A Cartographic History of the St. Augustine Lighthouse

If you’ve been to St. Augustine at night - walked along the coast to take in the sharp tang of brine and the close sound of ocean waves colliding with the shore - you probably have seen a light in the distance, revolving in mechanical circles as it sweeps over the dark water below. A …

Walls and Roads: From Bayfront to Avenida Menendez

Today, Avenida Menendez runs parallel to St. Augustine's seawall and the Matanzas River - from the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument to St. Francis Street. But did you know that Avenida Mendendez was once known as Bay Street? And before it became Bay Street, it was a coastal marsh? European settlement in this area …

A History Mystery: Who was Juan Garcia Martínez Gallegos?

At first glance, Gallegos House seems like an ordinary St. Augustine casa from the First Spanish Period (1513-1763). Juan Josef Elixio de la Puente on his 1764 map recorded the rectangular home built of ripio. He noted it belonged to Juan Garcia Martínez Gallegos. Almost two centuries later, the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board set …

Juan Josef Elixio de la Puente: The Man Behind The Map

On January 22, 1764, Juan Josef Elixio de la Puente completed Plano de la RL. Fuerza Baluartes y Linea de la Plaza de SN. Agustin de Florida . . . or Puente map for short. As one of the earliest detailed plans of St. Augustine, we mention this map a lot for its historical value. …

Mapping the Past

How do you map the past in a modern city? When structures disappear into history and roads shift with time, where do you look? In the Spring of 1981, archaeologists - led by Dr. Kathleen Deagan - set out to answer some of these questions for St. Augustine. They aimed to map St. Augustine's layout …

Pirate Attack : Drake and Searles Raid St. Augustine

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day! To commemorate this fun holiday, Governor’s House is retelling the tales of Sir Francis Drake and Robert Searles, two feared men who raided our town either to intimidate or gain material wealth. Sir Francis Drake was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I and a sworn enemy of Spain.  The …

On The Map : Boazio and Sir Francis Drake

On May 28 and 29, 1586, Sir Francis Drake orchestrated an attack on St. Augustine. Drake was ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to sail across the Atlantic with 25 ships and raid Spanish strongholds in the Caribbean and South America. Before St. Augustine, Drake and his fleet made stops in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. …

On the Map: Rocque’s Plano Particular

Elevacion, Vista, y Perfil que pasa por la Linea 1.2.3. [plan of barracks], Mariano de la Rocque. 1785. University of Florida Digital Collections. Ponce de Leon, Menendez, Flagler; these are the names that first come to someone’s mind when they think of the history of Saint Augustine. But what about Rocque? Mariano de la Rocque, …

On The Map: Colonial St. Augustine

On this day in 1764, Juan Josef Elixio de la Puente completed his map of the city of St. Augustine. The de la Puente map carries the distinction of being one of the earliest plans that shows the buildings of colonial St. Augustine. After the Treaty of Paris gave control of Florida to England, de …

Saint Augustine at the Library of Congress

Map of the town, fort, and entrance to the harbor of St. Augustine and vicinity, Florida, 1595]. Pen-and-ink tracing. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (167.00.00) Welcome to the blog for the University of Florida Historic Saint Augustine (UFHSA) Governor's House Library! Our library and archives are full of exciting and wonderful resources that …