May 1st to May 6th: St Augustine

We’re back in Florida again, the Sunshine State. So far, three days of solid, torrential rain and gusty winds. But the forecast for our last day tomorrow is better, so we’re going to see St Augustine three miles down the road, the oldest continuously inhabited town in North America. 

St Augustine was founded in 1565 when Admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles established a settlement to protect Spanish interests. He landed on St Augustine’s day in 1565, hence the town’s name, on the spot marked by this 208 foot steel cross. It’s the tallest in the world but doesn’t look it at this distance.

Since Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492 the New World was up for grabs. Spain was well ahead of other European countries and needed anchor towns from which to further expand and also to protect its domains from enemy raids.

St Augustine was to be one such town and was in fact attacked and destroyed by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. The English plundered it again in 1668 so Spain decided to protect the town with a much stronger fort. Work started in 1672 on the Castillo de San Marcos, a large, stone-built structure with a moat, garrison and cannon. Here’s the entrance.

Inside, the spacious central area was used for drill or to accommodate the townsfolk when attack threatened. The English laid siege to the town again in 1702 but this time the fort withheld the siege and protected all the townsfolk gathered within. The English did, however, destroy the town so there are no buildings pre-dating 1702.

The fort is a National Monument so is administered by the National Parks Service. The ranger did an excellent job of explaining its history, and we also saw also a live cannon firing. Here it is with the “Dad’s Army” squad in period costume loosing off a live round, less cannon ball. The whole platform shook. It was surely just a coincidence that the passing yacht sank.

There were some splendid old guns on the gun deck. This mortar cannon with its bronze patina looks more like an ornamental flower planter. The photo makes it appear that the gunner has just blasted a section out of the parapet wall. “Sorry, Sarge, I was distracted by the señoritas.”

These are the garrison quarters- not, I hasten to add, a ward in our local NHS Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

The fort was used as a prison for some of the American Indians who rebelled against the seizing of their tribal lands and compulsory relocation to reservations many hundreds of miles from their territory. The plaque here explains the object of their imprisonment here.

The Kiowa Indians in particular showed a talent for art and produced some work remarkably like our own L S Lowry’s matchstick style paintings. Maybe Lowry took his inspiration from him! This is an example.

After the fort, we looked at the town. I’m really doing two blogs in one here, so please bear with me as I’m trying to keep up to date as the end of the holiday is looming.

 

The town looks very Spanish as you might expect, and later buildings were added in the same style even after Florida became American. The church and square could be anywhere in Spain.

An example of one of these later Spanish-style buildings was this luxury hotel. It was built in1901 by Henry Flagler the oil magnate, whose investment and influence caused the east coast of Florida to be developed for winter tourism for the wealthy.

There were lots of pretty squares, like this one where we stopped for coffee. Jane looks like she’s being swallowed up by the foliage.

Many buildings in the town proclaim to be the oldest in the USA. The plaque says this is the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the USA. Presumably some other towns claim the oldest stone schoolhouse, the oldest brick schoolhouse, the oldest concrete schoolhouse and so on. This could be a great car game for the kids- see how many different types of schoolhouse you can create.

Now for a more magnificent building: the Memorial Presbyterian Church, also built by Flagler in 1889 to commemorate his daughter’s death. He’s also buried there.

St Augustine had a relaxed feel and was genuinely old and atmospheric, more Mediterranean than American. It was touristy, as expected, but not swamped by it. We enjoyed the town very much.

 

Tomorrow, Monday May 6^th, we travel the 120 mile south to Orland, firstly to Moss Park, a county wildlife reserve with camping facilities, but no internet.