St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum
Our story begins over two centuries before the birth of our nation, and over four decades before English settlers landed at Jamestown. The story, which like America itself is both maritime and multicultural, begins with the founding of the Spanish town of St. Augustine, America's oldest port, on the First Coast of Florida.
By the mid-sixteenth century King Philip of Spain felt an acute need to establish a coastal stronghold in the territory he claimed as “La Florida," a vast expanse including not only present-day Florida but most of the continent. The Atlantic coast of present-day Florida was strategically important for its proximity to Spanish shipping routes which followed the Gulf Stream. The two biggest threats to this transfer of wealth were enemy attacks and shipwrecks. A military outpost on the Florida coast could suppress attack while at the same time serve as a base for staging rescue and salvage operations for the increasing number of ships cast away on Florida's dangerous shoals.
With these maritime goals in mind, the King charged Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés with the task of establishing a foothold on Florida's Atlantic coast. St. Augustine was founded to guard Spanish shipping lanes, protecting these lanes from the French to the north, and ensuring trade from the Caribbean.
A Spanish watchtower or centinella was first established on the island in the 16th century, during the building of the Castillo De San Marcos when the crown realized that the real danger lay not in sailing in and attacking the town, but landing on and holding Anastasia Island, cutting off supplies and transportation by sea.
The watchtowers were so important that they were fortified with coquina (shell rock) and eventually lighted as lighthouses. When the British took over St. Augustine in 1763, they already had an established lighthouse system in their American colonies and it is possible that the tower first became a lighthouse during this time. However, it returned to being a Spanish watchtower in 1783 when the Spanish took control again. By 1824, the American Territorial Government controlled St. Augustine, and it was on this site that Florida's first lighthouse was lighted in May of that year. Ships flying the flags of every European power sailed and steamed into port. During the American Civil War the infamous Confederate Privateer and former slave ship Jefferson Davis wrecked here on the shallow bar, along with many other important vessels.
In 1874 a new lighthouse tower was completed with Federal funds following the Civil War. The transportation improvements attracted business men like Henry Flagler to the area. It is this candy-striped tower with it's red lantern top and it's original first order Frensel lens (pronounced fruh-nel) that still welcome's visitors today to hear the stories of the Nation's Oldest Port.
Come and take a behind the scenes tour of our archaeological labs to see the shipwreck artifacts we are saving for the State of Florida. Or simply climb the historic 1874 lighthouse tower, the 2nd in St. Augustine, for an amazing view of Florida's Historic Coast.
