Maintaining
St. Augustine became a mighty task over the next two
hundred years. In 1586, English corsair Sir Francis
Drake attacked and burned the town. Then in 1668,
the pirate Captain John Davis plundered the town,
killing sixty inhabitants.
Without the courage, perseverance and faith of its
early settlers it is doubtful that St. Augustine
would have survived.
Finally, after
the British established colonies in Georgia and the
Carolinas, Spain authorized the building of a stone
fort to protect St. Augustine as assaults from the
north became more frequent. The Castillo de San
Marcos took twenty-three years to build but, once in
place, stood as the town's stalwart defender. Major
attacks were made against her in 1702 by Governor
James Moore of South Carolina and in 1740 by General
James Oglethorpe of Georgia. Neither siege was
successful, however, and to this day, the fort has
never fallen to enemy attack.
It was not
until 1763 that Spain ceded Florida to England in
order to regain the capital of Cuba, ushering in
twenty years of British rule in Florida. This period
coincided with the American Revolution, during which
Florida remained loyal to the Crown. In 1783, under
the Treaty of Paris, Florida was returned to Spanish
rule for a period of thirty-seven years. The Spanish
departed for the last time when Spain sold Florida
to the United States of America. At a colorful
military ceremony on July 10, 1821, US troops took
possession of the territory and Spain relinquished
control of Florida forever.
Soon after the
American occupation, St. Augustine suffered a series
of setbacks. In 1821, a yellow fever epidemic
brought death to many newcomers. Also, uprisings by
the Seminole Indians culminated in the Seminole War
of 1836, which called a halt to development of St.
Augustine's economy.
Florida
Joins the Union
In 1845,
Florida became the twenty-seventh state admitted to
the Union. The Castillo de San Marcos was renamed
Fort Marion in honor of a Revolutionary War hero,
and the capital of East Florida was moved from St.
Augustine to become part of the state capital in the
new town of Tallahassee.
The town had
finally begun to prosper when the American Civil War
broke out in 1861. Although Florida had seceded with
the rest of the Confederacy, St. Augustine was
occupied by Union troops throughout most of the
conflict. When the war ended in 1865, the town was
three centuries old. The war's end brought
speculators and land developers to Florida along
with the beginnings of the visitor industry.
In the 1880's,
the sleepy old Spanish town began to bustle with the
arrival of Henry M. Flagler, who developed the town
as a major resort for the leisure traveler. It was
during the Flagler era that the minds of St.
Augustine residents turned to the leisure life.
North Beach and Anastasia Island were explored and
quickly became popular destinations. The St.
Augustine Golf Club operated a golf course on the
grounds of the fort, and buses transported guests
from the Hotel Ponce de Leon to another golf course
north of town. Yacht racing became another popular
winter pastime, as overseen by the St. Augustine
Yacht Club. Flagler's vision would forever change
the face of St. Augustine, but natural disaster also
altered the town's appearance. In 1887 and 1914,
fires wiped out many historic buildings between the
plaza and the north city gates.
establishing missions to the Indians for the Church, and exploring the land.
