By: Taylor Dunn (2nd Block)
About St. Augustine:
-St. Augustine was founded in 1565, and is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States.
-42 years before the English colonized Jamestown and 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spanish established St. Augustine, this nations first enduring settlement.
-The architecture in St. Augustine is much younger, only the Castillo de San Marcos completed in the late seventeenth century survived the destruction go the city in 1702.
-St. Augustine's street pattern and architectural ambiance reflect Spanish origins.
-Historians credit Juan Ponce de Leon (who was the first governor of the Island of Puerto Rico) with the discovery of Florida in 1513. While he was on an exploratory trip in search of the fabled Bimini he discovered 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 after the Easter season, known in spanish as PASCULA FLORIDA.
-On September 8, 1565, Don Pedro Menédez de Avilés stepped foot on the shores of Florida. He named the colony St. Augustine.
St. Augustine's Importance:
-English pirates and corsairs pillaged and burned down the town on several occasions. Fights between the Spaniards and the British became more frequent as the English colonies were established.
-The Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the French and Indian War, gave Florida and St. Augustine to the British.
-In 1964, St. Augustine even played a role in America's civil rights struggle when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a local campaigned to design a 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.
-Some 2 million visitors often make their way over to St. Augustine, wanting to discover the unique history of it.
-The City of St. Augustine maintains architectural control over the colonial city.