to explore the town's "quaint" remnants of Spanish years and to enjoy its semitropical weather. One northerner, Henry M. Flagler, in 1885, saw the city's possibilities as a "winter Newport." A Standard Oil partner, he was wealthy enough to bring ideas to fruition. His great Ponce de Leon Hotel and its companion, the Alcazar, rose on filled land which had been a creek. To bring guests to his hotels, Flagler purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine / Halifax Railroad in 1885, which, connecting at Jacksonville, carried passengers between New York and St. Augustine in little more than 24 hours.
St. Augustine looked ahead. Paved streets, waterworks, gas lines and even electricity brought St. Augustine rapidly into the 20th century.
Today, as in other times, the links between St. Augustine's unique past and its modern appeal remain constant, attractive to visitors and residents alike.
Ready Reference Dates:
- First Spanish Period 1565 - 1763
- British Period 1763 - 1783
- Second Spanish Period 1783 - 1821
- U.S. Territorial Period 1821 - 1845
- U.S. Statehood Period 1845 - 1861
- Confederate Period 1861 - 1865
"An Abbreviated History of St. Augustine" has been prepared by the St. Augustine Historical Society. Working press in need of additional historical information about St. Augustine can contact the St. Augustine Historical Society, (904) 825-2333, for special assistance.
© 1997 St. Augustine Historical Society. Used with permission.
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