Editing St. Augustine, Florida (section)

==History==
{{main|History of St. Augustine, Florida}}
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=== Early exploration ===
The first European known to have explored the coasts of [[Florida]] was the Spanish explorer and governor of Puerto Rico [[Juan Ponce de León]], who likely ventured in 1513 as far north as the vicinity of the future St. Augustine. He named the peninsula, which he believed to be an island, {{lang|es|La Florida}} and claimed it for the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish crown]].<ref name="Steigman2005">{{cite book |last=Steigman |first=Jonathan D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTjoOz7WMiIC&pg=PA33 |title=La Florida Del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America |date=25 September 2005 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-5257-8 |page=33}}</ref><ref name="Lawson2008">{{cite book |last=Lawson |first=Edward W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nU7JNwAACAAJ |title=The Discovery of Florida and Its Discoverer Juan Ponce de Leon |date=1 June 2008 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |isbn=978-1-4367-0883-8 |edition=Reprint of 1946 |pages=29–32}}</ref>

===Founding by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés===
{{main|Spanish Florida}}
Founded in 1565 by the Spanish ''[[conquistador]]'' [[Pedro Menéndez de Avilés]], St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the contiguous United States.<ref name=nhl>{{cite web| url=http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/geo-flor/24.htm| title=Florida: St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District| website=nps.gov| publisher=National Park Service| access-date=May 27, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430164443/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/geo-flor/24.htm| archive-date=April 30, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/02/28/389682893/not-so-fast-jamestown-st-augustine-was-here-first|title=Not So Fast, Jamestown: St. Augustine Was Here First|website=NPR|access-date=November 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105232732/https://www.npr.org/2015/02/28/389682893/not-so-fast-jamestown-st-augustine-was-here-first|archive-date=November 5, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> It is the second-oldest continuously inhabited city of European origin in a United States territory, after [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]] (founded in 1521).<ref name="Thompson2014">{{cite book|first=Linda|last=Thompson|title=Exploring The Territories of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8LYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|date=May 30, 2014|publisher=Britannica Digital Learning|isbn=978-1-62513-185-0|page=34}}</ref>

In [[Timeline of Florida History|1560]], King [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]] of Spain appointed Menéndez as Captain General, and his brother Bartolomé Menéndez as Admiral, of the Fleet of the Indies.<ref name="Lowery1911">{{cite book|first=Woodbury|last=Lowery|title=The Spanish settlements within the present limits of the United States: Florida, 1562-1574|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XGGAAAAIAAJ|year=1911|publisher=G.P. Putnam|page=144}}</ref> Thus Pedro Menéndez commanded the [[galleon]]s of the great ''Armada de la Carrera'', or [[Spanish treasure fleet|Spanish Treasure Fleet]], on their voyage from the Caribbean and Mexico to Spain, and determined the routes they followed.

In early 1564, he asked permission to go to Florida to search for ''La Concepcion'', the ''galeon Capitana'', or flagship, of the New Spain fleet commanded by his son, Admiral Juan Menéndez. The ship had been lost in September 1563 when a hurricane scattered the fleet as it was returning to Spain, at the latitude of Bermuda off the coast of South Carolina.<ref name="Turner2015">{{cite news |last=Turner |first=Sam |title=Menéndez anguishes in prison as son is lost at sea |url=https://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/family/2015/07/18/menndez-anguishes-prison-son-lost-sea/30305069/ |access-date=August 9, 2020 |work=Tallahassee Democrat |date=July 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131004026/http://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/family/2015/07/18/menndez-anguishes-prison-son-lost-sea/30305069/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin= |archive-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref> The Crown repeatedly refused his request.

The Crown eventually approached Menéndez to fit out an expedition to Florida<ref name="PickettPickett2011">{{cite book |last1=Pickett |first1=Margaret F. |last2=Pickett |first2=Dwayne W. |title=The European Struggle to Settle North America: Colonizing Attempts by England, France and Spain, 1521–1608 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTkyqDHcBvsC&pg=PA84 |publisher=McFarland |year=2011 |page=84 |isbn=978-0-7864-6221-6}}</ref> on the condition that he explore and settle the region as King Philip's ''[[adelantado]]'', and eliminate the [[Huguenot]] French,<ref>Lowery 1911, p.100</ref> whom the Catholic Spanish considered to be dangerous heretics.<ref>Lowery 1911, p.105</ref>

Menéndez was in a race to reach Florida before the French captain [[Jean Ribault]],<ref name="HendersonMormino1991">{{cite book|first=Eugene|last=Lyon|editor-first=Gary|editor-last=Mormino|others=Ann L Henderson|title=Spanish Pathways in Florida: 1492-1992/Los Caminos Espanoles En LA Florida 1492-1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYUhtC2u2AUC|access-date=20 November 2012|edition=1st|year=1991|publisher=Pineapple Press Inc|language=en, es|isbn=978-1-56164-003-4|page=100|chapter=Pedro Menéndez de Avilés}}</ref> who was on a mission to secure [[Fort Caroline]]. On August 28, 1565, the feast day of [[St. Augustine of Hippo]], Menéndez's crew finally sighted land; the Spaniards continued sailing northward along the coast from their landfall, investigating every inlet and plume of smoke along the shore. On September 4, they encountered four French vessels anchored at the mouth of a large river (the [[St. Johns River|St. Johns]]), including Ribault's flagship, ''La Trinité''. The two fleets met in a brief skirmish, but it was not decisive. Menéndez sailed southward and landed again on September 8, formally declared possession of the land in the name of Philip II, and officially founded the settlement he named ''San Agustín'' (Saint Augustine).<ref name="Lyon1983">{{cite book|author=Eugene Lyon|title=The Enterprise of Florida: Pedro Menendez de Aviles and the Spanish Conquest Of, 1565-1568|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_gdHQAACAAJ|date=May 1983|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-0777-9|pages=112–115}}</ref><ref name="Coker1993">{{cite book|author=William S. Coker|title=The Spanish Missionary Heritage of the United States: Selected Papers and Commentaries from the November 1990 Quincentenary Symposium|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RY1aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA26|year=1993|publisher=United States Department of the Interior{{!}}National Park Service|page=26|chapter=The Missions of Florida, 1513-1763}}</ref> Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, the chaplain of the expedition, celebrated the first Thanksgiving [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] on the grounds.<ref name="Chatelain1941">{{cite book|author=Verne Elmo Chatelain|title=The Defenses of Spanish Florida, 1565 to 1763|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvQUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Men%C3%A9ndez%20himself%20landed%22|year=1941|publisher=Carnegie Institution of Washington|page=41}}</ref><ref name=Bushnell1987>{{cite book|author=Amy Turner Bushnell|title=Situado and Sabana: Spain's Support System for the Presidio and Mission Provinces of Florida|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eIMcv-E7C0C&pg=PA37|year=1987|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1712-0|page=37}}</ref><ref name="Buescher2014">{{cite news |first1=John B. |last1=Buescher |title=America's First Mass |url=https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2014/05/13/americas-first-mass/ |website=Catholicworldreport.com |publisher=Catholic World Report |access-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214154440/https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2014/05/13/americas-first-mass/ |archive-date=14 December 2019 |date=13 May 2014}}</ref> The formal [[Franciscan]] outpost, [[Mission Nombre de Dios]], was founded at the landing point, perhaps the first mission in what would become the [[Contiguous United States|continental United States]].<ref>Herreros, Mauricio ''Spiritual Florida: A Guide to Retreat Centers and Religious Sites in Florida'', p. 25</ref>

[[File:Great house of Seloy.jpg|thumb|Pedro Menéndez de Avilés moved his settlers to the village of the Seloy tribe of the Timucua. Their chief gave them the Great House, a structure able to hold several hundred people. Around this meeting house the Spanish dug a moat and added fortifications.]]
The mission served nearby villages of the [[Mocama]], a [[Timucua]] group, and was at the center of an important [[chiefdom]] in the late 16th and 17th century. The settlement was built in the former Timucua village of Seloy; this site was chosen for its strategic location facing the waterways of St. Augustine bay with their abundant resources, an eminently suitable site for water communications and defense.<ref name="Deagan2008">{{cite book |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen |title=Historical Archaeology at the Fountain of Youth Park Site |date=2008 |pages=1, 3, 11 |url=https://www.flagler.edu/media/documents/campus-community/historic-st-augustine-research-institute/funded-research/2002-Deagan-FOY-report-reduced.pdf |quote=The site faces the confluence of the old St. Augustine inlet, the entrance to the Matanzas River to the south and the entrance to the Tolomato (or North River) to the north. Such a position offered not only a series of rich ecotones, but also an excellent site for water travel, communication and defense.}}</ref>
 
A French attack on St. Augustine was thwarted by a violent squall that ravaged the French naval forces. Taking advantage of this, Menéndez marched his troops overland to Fort Caroline on the [[St. Johns River]], about {{convert|30|mi|km|-1}} north. The Spanish easily overwhelmed the lightly defended French garrison, which had been left with only a skeleton crew of 20 soldiers and about 100 others, killing most of the men and sparing about 60 women and children. The bodies of the victims were hung in trees with the inscription: "Hanged, not as Frenchmen, but as "Lutherans" ([[heretics]])".<ref name="Laudonnière1853">{{cite book|author=René Goulaine de Laudonnière|title=L'histoire notable de la Floride: situèe es Indes Occidentales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-M8AAAAYAAJ|access-date=November 22, 2012|year=1853|publisher=P. Jannet|pages=218–219}}</ref><ref name="Voltaire1773">{{cite book|author=Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire|title=Essais sur les Moeurs et l'esprit des Nations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpMBAAAAMAAJ|year=1773|page=75}}</ref> Menéndez renamed the fort ''San Mateo'' and marched back to St. Augustine, where he discovered that the shipwrecked survivors from the French ships had come ashore to the south of the settlement. A Spanish patrol encountered the remnants of the French force, and took them prisoner. Menéndez accepted their surrender, but then [[Massacre at Matanzas Inlet|executed]] all of them except a few professing Catholics and some Protestant workers with useful skills, at what is now known as [[Matanzas Inlet]] (''Matanzas'' is [[Spanish language|Spanish]] for "slaughters").<ref name="HendersonCommittee1989">{{cite book|first1=Richard R.|last1=Henderson|author2=United States. National Park Service|title=A Preliminary inventory of Spanish colonial resources associated with National Park Service units and national historic landmarks, 1987|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AIkIAQAAMAAJ|access-date=November 20, 2012|date=March 1989|publisher=United States Committee, International Council on Monuments and Sites, for the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service|page=87|isbn=9780911697032}}</ref> The site is very near the [[national monument (United States)|national monument]] [[Fort Matanzas]], built in 1740–1742 by the Spanish.

===Invasions by pirates and enemies of Spain===
Succeeding governors of the province maintained a peaceful coexistence with the local [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], allowing the isolated outpost of St. Augustine some stability for a few years. On May 28 and 29, 1586, soon after the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)|Anglo-Spanish War]] began between England and Spain, the English privateer [[Francis Drake|Sir Francis Drake]] [[Raid on St. Augustine|sacked and burned]] St. Augustine.<ref name="Tucker2012">{{cite book|first=Spencer|last=Tucker|title=Almanac of American Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO2mx314ST0C&pg=PA54|date=November 21, 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-530-3|page=54|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226181411/https://books.google.com/books?id=TO2mx314ST0C&pg=PA54|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The approach of his large fleet obliged Governor [[Pedro Menéndez Márquez]] and the townspeople to evacuate the settlement. When the English got ashore, they seized some artillery pieces and a royal strongbox containing gold [[ducat]]s (which was the garrison payroll).<ref name="Sugden2012">{{cite book|first=John|last=Sugden|title=Sir Francis Drake|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CEgmN-3VcMC&pg=PA198|date=April 24, 2012|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4481-2950-8|page=198|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226170448/https://books.google.com/books?id=2CEgmN-3VcMC&pg=PA198|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The killing of their sergeant major by the Spanish rearguard caused Drake to order the town razed to the ground.<ref name="Konstam2011">{{cite book|first=Angus|last=Konstam|title=The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main 1585–86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UKyHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109|date=December 20, 2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78096-233-7|page=109|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226165313/https://books.google.com/books?id=UKyHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Raab2007">{{cite book|first=James W.|last=Raab|title=Spain, Britain and the American Revolution in Florida, 1763–1783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCc8BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|date=November 5, 2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-3213-4|page=9|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226212414/https://books.google.com/books?id=eCc8BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1609 and 1611, expeditions were sent out from St. Augustine against the English colony at [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]].<ref name="Gallay2015">{{cite book|first=Alan|last=Gallay|title=Colonial Wars of North America, 1512–1763 (Routledge Revivals): An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22rbCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT326|date=June 11, 2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-48718-0|page=326|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226201254/https://books.google.com/books?id=22rbCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT326|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> In the second half of the 17th century, groups of Indians from the [[Province of Carolina|colony of Carolina]] conducted raids into Florida and killed the [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] priests who served at the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Spanish missions in Florida|missions]]. Requests by successive governors of the province to strengthen the [[presidio]]'s garrison and fortifications were ignored by the [[Monarchy of Spain|Spanish Crown]] which had other priorities in its vast empire. The charter of 1663 for the new Province of Carolina, issued by King [[Charles II of England]], was revised in 1665, claiming lands as far southward as 29 degrees north latitude, about 65 miles south of the existing settlement at St. Augustine.<ref name="Avalon2008">{{cite web|title=Charter of Carolina – March 24, 1663|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nc01.asp|publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School|website=avalon.law.yale.edu|access-date=February 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207040908/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nc01.asp|archive-date=February 7, 2009|date=2008}}</ref><ref name="Avalon2008a">{{cite web |date=2008 |title=Charter of Carolina – June 30, 1665 |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nc04.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124015532/https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nc04.asp |archive-date=January 24, 2009 |access-date=May 3, 2023 |website=Avalon Law |publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School}}</ref><ref name="Edgar1998">{{cite book|first=Walter B.|last=Edgar|title=South Carolina: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC&pg=PA1|year=1998|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-57003-255-4|page=1|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226200404/https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC&pg=PA1|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

The English [[buccaneer]] [[Robert Searle]] sacked St. Augustine in 1668, after capturing some Spanish supply vessels bound for the settlement and holding their crews at gun point while his men hid below decks. Searle was retaliating for the Spanish destruction of the settlement of [[New Providence]] in [[the Bahamas]]. Searle and his men killed sixty people and pillaged public storehouses, churches and houses.<ref name="Latimer2009">{{cite book|first=Jon|last=Latimer|title=Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_ouD5zPZL8C&pg=PA198|date=June 1, 2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03403-7|page=198|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731181243/https://books.google.com/books?id=P_ouD5zPZL8C&pg=PA198|archive-date=July 31, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> This raid and the establishment of the English settlement at [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charles Town]] spurred the Spanish Crown to finally acknowledge the vulnerability of St. Augustine to foreign incursions and strengthen the city's defenses. In 1669, [[Mariana of Austria|Queen Regent Mariana]] ordered the [[List of viceroys of New Spain|Viceroy of New Spain]] to disburse funds for the construction of a permanent masonry fortress, which began in 1672.<ref name="Raab200710–11">{{cite book|first=James W.|last=Raab|title=Spain, Britain and the American Revolution in Florida, 1763–1783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCc8BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|date=November 5, 2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-3213-4|pages=10–11|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227021831/https://books.google.com/books?id=eCc8BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|archive-date=February 27, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Before the fortress was completed, French buccaneers [[Michel de Grammont]] and [[Nicolas Brigaut]] planned an ill-fated attack in 1686 which was foiled: their ships were run aground, Grammont and his crew were lost at sea, and Brigaut was captured ashore by Spanish soldiers.<ref name="Marley-Pirates of the Americas">{{cite book |last=Marley |first=David |title=Pirates of the Americas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bU6ML_VnXTwC |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, CA |date=2010 |access-date=September 12, 2017 |isbn=9781598842012}}</ref> The [[Castillo de San Marcos]] was completed in 1695, not long before an attack by [[James Moore Sr.|James Moore]]'s forces from Carolina in November, 1702. Failing to capture the fort after a [[Siege of St. Augustine (1702)|siege of 58 days]], the British set St. Augustine ablaze as they retreated.<ref name="Edgar199893">{{cite book|first=Walter B.|last=Edgar|title=South Carolina: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC&pg=PA93|year=1998|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-57003-255-4|page=93|access-date=2016-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227015541/https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC&pg=PA93|archive-date=2017-02-27|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1738, the governor of Spanish Florida, [[Manuel de Montiano]], ordered a settlement be constructed two miles north of St. Augustine for the growing [[Free Negro|Free Black]] community established by [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive slaves]] who had escaped into Florida from the [[Thirteen Colonies]]. This new community, [[Fort Mose Historic State Park|Fort Mose]], would serve as a military outpost and buffer for St. Augustine, as the men accepted into Fort Mose had enlisted in the Florida militia and converted to Catholicism in exchange for their freedom.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fort Mose |url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/research/st-augustine/fort-mose/ |website=Florida Museum |date=August 9, 2017 |access-date=May 21, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Landers |first=Jane |title=What Catholic Church records tell us about America's earliest black history |url=http://theconversation.com/what-catholic-church-records-tell-us-about-americas-earliest-black-history-109709 |website=The Conversation |date=February 27, 2019 |access-date=May 21, 2021}}</ref>

In 1740, however, St. Augustine was again besieged, this time by the governor of the British [[Province of Georgia|colony of Georgia]], General [[James Oglethorpe]], who was also unable to take the fort.<ref name="Baine2000">{{cite journal |last=Baine |first=Rodney E. |title=General James Oglethorpe and the Expedition Against St. Augustine |journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly |publisher=Georgia Historical Society |volume=84 |issue=2 Summer |page=198 |date=2000 |jstor=40584271}}</ref>

===Loyalist haven under British Period===
{{main|Treaty of Paris (1763)|East Florida|Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War}}
{{see also|Seven Years' War|French and Indian War|American Revolutionary War|Spain and the American Revolutionary War}}
The [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|1763 Treaty of Paris]], signed after [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]'s victory over France and Spain during the [[Seven Years' War]], ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for the return of [[Havana]] and [[Manila]]. Many Spanish settlers in the region left Florida for [[Captaincy General of Cuba|Cuba]] and, because of the political sympathies of its British inhabitants, St. Augustine became a [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] haven during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name="Griffin1991108">{{cite book|first=Patricia C.|last=Griffin|title=Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768–1788|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y22GAAAAIAAJ|year=1991|publisher=St. Augustine Historical Society|isbn=978-0-8130-1074-8|page=108|access-date=2016-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224073922/https://books.google.com/books?id=y22GAAAAIAAJ|archive-date=2016-12-24|url-status=live}}</ref>

After the mass exodus of St. Augustinians, Great Britain sought to repopulate its new territory. The London Board of Trade advertised 20,000-acre lots to any group that would settle in Florida within ten years, with one resident per 100 acres. Pioneers who were "energetic and of good character" were given 100 acres of land and 50 additional acres for each family member they brought. Under Governor [[James Grant (British Army officer, born 1720)|James Grant]], almost three million acres of land were granted in East Florida alone. Second stories were added to existing Spanish homes and new houses were built. Cattle ranching and plantation agriculture began to thrive.<ref name="NPS2018">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/the-british-period.htm|title=The British Period (1763–1784): Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)|last=Augustine|website=www.nps.gov|date=2018|access-date=2019-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616131226/https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/the-british-period.htm|archive-date=2019-06-16|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the 20-year British period, Britain took command of both the Castillo de San Marcos (renamed Fort St. Mark) and of [[Fort Matanzas National Monument|Fort Matanzas]]. They permanently stationed a small group of men at Fort Matanzas. Once war broke out, loyalist St. Augustine residents burned effigies of [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]] [[Samuel Adams]] and [[John Hancock]] in the plaza. Fort St. Mark became a training and supply base, as well as a [[prisoner-of-war camp]] where three signers of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and South Carolina's lieutenant governor [[Christopher Gadsden]] were held. Local militias composed of Florida, Georgia, and Carolina inhabitants formed the East Florida Rangers in 1776 and were reorganized to form the King's Rangers in 1779.<ref name="NPS2018" /> Spanish General [[Bernardo de Gálvez, 1st Viscount of Galveston|Bernardo de Gálvez]], harassed the British in West Florida and captured Pensacola. Fears that the Spanish would then move to capture St. Augustine, however, proved unfounded.<ref>{{cite web |title=The British Period (1763–1784) – Fort Matanzas National Monument |url=https://www.nps.gov/foma/learn/historyculture/the-british-period.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006082948/https://www.nps.gov/foma/learn/historyculture/the-british-period.htm |archive-date=2017-10-06 |access-date=2019-06-18 |website=U.S. National Park Service}}</ref>

The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|1783 Treaty of Paris]], which recognized the independence of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] as the [[United States]], ceded Florida back to Spain and returned the Bahamas to Britain. As a result, some of the town's Spanish residents returned to St Augustine. Refugees from Dr. [[Andrew Turnbull (colonist)|Andrew Turnbull]]'s troubled settlement in [[New Smyrna Beach, Florida|New Smyrna]] had fled to St. Augustine in 1777, made up the majority of the city's population during British period, and remained when the Spanish Crown took control again. This group was, and still is, referred to locally as "[[Minorcans of Florida|Menorcans]]", even though it also included settlers from Italy, [[Corsica]] and the [[Greek islands]].<ref name="Landers2000">{{cite book|first=Jane G.|last=Landers|title=Colonial Plantations and Economy in Florida|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFaWIDIJ1MEC&pg=PA41|year=2000|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1772-3|pages=41–42|access-date=2016-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731131526/https://books.google.com/books?id=WFaWIDIJ1MEC&pg=PA41|archive-date=2016-07-31|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Griffin1991">{{cite book|first=Patricia C.|last=Griffin|title=Mullet on the Beach: The Menorcans of Florida, 1768–1788|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y22GAAAAIAAJpg|year=1991|publisher=St. Augustine Historical Society|isbn=978-0-8130-1074-8|pages=14–21}}</ref>

===Second Spanish period===
{{Main|Treaty of Paris (1783)}}
{{See also|War of 1812|Creek War|Seminole Wars#First Seminole War}}
During the [[Spanish Florida#Second Spanish period|Second Spanish period]] (1784–1821) of Florida, Spain was dealing with [[Napoleonic Wars|invasions]] of the Iberian peninsula by [[Napoleon]]'s armies in the [[Peninsular War]], and struggled to maintain a tenuous hold on its territories in the western hemisphere as [[Spanish American wars of independence|revolution]] swept South America. The royal administration of Florida was neglected, as the province had long been regarded as an unprofitable backwater by the Crown. The United States, however, considered Florida vital to its political and military interests as it expanded its territory in North America, and maneuvered by sometimes clandestine means to acquire it.<ref name="Writers1940">{{cite book|author=Writers' Program (Fla.)|title=Seeing Fernandina: A Guide to the City and Its Industries|url=https://archive.org/stream/seeingfernandina00writ#page/n22/mode/1up|access-date=3 May 2013|year=1940|publisher=Fernandina News Publishing Company|page=23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903180720/https://archive.org/stream/seeingfernandina00writ#page/n22/mode/1up|archive-date=3 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> On October 5, 1811, a hurricane hit St. Augustine that caused extensive damage to the city. The damage was further exacerbated by the economic situation of Spanish Florida.<ref name="Johnson2005">{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Sherry |title=The St. Augustine Hurricane of 1811: Disaster and the Question of Political Unrest on the Florida Frontier |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=Summer 2005 |volume=84 |issue=1 |pages=28, 41 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol84/iss1/1/ }}</ref> The [[Adams–Onís Treaty]], negotiated in 1819 and ratified in 1821, ceded Florida and St. Augustine, still its capital at the time, to the United States.<ref name="CrutchfieldMoutlon2015">{{cite book|first1=James A.|last1=Crutchfield|first2=Candy|last2=Moutlon|author3=Terry Del Bene|title=The Settlement of America: An Encyclopedia of Westward Expansion from Jamestown to the Closing of the Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lGusBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|date=26 March 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45461-8|page=51|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226215508/https://books.google.com/books?id=lGusBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|archive-date=26 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Territory of Florida===
{{main|Adams–Onís Treaty|Florida Territory}}
According to the Adams–Onís Treaty, the United States acquired East Florida and absolved Spain of $5 million of debt. Spain renounced all claims to West Florida and the Oregon Country. [[Andrew Jackson]] returned to Florida in 1821, upon ratification of the treaty, and established a new territorial government. Americans from older plantation societies of Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas began to move to the area. West Florida was quickly consolidated with East and the new capital of Florida became Tallahassee, halfway between the old capitals of St. Augustine and Pensacola, in 1824.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/a-brief-history/territorial-period/|title=Territorial Period – Florida Department of State|website=dos.myflorida.com|access-date=2019-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305062541/https://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/a-brief-history/territorial-period/|archive-date=2019-03-05|url-status=live}}</ref>

Once many Americans had begun to immigrate to the new territory, it became apparent that there would be continued skirmishes with local Creek and Miccosukee peoples and white settlers encroaching on their land. The United States government favored removal policies, but local indigenous groups in Florida refused to leave without fighting. The nineteenth century saw three [[Seminole Wars]]. In 1823, territorial governor William Duval and James Gadsden signed the [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]], forcing Seminoles onto a four million acre reservation in central Florida. The Second Seminole War (1835–1842) was the longest war of Indian removal and resulted when the United States government attempted to move the [[Seminole]] people from Central Florida to a Creek reservation west of the [[Mississippi River]]. As a result of the Seminole War, Seminole [[prisoner]]s, including the prominent leader [[Osceola]], were held captive in the [[Castillo de San Marcos]], renamed Fort Marion after General [[Francis Marion]], who fought in the American Revolution, in the 1830s.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Seminole Incarceration |url=https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/seminole-incarceration.htm |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=16 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="Wickman2006">{{cite book |last=Wickman |first=Patricia Riles |title=Osceola's Legacy |date=2006 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-5332-2 |pages=101–102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5N_-gr9us8C&pg=PA101}}</ref>

By 1840, the territory's population had reached 54,477 people. Half the population were enslaved Africans. [[Steamboat]]s were popular on the [[Apalachicola River|Apalachicola]] and [[St. Johns River]]s, and there were several plans for railroad construction. The territory south of present-day Gainesville was sparsely populated by whites.<ref name=":1" />

In 1845 the Florida Territory was admitted into the Union as the State of Florida.<ref name="Stathis2014">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CkR1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|title=Landmark Legislation 1774–2012: Major U.S. Acts and Treaties|first=Stephen W.|last=Stathis|date=2 January 2014|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4522-9229-8|page=78|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226222759/https://books.google.com/books?id=CkR1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|archive-date=26 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Civil War===
{{Main|Florida in the American Civil War}}
[[File:The Old Slave Market, St. Augustine, Florida- (6892781474) (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|[[Slave market|Slave Market]], St. Augustine, Florida in 1886]]
On January 7, 1861, only three days before Florida would secede and join the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], a group of 125 Florida militia marched on [[Castillo de San Marcos|Fort Marion.]] The fort was guarded by a single sergeant, who surrendered the fort after being provided with a receipt. [[Robert E. Lee|Gen. Robert E. Lee]], who was commander of coastal defenses at the time, ordered that the fort's cannons be removed and sent to more strategic locations, such as [[Fernandina Beach, Florida|Fernandina]] and the mouth of the [[St. Johns River]].<ref name="Omega1952">{{cite journal |last1=Omega |first1=G. East |title=St. Augustine during the Civil War |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=October 1952 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=75–76 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol31/iss2/1/ |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref>

The town raised a Confederate militia unit, known as the Florida Independent Blues or the [[Saint Augustine Blues]].<ref name="Ethier2011">{{cite book |last1=Ethier |first1=Eric |title=The Big Book of Civil War Sites: From Fort Sumter to Appomattox, a Visitor's Guide to the History, Personalities, and Places of America's Battlefields |year=2011 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-7627-6632-1 |page=407 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5C0M-hnUYMAC&pg=PA407}}</ref> They were soon joined by the Milton Guard, another militia unit.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bittle |first=George |title=Florida Prepares for War, 1860-1861 |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=October 1972 |volume=51 |issue=2 |page=144 |url=http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/dl/SN00154113.pdf |access-date=July 16, 2022}}</ref>

In an effort to help blockade runners avoid capture, the Confederate government ordered all lighthouses to be extinguished. In St. Augustine, the customhouse officer, [[Paul Arnau]], organized the "Coastal Guard", a group who worked to disable the lighthouses along Florida's east coast. They started by removing and hiding the lenses from the [[St. Augustine Light]] before moving south. After successfully dismantling the lighthouses at [[Cape Canaveral Light|Cape Canaveral]], [[Jupiter Inlet Light|Jupiter Inlet]], and [[Cape Florida Light|Key Biscayne]], Arnau returned to St. Augustine. He would then serve as mayor from 1861 until early 1862, just before the Federals took over the city.<ref>{{cite book |last=Redd |first=Robert |title=St. Augustine and the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kut2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT18 |year=2014 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=9781625846570 |page=18 |edition=e-book}}</ref>

The Confederate authorities remained in control of St. Augustine for fourteen months, although it was barely defended. The Union conducted a blockade of shipping. In 1862 Union troops gained control of St. Augustine and controlled it through the rest of the war. With the economy already suffering, many residents fled.<ref name="ClaytonSalmond2003">{{cite book|first=Barbara E.|last=Mattick|editor-first1=Bruce |editor-last1=Clayton |editor-first2=John A.|editor-last2=Salmond|title=Lives Full of Struggle and Triumph: Southern Women, Their Institutions, and Their Communities|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BrnyY4NDGAAC&pg=PA117|year=2003|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-3117-0|page=117|chapter=The Catholic Nuns of St. Augustine (1859–1869)|access-date=2016-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227071528/https://books.google.com/books?id=BrnyY4NDGAAC&pg=PA117|archive-date=2017-02-27|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Taylor2001">{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Taylor|title=Discovering the Civil War in Florida: A Reader and Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkEbc53Xq5sC&pg=PA127|year=2001|publisher=Pineapple Press Inc|isbn=978-1-56164-235-9|page=127|access-date=2016-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731131043/https://books.google.com/books?id=tkEbc53Xq5sC&pg=PA127|archive-date=2016-07-31|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Henry Flagler and the railroad===
[[File:San Marco Hotel.jpg|thumb|St. Augustine in 1891 from the former San Marco Hotel, Spanish St. on left, [[Huguenot Cemetery]] lower left corner, Cordova St. on right]]
[[Henry Flagler]], a co-founder with [[John D. Rockefeller]] of the [[Standard Oil Company]], spent the winter of 1883 in St. Augustine with his second wife Ida Alice (née Shourds) Flagler and found the city charming, but considered its hotels and transportation systems inadequate.<ref name="Martin2010">{{cite book|author=Sidney Walter Martin|title=Florida's Flagler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOk0_6_4ep0C&pg=PA130|date=1 February 2010|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-3488-2|page=130|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226200256/https://books.google.com/books?id=pOk0_6_4ep0C&pg=PA130|archive-date=26 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> He had the idea to make St. Augustine a winter resort for wealthy Americans from the north, and to bring them south he bought several short line railroads and combined these in 1885 to form the [[Florida East Coast Railway]]. He built a railroad bridge over the St. Johns River in 1888, opening up the Atlantic coast of Florida to development.<ref name="Cox2016">{{cite book|first=Jim|last=Cox|title=Rails Across Dixie: A History of Passenger Trains in the American South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gY4FgCKdb7UC&pg=PA85|date=24 February 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-6175-2|page=85|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226170816/https://books.google.com/books?id=gY4FgCKdb7UC&pg=PA85|archive-date=26 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ManleyBrown1997">{{cite book|first1=Walter W.|last1=Manley|first2=E. Canter|last2=Brown|first3=Eric W.|last3=Rise|author4=Florida Supreme Court Historical Society|title=The Supreme Court of Florida and Its Predecessor Courts, 1821–1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DZsiFB1Oj8C&pg=PA263|year=1997|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1540-8|page=263|access-date=2016-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226193520/https://books.google.com/books?id=6DZsiFB1Oj8C&pg=PA263|archive-date=2017-02-26|url-status=live}}</ref>

Flagler finished construction in 1887 on two large ornate hotels in the city, the 450-room [[Hotel Ponce de Leon]] and the 250-room [[Lightner Museum#Hotel Alcazar|Hotel Alcazar]]. The [[Ponce de Leon Hotel|Hotel Ponce de Leon]] was powered by Edison Electric, making it one of the nation's first electrified buildings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hotel Ponce de Leon becomes Flagler College {{!}} Flagler College |url=https://www.flagler.edu/about/our-history/hotel-ponce-de-leon-becomes-flagler-college |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=www.flagler.edu |language=en}}</ref> The next year, he purchased the [[Casa Monica Hotel]] (renaming it the Cordova Hotel) across the street from both the Alcazar and the Ponce de Leon. His chosen architectural firm, [[Carrère and Hastings]], radically altered the appearance of St. Augustine with these hotels, giving it a [[skyline]] and beginning an architectural trend in the state characterized by the use of the [[Spanish Renaissance architecture|Spanish Renaissance Revival]] and [[Moorish Revival architecture|Moorish Revival]] styles. With the opening of the Ponce de Leon in 1888, St. Augustine became the winter resort of American high society for a few years.<ref name="Martin2010117–118">{{cite book|author=Sidney Walter Martin|title=Florida's Flagler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOk0_6_4ep0C&pg=PA117|date=1 February 2010|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-3488-2|pages=117–118|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227011128/https://books.google.com/books?id=pOk0_6_4ep0C&pg=PA117|archive-date=27 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> 

When Flagler's [[Florida East Coast Railroad]] was extended southward to [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]] and then [[Miami]] in the early 20th century, the wealthy stopped in St. Augustine en route to the southern resorts. Wealthy vacationers began to customarily spend their winters in South Florida, where the climate was warmer and freezes were rare. St. Augustine nevertheless still attracted tourists, and eventually became a destination for families traveling in automobiles as new highways were built and Americans took to the road for annual summer vacations. The tourist industry soon became the dominant sector of the local economy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Tourism USA: Guidelines for Tourism Development : Appraising Tourism Potential, Planning for Tourism, Assessing Product and Market, Marketing Tourism, Visitor Services, Sources of Assistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcFMAQAAMAAJ&q=%22mainstream%22|year=1991|publisher=The University of Missouri|page=87|access-date=2016-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226175550/https://books.google.com/books?id=JcFMAQAAMAAJ&q=%22mainstream%22|archive-date=2017-02-26|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Civil Rights Movement===
{{Main|St. Augustine movement}}
In 1963, nearly a decade after the Supreme Court ruling in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' that segregation of schools was unconstitutional, [[African American]]s were still trying to get St. Augustine to integrate the public schools in the city. They were also trying to integrate public accommodations, such as lunch counters,<ref name="BullockRozell2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Q16Kv6J9OUC&pg=PA160|title=The Oxford Handbook of Southern Politics|first1=Charles S. III|last1=Bullock|first2=Mark J.|last2=Rozell|date=15 March 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538194-8|page=160|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731122203/https://books.google.com/books?id=9Q16Kv6J9OUC&pg=PA160|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> and were met with arrests<ref name="TheCrisis1963">{{cite journal|title=The Crisis|author=<!--Not stated-->|journal=The New Crisis|publisher=The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.|year=1963|page=412|issn=0011-1422|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1sEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA412 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731191705/https://books.google.com/books?id=s1sEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA412|archive-date=2016-07-31|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Ku Klux Klan]] violence.<ref name="Ramdin2004">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXC0pCB13BYC&pg=PA88|title=Martin Luther King, Jr|first=Ron|last=Ramdin|publisher=Haus Publishing|year=2004|isbn=978-1-904341-82-6|page=88|access-date=2017-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731181238/https://books.google.com/books?id=gXC0pCB13BYC&pg=PA88|archive-date=2016-07-31|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Jackson2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YwXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA190|title=From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice|first=Thomas F.|last=Jackson|date=17 July 2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0000-3|page=190|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731141319/https://books.google.com/books?id=6YwXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA190|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Local students held protests throughout the city, including sit-ins at the local [[F. W. Woolworth Company|Woolworth's]], picket lines, and marches through the downtown. These protests were often met with police violence. Homes of African Americans were firebombed,<ref name="FBI1964">{{cite web|url=http://cdm16000.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16000coll4/id/732|title=FBI Report of 1964-02-08|website=OCLC|publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation|page=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706114831/http://cdm16000.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16000coll4/id/732|archive-date=July 6, 2008|quote=(redacted) St. Augustine, Florida, advised that what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the back of his house at the above address causing a serious fire.}}</ref> black leaders were assaulted and threatened with death, and others were fired from their jobs.

In the spring of 1964, St. Augustine civil rights leader [[Robert Hayling]]<ref name="Kirk2014">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVvJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103|title=Martin Luther King Jr.|first=John|last=Kirk|date=6 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-87650-2|pages=103–104|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731125815/https://books.google.com/books?id=iVvJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> asked the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC) and its leader [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] for assistance.<ref name="Webb2011">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dDQ6ZWRTzYC&pg=PA169|title=Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era|first=Clive|last=Webb|date=15 August 2011|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4229-0|page=169|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731182458/https://books.google.com/books?id=-dDQ6ZWRTzYC&pg=PA169|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> From May until July 1964, King and Hayling, along with [[Hosea Williams]], [[C. T. Vivian]], [[Dorothy Cotton]], [[Andrew Young]] and others, organized marches, sit-ins, pray-ins, wade-ins and other forms of protest in St. Augustine. Hundreds of black and white civil rights supporters were arrested,<ref name="Singleton2014">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-QjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|title=Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement and Thereafter: Profiles of Lessons Learned|first=Dorothy M.|last=Singleton|date=18 March 2014|publisher=UPA|isbn=978-0-7618-6319-9|page=28|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731182548/https://books.google.com/books?id=B-QjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> and the jails were filled to capacity.<ref name="Harper's1965">{{cite web|url=http://harpers.org/archive/1965/01/anarchy-in-st-augustine/5/|title=Anarchy in St. Augustine|first1=Larry|last1=Goodwyn|date=January 1965|website=Harpers.org|publisher=Harper's Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421172532/http://harpers.org/archive/1965/01/anarchy-in-st-augustine/|archive-date=April 21, 2015|quote=Sheriff Davis was beginning to use harsh treatment against demonstrators who were in jail. He would herd both men and women into a chain link pen in the yard in a 99-degree sun; he kept them there all day. Water was insufficient and there was no latrine. At night the prisoners were crowded in small cells without room to lie down.}}</ref> At the request of Hayling and King, civil rights supporters from elsewhere, including students, clergy, activists and well-known public figures, came to St. Augustine and were arrested together.<ref name="VorspanSaperstein1998">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/jewishdimensions0000vors|url-access=registration|title=Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice: Tough Moral Choices of Our Time|first1=Albert|last1=Vorspan|first2=David|last2=Saperstein|publisher=UAHC Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8074-0650-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jewishdimensions0000vors/page/204 204]–205|access-date=2017-08-12}}</ref><ref name="Haynes2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzuT4WkuiBUC&pg=PA44|title=The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation|first=Stephen|last=Haynes|date=8 November 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-539505-1|page=44|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731181210/https://books.google.com/books?id=fzuT4WkuiBUC&pg=PA44|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Branch2007">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC&pg=PA606|title=Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–65|first=Taylor|last=Branch|date=16 April 2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4165-5870-5|page=606|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731131444/https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC&pg=PA606|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

St. Augustine was the only place in Florida where King was arrested; his arrest there occurred on June 11, 1964, on the steps of the [[Monson House|Monson Motor Lodge's]] restaurant. The demonstrations [[1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests|came to a climax when a group of black and white protesters jumped into the hotel's segregated swimming pool]]. In response to the protest, James Brock, the manager of the hotel and the president of the Florida Hotel & Motel Association, poured [[Hydrochloric acid|muriatic acid]] into the pool to scare the protesters. Photographs of this, and of a policeman jumping into the pool to arrest the protesters, were broadcast around the world. One appeared on the front page of the Washington paper the day the senate went to vote on the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It became the most famous photograph ever taken in St. Augustine.

The Ku Klux Klan and its supporters responded to these protests with violent attacks that were widely reported in national and international media.<ref name="Curtis1998">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCclwnUIo08C&pg=PT99|title=Black Heritage Sites: The South|first=Nancy C.|last=Curtis|date=1 August 1998|publisher=The New Press|isbn=978-1-56584-433-9|page=99|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731174401/https://books.google.com/books?id=FCclwnUIo08C&pg=PT99|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Popular revulsion against the Klan and police violence in St. Augustine generated national sympathy for the black protesters and became a key factor in Congressional passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]],<ref name="PitreGlasrud2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQwxmc7KH2sC&pg=PT43|title=Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement|first1=Merline|author1-link= Merline Pitre|last1=Pitre|first2=Bruce A.|last2=Glasrud|date=20 March 2013|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=978-1-60344-999-1|page=43|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731141025/https://books.google.com/books?id=vQwxmc7KH2sC&pg=PT43|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> leading eventually to passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]],<ref name="Goldfield2006">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4il1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT201|title=Encyclopedia of American Urban History|first=David|last=Goldfield|date=7 December 2006|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4522-6553-7|page=201|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731190917/https://books.google.com/books?id=4il1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT201|archive-date=31 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> both of which provided federal enforcement of [[Reconstruction Amendments|constitutional rights]].

St. Augustine's historically Black college, now [[Florida Memorial University]], felt itself unwelcome in St. Augustine, and departed in 1968 for a new campus near [[Opa-locka, Florida|Opa-locka]] in [[Miami-Dade County|Dade County]]. It is currently located in the [[Opa-locka North, Florida|Opa-locka North]] neighborhood of [[Miami Gardens, Florida|Miami Gardens]], next to [[St. Thomas University (Florida)|St. Thomas University]].<ref name="Marcof2021">{{cite news |last1=Marcof |first1=Bianca |title=Florida Memorial University fights for its future |url=https://www.miamitimesonline.com/news/florida-memorial-university-fights-for-its-future/article_2f500f4e-dcea-11eb-b7b8-e3197c7ff178.html |access-date=18 February 2023 |work=The Miami Times |date=July 6, 2021}}</ref>

===Modern St. Augustine===
In 1965, St. Augustine celebrated the 400th anniversary of its founding,<ref>{{cite book|title=History News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlrjAAAAMAAJ&q=%22year-long%20birthday%20party%22|volume=20–21|year=1965|publisher=American Association for State and Local History|page=208|access-date=2016-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226200414/https://books.google.com/books?id=IlrjAAAAMAAJ&q=%22year-long%20birthday%20party%22|archive-date=2017-02-26|url-status=live}}</ref> and jointly with the State of Florida, inaugurated a program to restore part of the city. The [[Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board]] was formed to reconstruct more than thirty-six buildings to their historical appearance, which was completed within a few years. When the State of Florida abolished the Board in 1997, the City of St. Augustine assumed control of the reconstructed buildings, as well as other historic properties including the [[Government House (St. Augustine)|Government House]]. In 2010, the city transferred control of the historic buildings to [[University of Florida Historic St. Augustine, Inc.|UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc.]], a direct support organization of the [[University of Florida]].

[[Cross and Sword]] was a 1965 [[play (theatre)|play]] by American playwright [[Paul Green (playwright)|Paul Green]] created to honor the 400th anniversary of the settlement of St. Augustine. It was [[Florida]]'s official state play, having received the designation by the [[Florida Senate]] in 1973.<ref name="flher-play">[http://www.flheritage.com/facts/symbols/symbol.cfm?page=2&id=21 Florida State Symbols - The State Play: Cross and Sword] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607081614/http://www.flheritage.com/facts/symbols/symbol.cfm?page=2&id=21 |date=June 7, 2008 }}</ref> It was performed for ten weeks every summer in St. Augustine for more than 30 years, closing in 1996.<ref name=njo082108>{{cite web |url=http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Entertainment/Music/entMUS01082108.htm |title=Amped at the amphitheatre |access-date=2008-09-07 |author=de Yampert, Rick |date=2008-08-21 |publisher=Daytona Beach News-Journal Online}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref>
<ref name=ocala082208>{{cite web |url=http://www.ocala.com/article/20080822/LIVING05/570971/1027&title=St__Augustine_gets_amped |title=St. Augustine gets amped |access-date=2008-09-07 |author=Reinink, Amy |date=2008-08-22 |publisher=Ocala Star Banner}}</ref><ref name="official-specs">[http://www.staugamphitheatre.com/specs.php St. Augustine Amphitheatre - Venue - Specs] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219160225/http://www.staugamphitheatre.com/specs.php |date=2008-12-19 }}</ref><ref name="guide-rajtar">{{cite book |title=A Guide to Historic St. Augustine, Florida |last=Rajtar |first=Steve |author2=Kelly Goodman |year=2008 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-1-59629-336-6 |pages=52–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyrHSTZUw0cC }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 2015, St. Augustine celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding with a four-day long festival and a visit from [[Felipe VI of Spain]] and [[Queen Letizia of Spain]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gardner|first1=Sheldon|title=King and queen of Spain to visit St. Augustine in September|newspaper=The St. Augustine Record|url=http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2015-07-16/spanish-ambassador-visits-clear-way-visit-king-and-queen|access-date=8 October 2016|date=July 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009202335/http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2015-07-16/spanish-ambassador-visits-clear-way-visit-king-and-queen|archive-date=2016-10-09}}</ref>

On October 7, 2016 [[Hurricane Matthew]] caused widespread flooding in downtown St. Augustine.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Martin|first1=Jake|title=Hurricane Matthew: Surveying damage in St. Augustine the morning after|newspaper=The St. Augustine Record|url=http://staugustine.com/news-local-news/2016-10-08/hurricane-matthew-surveying-damage-st-augustine-morning-after|access-date=8 October 2016|date=October 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009161322/http://staugustine.com/news-local-news/2016-10-08/hurricane-matthew-surveying-damage-st-augustine-morning-after|archive-date=9 October 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref>