Attractions in St. Augustine

St. Augustine offers numerous historical attractions that trace the city’s evolution from a Spanish fort to a popular Sunbelt resort community over the past four and a half centuries. Historical attractions include:

— America’s oldest wooden schoolhouse: Built over 200 years ago, while Florida was under Spanish control, the two-story schoolhouse was made of red cedar and cypress and held together with wooden pegs and handmade nails.

— Castillo de San Marcos: Built in 1672, the Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fortress in the U.S. Originally used to protect St. Augustine and Atlantic commerce, the fortress is made with coquina limestone, which proved to be unusually long-lasting because it could actually absorb or deflect cannonballs rather than gradually disintegrate under cannonball attack. Activities at the fortress include historic weapons demonstrations. There are rangers and volunteers in period dress around the fort. They will pose for pictures, answer your questions, and share stories about the lives and experiences of the colonists who lived in St. Augustine hundreds of years ago.

— Fort Matanzas National Monument: This monument preserves the fortified coquina watchtower, completed in 1742, which defended the southern approach to the Spanish military settlement of St. Augustine. It also protects approximately 300 acres of Florida coastal environment containing dunes, marsh, maritime forest, and associated flora and fauna, including threatened and endangered species.

— The former Ponce de Leon Hotel: Built by Henry M. Flagler, the famous railroad tycoon and co-founder of Standard Oil Company who transformed St. Augustine, Palm Beach and Miami into resort communities in the late 1800s, the former Ponce de Leon Hotel is considered to be one of the finest examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture on the East Coast. The hotel was built in 1888 by New York architects John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, the architectural duo who later designed the New York Public Library and the U.S. Senate Office Building. Although the building is no longer a hotel and currently houses Flagler College, tours of the historic building are still available.

— The Lightner Museum: This museum is housed inside the former Hotel Alcazar, which was also commissioned by Flagler in 1887 as part of his effort to transform St. Augustine into a resort community.  The museum highlights artifacts from America’s Gilded Age with costumes, furnishings, mechanical wooden instruments, Victorian art and stained glasswork from the late 19th century. 

— St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum: While the current lighthouse has been in operation since 1874, the maritime museum traces the histories of its lighthouse predecessors going back to the days of the Spanish explorers in the mid 1500s.

St. Augustine also has other unique attractions that are popular with travelers in Florida and across the country. These include:

— St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park, which offers include every living species of crocodile, as well as other animals, including exotic birds and reptiles from around the world. The park also offers daily wildlife shows.

— St. Augustine Distillery Company: Family owned and operated since 2013, Florida’s first legal distillery since Prohibition produces whiskey, rum, gin and vodka. The distillery is housed inside Florida’s first ice manufacturing plant, built in 1907. Self-guided tours are available.

— Whetstone Chocolate Factory: Established as a family business by Henry and Esther Whetstone in 1966, the factory offers tours that introduce visitors to the history of chocolate making as well as the Whetstone Chocolate Factory’s growth from a small ice cream shop to to a wholesale supplier for numerous retailers, including Nestle, Hershey and M&M Mars. The factory’s website says its tours are “decadently delicious” and are “designed for the chocoholic with a discriminating palette searching for the subtleties that that define artisan chocolates.”

There are several campgrounds in the St. Augustine area, including:

— Bryn Mawr Ocean Resort in St. Augustine.

— Pepper Tree RV Resort in St. Augustine.

— St. Augustine Beach KOA Holiday in St. Augustine.
 

Of course, with so many historical sites, it may not be surprising to find that some St. Augustine campground operators themselves have historical ties.

Frank Usina, who helped his father build North Beach Camp Resort in St. Augustine in the late 1960s, said his family’s roots in northwest Florida stretch back over 250 years. The Usinas left Menorca, Spain as indentured servants in the late 1700s, were assigned to work on an indigo plantation on New Smyrna Beach, south of Daytona, then migrated northward to St. Augustine after that. The Usinas eventually acquired property on North Beach and built North Beach Camp Resort, which they have continued to own and operate for the past half century.