St. Augustine Lighthouse

St. Augustine Lighthouse

St. Augustine was the site of the first lighthouse established in Florida by the new, territorial, American Government in 1824. According to some archival records and maps, this “official” American lighthouse was placed on the site of an earlier watchtower built by the Spanish as early as the late 16th century.[2] The Map of St. Augustine depicting Sir Francis Drake’s attack on the city by Baptista Boazio, 1589, shows an early wooden watch tower near the Spanish structure. By 1737, Spanish authorities built a more permanent tower from coquina taken from a nearby quarry on the island. Archival records are inconclusive as to whether the Spanish used the coquina tower as a lighthouse.

As the British took control of St. Augustine from Spain in 1763, in exchange for Havana, Cuba, the new government acted quickly to use the coquina watchtower as a light aid-to-navigation. In 1789, the Spanish once again took control of St. Augustine, and once again the lighthouse was improved. British engineer and Marine surveyor, Joseph F.W. Des Barres marks a coquina “Light House” on Anastasia Island in his 1780 engraving, “A Plan of the Harbour of St. Augustin.” Jacques N. Belline, Royal French Hydrographer, refers to the coquina tower as a “Batise” in Volume I of “Petit Atlas Maritime.” The accuracy of these scholars is debated still, Des Barres work includes some obvious errors, but Belline is considered highly qualified. His work provides an important reference to St. Augustine’s geography and landmarks in 1764. Facing erosion and a changing coastline, the old tower crashed into the sea in 1880, but not before a new lighthouse was lit. Today the tower ruins are a sumberged archaeological site whose smooth stones may still be seen at low tide.
Information taken from Wikipedia.

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