Editor’s note: just after I graduated from college, more years ago than I care to admit, I spent a week in Jacksonville with a girl I was dating and her family. We drove to St. Augustine one day, visiting the old fortress and walking some of the colonial town. Today, I got to see the city again through Sam Spector’s eyes, taking in much more than I experienced in my youthful excitement. For more of Sam’s adventures, click here to visit his index page.
Nearly a year ago, I went to the great historical American towns of Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. In those places, you were immersed with the influences of the European settlers from hundreds of years ago, alongside the rich (and at times dark) Southern American history from these coastal towns. While I visited Charleston and Savannah, I heard about another town even further south that many were visiting on their journey up or down the southeastern Atlantic coastline: St. Augustine, Florida, and this year, I went.
St. Augustine had been on my radar for a couple of reasons. It is deemed the oldest continuously inhabited town of European origin in the United States, having been founded in September 1565. Fast forward nearly four hundred years later, another event occurred in St. Augustine that piqued my interest. In 1964, a group of 17 rabbis assembled an integrated protest against segregation in whites-only restaurants in the town as a response to a plea from Dr. Martin Luther King to the Central Conference of American Rabbis for the national body of Reform rabbis to join his struggle. The 17 rabbis who were arrested wrote an infamous letter from the St. Augustine jail explaining their reason for choosing this tourist haven, that was ironically named for an African-born saint, that had become, in their words, “Klan-dominated.” Of these rabbis, two of them were my own personal rabbis at various points in my life, and another was a father of another of my rabbis as well. This personal connection of rabbis who I admire made me curious to visit the town and to imagine my mentors as young men there.
St. Augustine is located near a number of other cities and tourist destinations. It is two hours northeast of Orlando, an hour north of Daytona Beach, and only a half hour south of Jacksonville. St. Augustine does have some similarities to the aforementioned Charleston and Savannah. It is a coastal town protected by a bay, and like Charleston has a fort that was built on the water to keep out invaders and pirates. There are also numerous fine dining restaurants in St. Augustine, like in Charleston and Savannah, which serve up great cocktails, fresh seafood, and southern favorites like fried green tomatoes and hushpuppies. St. Augustine is also rich with its European influence. However, it is in this influence that we can see differences with Charleston and Savannah; while Charleston touches on its English influence and Savannah on its French roots, St. Augustine was a city founded by the Spanish, and these roots are evident throughout the town.
Though the town was founded in September 1565, the first European to arrive in the area was Juan Ponce de Leon of Spain. Ponce de Leon was searching for the mythical Fountain of Youth, believing that it would grant those who drink from it eternal youthful life. Florida would be a Spanish territory until it was purchased by the United States in 1821. At the site where Ponce de Leon arrived, there is the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in the St. Augustine Historic District. Upon arriving at the park, you will walk under an archway that has seashells embedded into the walls, which aside from being decorative, were a deterrent by the Spanish from people scaling the walls so that they would not cut their hands. The park is home to more than 30 peacocks that you can feed and admire as you walk through it. At the park, be sure to see the collection of cannons that were recovered from shipwrecks, and walk along the dock into the marshy bay or climb the watchtower for views. The park was also home to a burial ground of the Timucua indigenous tribe and a part of the park is dedicated to displaying their artifacts, canoes, and replicas of their dwelling places. The park also has regular shows that run hourly that show blacksmiths, cannon blasts, and even a planetarium that demonstrates how the Spanish explorers followed constellations to get to the New World.
However, the star attraction of the park is, of course, the Fountain of Youth. Inside a building is a spring where you can take a cup and fill it with water and have a sip from what many claimed was the actual Fountain of Youth. While I am doubtful that it works (otherwise this would be the top tourist destination on Earth), I still had to take a dixie cup and have a sip of the most sulfuric disgusting water that I have ever had.
In the Historic District of St. Augustine is the old St. Augustine jail (though not the one where the rabbis were imprisoned), where you can take tours that are especially aimed towards kids. It is here where you can also hop the St. Augustine Trolley, which will take you throughout the town to the various historic attractions. Upon leaving the Fountain of Youth Park, you will be on Magnolia Avenue, a beautiful residential street that is full of old, large trees that hang over the road and are covered with the infamous and charming Spanish moss that is so popularly depicted in southern movies. A roughly 20-minute walk away is the Colonial Quarter, which is the main place in town to go.
In the Colonial Quarter, you will find old buildings, such as the wooden schoolhouse, that date back to the 1700s. It is hard to find any buildings older than that as the British burned the town to the ground in the early 1700s in a battle with the Spaniards. However, the British were not able to invade the Castillo de San Marcos fortress, located a block away on the water, and once surrounded by a moat. The fort is a United States National Monument and run by the National Parks Service. Docents dressed as 17th century Spaniards from when the fort was founded in 1672 give guided tours. The fort reminded me very much of a smaller version of the forts in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which makes sense as they were both created by the Spanish to keep out invaders. On the lower level of the fort there are the living the quarters of the soldiers, a courtyard, a gunpowder room, the prisons, and a chapel. There is lots of historical graffiti, especially from the former prisoners. At the top of the fortress you will be treated to spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean, St. Augustine Beach, the lighthouse, and the town.
Within St. Augustine there are two main streets that you should visit: Aviles Street and St. George Street. Aviles Street is named for the Spanish admiral and conquistador Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the founder of St. Augustine. While there is not much to do on the street, it is charming, visited by horsedrawn carriages, and happens to be the oldest street in the nation. St. George Street has far more to do, as this is where many restaurants and bars are. Enjoy strolling up and down the street, seeing the historic buildings and hopping into different bars that have live music nightly. Within a couple of blocks of St. George Street are also Flagler College, where undergrads give tours, and the Lightner Museum, located in the old Alcazar Hotel, that houses many golden age artifacts.
When I went to Charleston and Savannah, I spent about three days in each town, and I felt rushed. There was so much to see and do, and a lot of it was widely spread out. Each of those cities has over 100,000 people in the city itself, and greater Charleston has a population of nearly 700,000, while Savannah has a metropolitan area population of about 300,000. St. Augustine, on the other hand, has only about 15,000 residents, and 70,000 in the entire area. This makes St. Augustine much more manageable, and you can see all the major highlights of the town in a day or two. However, St. Augustine’s charm, history, great restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and actors performing shows make it an ideal place to go for a weekend with friends, a romantic getaway, or an entertaining and educational stop with kids. If you are planning a week to the parks of Orlando or elsewhere along northern Florida’s Atlantic coast, make sure to add a couple of days in America’s oldest town to your itinerary.
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