St. Augustine: America's oldest city delights you with history
A fortress, colonial landmarks, a pirate ship, and legends
By Lucy Komisar
 The stone fortress was built in 1695 as a Spanish defense
against the British. The Government House dates to 1713. The gorgeous hotel is a
mixture of Moorish and Victorian. Is this some corner of Europe, with the charm
and age that delights the eye and the soul? No, it’s not Europe at all. It’s St.
Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the United States, founded 442 years ago.
That was the time of the Renaissance in Europe!
Every turn of the corner tells a story. Starting at the
beginning, the Spaniards arrived in the early 16th century, led by explorer
Ponce de Leon. He had been on a voyage with Christopher Columbus; then he
conquered Puerto Rico. In 1513, he took off from the island with three ships he
financed himself. He came ashore on the east coast of a territory he called La
Florida, the flower, and claimed it for Spain. On a subsequent voyage, he landed
on the west coast, ran into some inhabitants who didn’t like intruders, and in
the ensuing battles was wounded by a poisoned arrow. He died in Havana.
 Florida turned out to have no gold or silver, so Spanish
King Phillip II gave up exploration there and concentrated on mineral rich South
America. The east coast of the peninsula remained the last Spanish outpost for
ships carrying their treasures across the Atlantic. And that brought pirates.
The Spanish also had problems from their rivals, the French, who had established
Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River. To secure the area, Phillip
II dispatch troops led by Pedro Menéndez, who in 1565 founded St. Augustine, 40
miles south of the French. (He found time to get his portrait painted.) When a
hurricane blew the French ships out to sea, the Spanish wiped out the French
Huguenot fighters. The killing became known as the Matanazas, slaughter, and it
gave the name to Matanzas Bay.
The Brits also presented problems: Sir Francis Drake with
23 ships and 2,000 Englishmen in 1586 attacked the city with cannons, stormed it
and burned it to the ground. After an attack in 1668 by British pirate John
Davis, the Spanish decided to construct a fort, which they named the Castillo de
San Marcos. It was finished in 1695 and is the oldest authentic moated castle in
the United States. It’s a stunning, structure, low and square, made of coquina –
local soft shellrock -- with star-shaped bastions at each corner.
 Curiously, a pirate named Rancin helped build the fort. He
had been captured and ordered executed. The hangman tried five times, but Rancin
was too tough to die. Finally, Spanish priests took him into their church and
provided sanctuary. Meanwhile, the governor needed a mason to finish the fort.
He made a deal that if Rancin did the job, he would pardon him. In due time that
occurred, and Rancin said, "I want to marry your daughter." He did, and now
there are thousands of descendants!
The population of St. Augustine also grew from other groups
of luckless souls. The British transported Africans to be slaves, and from the
Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, they brought Minorcans as indentured
servants. Barbara Golden, who showed me some of the historic places, is of
Minorcan heritage and explained that they’d been promised land after nine years
but were treated badly and many died. Minorcans are now a core group in St
Augustine.
A third group in the shift of populations ended up
elsewhere: In 1763, following defeat in the Seven Years War, Spain gave Florida
to Great Britain in return for Havana. The Spanish decamped for Cuba, and many
Cubans today are descendents of those settlers.
 After Emancipation, African slave quarters were turned into
free houses, and just outside town you can see a large number of Victorian
homes, the site of the black community of the late 1800s. As an acknowledgement
of this bi-racial history, the Historical Society garden has a sculpture of
Alexander Darnes, MD, and Prof. General Edmund Kirby Smith, black and white
"sons of St. Augustine."
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 which ended the American
Revolution gave Florida back to Spain, and the Spanish stayed for another four
decades. Then in 1821 the city became U.S. territory.
Once you know this history, it is fascinating to wander
around and see the places where it unfolded. Now, for example, the fort is
brought back to life as a museum, with rooms recalling the periods of its use
and costumed soldiers leading tours and strolling the parapets.
 Ponce de Leon is commemorated at a turn-of-the-last-century
scam. Louella Day, a.k.a. "Diamond Lil," made her fortune in the Klondike. She
was a smart cookie. The native inhabitants of the St. Augustine region were very
tall and lived longer than Europeans. Lil bought some property with a mineral
spring and marketed the water as "the Fountain of Youth" – 25 cents to see the
property and ten cents a cup to drink the elixir. In 1912, she embellished the
story and told people that she had found a cross laid by Ponce de Leon in 1513.
We toured the grounds with Barbara, who introduced us to
archeologists running a dig. We also saw a dramatic video of the first 100
Spanish years of exploration and then sat in the Navigator’s Celestial
Planetarium to learn just how Columbus, Ponce and others had used the stars to
get here.
Beyond such constructed tourist sites, the city itself is a
living museum, and historically correct. Buildings have been carefully restored,
and the entire historical district is protected, with a limit on building
heights and outside alterations. The architecture is a mélange of Spanish and
British.
 The "Oldest House," the González-Álvarez House, is Spanish
colonial, dating in its origins from the early 1600s. It was destroyed and
rebuilt in 1704 of coquina rock and cedar beams. Its inhabitants through the
years included Spaniards, Brits, Irish and then Americans. Inside, you can see
how the earlier dwellers lived.
 I loved the Colonial Spanish Quarter on the pedestrian St.
George Street with buildings and lifestyles of the 1700s. The fascination is
that costumed craftspeople in the workshops actually ply their trades – and tell
you about it! Clark Wullenweber, "the carpenter," is a committed old-style
craftsman, who, after a career training Special Forces at Fort Bragg in the
1970s, ran a security company in Eastern Europe. He told us, "I began studying
the way old houses and furniture are built." Now we can watch him do it and talk
about it.
 Steps away is the Oldest Wooden School House, with a
talking diorama of teacher and pupils. Don't miss it. You get a glimpse of the
authoritarian pedagogy of the time.
The place to stay in historic St. Augustine is the Casa
Monica, a stunning boutique hotel at the Plaza de la Constitución, built in 1888
in a combination of Mediterranean, Moorish and Victorian styles. It is on the
National Register of Historic Places. The hotel fell victim to the Depression
and closed in 1932.
 The structure was empty until the mid-60s when it became a
county court house. In the heart of the historic old city, it was reopened in
1999 by The Kessler Collection, which renovated it in the spirit of the original
design.
The lobby has wood beams, handmade chandeliers, Moorish
columns and arches, a blue-tiled fountain, and chairs and couches in velvet and
tapestry. But old-fashioned charm is accompanied by modern pleasures: on a
second-floor deck is a swimming pool surrounded by palms. There's also a fitness
center.
 The 95 Cordova Restaurant Case is decorated in dark Spanish
woods, with bulbous Moroccan chandeliers and high-backed red tapestry chairs.
The cuisine mixes American, Middle Eastern and Asian flavors. This is a
destination restaurant for sophisticated palates – even the "amuse bouche" was
memorable: Asiago cheese bread drizzled with basil-infused olive oil and a
balsamic reduction sauce. I had "Kessler calamari" with Moroccan pesto, sweet
olives, tomatoes and Asiago cheese; then Chilean sea bass with cilantro truffle
oil. A signature dish is seafood strudel with shrimp, scallops and salmon.
There's a six-course tasting menu.
If you go
 Casa Monica
95 Cordova Street
St. Augustine, FL 32084
(800) 658-1888
(904) 827-1888
Fax (904) 827-0426
sales@casamonica.com
http://www.casamonica.com
http://www.kesslercollection.com
Free business center with ethernet. Casa Monica is in the historic center, and
most of the sights are walking distance.
Tourism information from the St. Augustine Ponte Vedra &
the Beaches Visitors & Convention Bureau
(800) 653-2489
http://www.Getaway4Florida.com
 Tour guide: We saw the fort and other important sights with
Karen Harvey, the local historical expert and author of "America’s First City:
St. Augustine’s Historic Neighborhoods." Her other books include "Daring
Daughters: St. Augustine’s Feisty Females" and "Oldest Ghosts: St. Augustine
Haunts." She gives daily walking tours at 11am, starting from the Government
House on the Plaza, $15, children under 12 free, no reservations needed; special
tours on request. (904) 823-1492,
nftours@aug.com,
http://www.North-Florida-Tours.com
Castillo de San Marcos
1 South Castillo Drive
8:45-5:15 (last tickets 4:45)
http://www.nps.gov/casa.
Fountain of Youth
11 Magnolia Ave.
9-5
(800) 356-8222
(904) 829-3168
http://www.fountainofyouthflorida.com
(not in the center, take train or trolley)
 The Pirate Cruise: It's hokey but a lot of fun and
obviously great for kids. Schooner Freedom Charters, 1-hr evening "ghost cruise"
on a 72-foot topsail schooner; other sailings during the day. Includes wine,
beer and soft drinks. City Marina near Bridge of Lions. (904) 810-1010,
schoonerfreedom@aol.com,
www.schoonerfreedom.com.
Oldest House (González-Álvarez House)
14 St. Francis Street
9-5, guided tours every half hour
(904) 824-2872
oldesthouse@hotmail.com
http://www.oldesthouse.org.
Colonial Spanish Quarter
29-33 St. George Street
Mon–Sat 9-5:30, Sun 10-5:30
(904) 825-6830.
Oldest Wooden School House
14 St. George Street
9-5
(904) 824-0192.
The Old Jail dates "only" to 1891, and as the "deputy
sheriff" takes you through and tells you the sad tales of the inmates, you have
to shudder. You see the cells – quite an eye-opener for someone who’s never seen
a jail up close -- and also the gallows. 167 San Marco Avenue, 8:30-4:30, (904)
829-3800,
http://www.historictours.com. (not in the center, take trolley)
 The Alligator Farm: There’s nothing historical about this,
but the habitats are so beautifully constructed that it's a delight for adults
as well as kids. A highlight is when handler Jim Darlington gets into the pit to
coax the alligators to open their jaws. The farm is the only one in the world
with all 23 species of crocodilians. There are also tropical birds, giant
tortoises and reptiles. Jim Darlington does his show at 11am and 4pm; alligator
feedings are at 12 noon and 3pm. Check the schedule for the hourly events. St.
Augustine Alligator Farm, 999 Anastasia Blvd, (904) 824-3337,
http://www.alligatorfarm.com. (not in the center, take train or trolley)
 Ale House Restaurant, superb food and a balcony view of the
boats in Matanzas Bay, 1 King Street, (904) 829-2977,
http://www.alaaleworks.com/.
Local transport: It’s easy to get around with the
sightseeing trains or trolleys which you can hop on and off with day tickets.
Check the destinations you want, since in a few cases, one or the other does not
go there.
Photos by Lucy Komisar.
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