SAINT AUGUSTINE, a city of north-eastern Florida, U.S.A., on the coast, 36 m. S.E. of Jacksonville; a port of entry and the county seat of St. Johns county. It is on Federal highway I and the East Coast Inland waterway, and is served by the Florida East Coast railway. Pop. 10,458 in 1925 (State census), of whom 3,516 were negroes; in 1930, 12,111 by Federal census. The city occupies a narrow sandy peninsula formed by the Matan zas and San Sebastian rivers, and is separated from the ocean by the northern end of Anastasia island (4 m. wide). It is the oldest city in the United States. One of the main streets (St. George) is only 17 ft. wide, and others are even narrower. Many old houses remain, some with balconies projecting over the street. Ft. Marion (originally the Castle of San Marco) is a well-pre served specimen of Spanish military architecture, built of coquina, begun about 1638 and finished in 1756. The arsenal occupies the site, and incorporates part of the walls, of the old Franciscan con vent. Between the fort and the arsenal extends a sea-wall, origi nally built in the 16th century and reconstructed in 1835 by the United States, along which runs a beautiful drive. A wall and moat formerly ran across the peninsula at the northern edge of the city, and the city gate which was in this wall still stands, a picturesque ruin, at the end of St. George street. The Roman Catholic cathedral was first built in 1791. The post-office was the Spanish Government building; the public library and the historical society both occupy buildings of historic interest. There is a
beautiful modern church (Presbyterian) built in 1890 by Henry M. Flagler as a memonal to his daughter. St. Augustine is both a winter and a summer resort. The general offices and shops of the railway are here. Since 1915 the city has had a commission manager form of government.
On St. Augustine's day (Aug. 28), 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles sighted this coast, and on Sept. 6 he landed with his band of colonists and began to fortify the peninsula. In 1586 Sir Francis Drake captured the fort and burned the town, and in 1665 it was pillaged by Capt. John Davis, an English freebooter. Conflicts with the English settlements in South Carolina and Georgia were frequent of ter 1681. When Florida was cededto England in 1763 most of the Spanish population of St. Augustine went to Cuba ; when in 1783 it came again under Spanish rule, most of the English left for the Carolinas, Georgia, or the West Indies; and when in 1821 it passed to the United States, the Spanish inhabitants remained. On Jan. 7, 1861, three days before Florida passed her Ordinance of Secession, a State force compelled the small garrison to evacuate the fort, but on March rr, 1862, it was retaken without bloodshed, and was then held by the Federals until the close of the war.