This exhibit displays how the St. Augustine school may have looked in 1872. Before John Smith wooed Pocahontas, before the Puritans drowned their first witch, and before the Lord Proprietors opened a bank account on behalf of the Carolinas, the Spanish were firmly settled in North America.

Ponce de Leon noted the potential for a Spanish fort in this Land of Flowers (La Florida) in 1513. Admiral Menéndez de Avilés landed 600 soldiers and settlers at the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy and conducted Catholic Mass on September 8, 1565. He named the place St. Augustine for the day he first sighted land, August 28, the feast day of Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously settled city by Europeans in the continental USA. And, I might add, a wonderful place to visit.

Linda and I rediscovered the old town we had visited many times before, usually on the way to Orlando or Jacksonville for a Christmas bowl game. This time we had a full day to walk through 443 years of history.

The early years of St. Augustine were not peaceful. Indians attacked, hurricanes devastated, famines decimated, plagues destroyed, and passersby burned: the English privateer, Sir Francis Drake, in 1586, and pirates in 1668. The Spanish built a fort in 1672 but British forces from Georgia and South Carolina sacked the town in 1702 and 1740.

Greek, Minorcan, and Italian survivors from the failed colony of New Smyrna settled in St. Augustine in the late 1700s. This mural is in the Greek Orthodox Shrine in St. Augustine. Then, in 1763 after the French and Indian War, the town and all of Florida was given to Britain by Spain. After the American Revolution, the British gave it back. That lasted until 1821 when Spain, battered by Napoleon, gave it to the U.S. Nobody really wanted that mangrove sand dune that hung down into the Caribbean Sea.

Florida became a state in 1845 then joined the Confederacy in 1861. The one soldier assigned to defend the fort at St. Augustine quickly surrendered to the Rebels but soon the fort was retaken by U.S. forces who maintained control until Florida rejoined the US in 1865. In 1885, oil tycoon Henry Flagler ran a railroad line to St. Augustine and created Florida's first winter resort and restored many historic buildings.

Linda and Warner were arrested by the St. Johns County Sheriff for loitering in St. Augustine. The core of the Old City retains the character of a 16th century Spanish colonial walled town. Inside the Old City Gates are the relics of different cultures that have shaped St. Augustine.

The Gonzalez- Alverez House, the oldest house in the city, dates from the early 1700s. Casa Rodriques was built by Sergeant Rodriques, a Spanish soldier, in 1760. These homes represent the Spanish colonial period.

In 1768, 400 Greeks stopped in St. Augustine on their way to the Colony of New Smyrna 70 miles south. Ten years later, survivors from that failed colony were granted refuge in St. Augustine by the British owners. These pioneers were the first Greek settlers in North America. Casa Avero was built in 1749 and became a Greek Orthodox Shrine in the 1780s.

Minorcans and Italians contracted as laborers in an indigo plantation at New Smyrna also straggled into St. Augustine when the colony failed. They became tradesmen, farmers, and fishermen.

Casa Rodriques, built in 1760, was restored in 1958. The British/American traditions are represented by the Oldest Wooden School House and the Old Jail. The school first operated in the early 1800s under teacher Mary Genoply Darling. The school house later served as a guard house and a tea room. An 1872 rule in the school required teachers to fill lamps and clean the chimney each day. The building was restored in 1939.

The Old St. Johns County Jail was built in 1891 and held prisoners until 1953. It is the oldest government building in the county. It held up to 72 inmates and was the site of many hangings.

It is said that St. Augustine was never conquered… but it sure was battered about for four and a half centuries. The Indians got smashed, the pirates looted, the Spanish and British traded attacks, and the French flashed their sabers more than once. The Blue and Gray smuggled guns, cotton, and secrets through the city for four years. When Flagler brought in the tourists the fighting stopped, and the fun began.