"The practice of giving every street its own name is relatively recent. For most of the colonial period, the thoroughfares of St. Augustine were known simply as "the street of the Hospital", or "the street that goes to the barracks". During t he first Spanish Period (1565-1763) the present St. George Street was known as "the street of the governor", or "the street that goes to the land gate". It was not until the British came (1763) that it was named St. George in honor of King George III." [S t. Augustine and the Beaches", May-June 1995, Events magazine, The St. Augustine Record, St. Augustine]
In the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, St. George Street was known as San Patricio Street. [Arnade, p.21]
1702 - Thirty-one houses were destroyed by the Spanish commander as a strategy to control the Raid of 1702. Many of these houses were in the northern portion of St. George Street. Before leaving, the English burned the rest of the town destroying 118 additional structures. [Arnade, p.1]
1763- The map drawn by Pedro Castelló shows the existence of the city walls, but streets have no names. St. George Street seems to be more densely built than in 1788 from the data available in De la Rocque's map. In Castelló's map, St. Ge orge Street is not wider than any other street, and its width varies as it moves South.
By this time, the neighborhood on northern St. George Street was occupied by employees of the Crown, and St. George Street was known as the "Royal Street" - "Calle Real", an eighteenth century term. According to Arnade, proximity to the Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine's main structure, made of this area an important neighborhood. [Arnade, p.5, p.30]
1764 - The community in Spanish St. Augustine was said to be composed of racially mixed families. Settlements in the Indies were ruled by the concept of the two republics: the Spanish town and the "Indian" town. The Laws of the Indies placed restrictio ns upon the subjects' rights to reside in one of the "Republics", depending on the settler's race. However, intermarriage became so common that by mid-18th century, the concept was abandoned. [Margadant, p.17]
Circa 1734 on the "Street of the Governor" "Del Governador" (present St. George Street) the cacique Francisco Jospogue (Jospo) and his wife Agustine Pérez, a mestiza, resided. South of their home lived an Iberian-born soldier and a woman of a long time St. Augustine family. After Jospogue's death Agustina Pérez remarried Juan de Fuentes, and in 1770 relocated to Cuba. [Parker, p. 2: citing Kathleen Degan (1983: 104, 123)]
At that time, St. George Street was also known as "the street leading to the land gate" - "Calle que va a la Puerta de Tierra". Parker Waterbury and Arnade refer to this as eighteenth-century terminology.
In 1768 a school was established at the southeast corner of present day Bridge and St. George Street. [Parker Waterbury: 1983, p.136]
1769 - Chapin's Handbook of St. Augustine provides excerpts from Dr. William Stork's account of the city. Stork describes the streets as shady and narrow, and the town "is about half a mile in length, regularly fortifie d with bastions".
1777- Joseph Purcell, a surveyor who was part of Turnbull's colony (Andrew Turnbull was a Scottish physician with land development interests), made a map of St. Augustine the year that the Turnbull's colonists left New Smyrna to reestablish themselves in St. Augustine. The map provides the names for streets and alleys at that time. East-West streets/alleys:
Governor Tonyn allowed the new settlers, the refugees from New Smyrna, to occupy the area defined by Orange and Hypolita Streets between Bay and Cordova Streets. This zone had stood unoccupied since 1763. [ Griffin , p .106] The area became known as the "Minorcan Quarter", "Quarter of the Mahonese", "Greek Quarter", or "The Quarter". [Griffin] It maintained the name for almost one hundred years. [Griffin, p.105] Most of the settlers in this area of town decided to stay when Florida was ceded to the British. [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.37] Patricia C. Griffin has developed a map from de la Rocque's documentation.
"José Peso de Burgo, a shopkeeper and resident of the Quarter lived on one side of a duplex owned by Francisco Pellicer. Marcial Pons had his tavern in the center of the Quarter. Juan Carreras, the hangman's brother, sold rum and goods from his house on St. George Street." [Griffin, p.157]
1780's - Charlotte Street, also known as the "Street of the Merchants", was the most direct route between the military barracks and the Castillo. Charlotte Street passed through the two plazas and the most densily populated neighborhoods, including a commercial center at the intersection of St. George and Cuna Streets. Therefore, some conclude that Charlotte Street was the main local thoroughfare for the internal traffic of the city; wh ile St. George played a major role in the defense of the city, as well as maintaining its connection to farms and fields. [Griffin, p.137]
1783 - Towards the end of the British Period speed limits on the streets were restricted to a "moderate trot or pace even" on St. George Street. "In 1783 ruling provided that drivers of carts or wagons could not ride but should walk beside their horses
." [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.187]
The information for this section has been taken mainly from Mariano de la Rocque's descrition of St. Augustine and the 1790 Inventory
In 1788 the edges of St. George Street were not the most densely populated, but rather those blocks closer to the coast, along present day Charlotte and Marine Streets. The south end of town, where the military barracks were, was served by Spanish-run taverns. [Griffin , p.158]
In 1790 the Governor Juan Nepomuceno ordered a new list of all town properties, especially those belonging to the Spanish crown, to auction them off and pay for the repair and maintenance of new properties. [Parker Wat erbury 1994, p.39] Martin Hernandez, Master Carpenter, and Juan Castillo, Head Master Mason charged to conduct the inventory, counted 290 houses in St. Augustine: 114 rubble-masonry, 9 shell-rock, and 133 wood. On St. George Street, de la Rocque recor ds St. Augustine only house with a tile roof. [Manucy, p.109]
The names of the individuals who owned property, or lived in St. George Street in 1788 from de la Rocque's documentation are as follows:
Trade and services in the vicinity of St. George Street taken from de la Rocque's description:
Also listed in de la Rocque's description was an "English shoemaker" who lived at Block no.11, the tailor Eduardo Esten at Block no.14, Master Carpenter Rivera at Block no.12, Master Carpenter Hernandez at Block no. 28, a house used as a jail on Block no. 23, and a public slaughterhouse on Block no.19.
1843 - W.C. Bryant (American author, 1794-1878 described by Philip D. Rasico as a "Hispanophile from his youth") writes about St. Augustine:
"I have called the streets narrow. In few places are they wide enough to allow two carriages to pas s abreast. I was told that they were not originally intended for carriages, and that in the time when the town belonged to Spain, many of them were floored with an artifical stone composed of shells and mortar… and that no other vehicle than a hand -barrow was allow to pass over them."
1883 - The Ponce de Leon Celebration proceeded through St. George Street. [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.172] At this time, according to the memorial left by the Peck Family, St. George Street was "dusty". In the 18th-c entury, the royal treasurer Juan Estevan de Peña complains about the "wretched place" trudging sandy streets from his house to the Castillo." [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.23] This last statement places some doubts on the popular story about the coquina-covered streets.
1884 - Geo H. Chapin in his Handbook of St. Augustine compares the streets of the city with those of Venice "very narrow, vary in width from seven to eighteen or twenty feet". Chapin refers to Bay Street as the widest, and St. George St. as the one wit h the "most conspicuous buildings".
Chapin selects the "tasteful buldings" on St. George Street:
"May be noticed the handsome house of Mr. A.J. Alexander, of Kentucky [in 1899 L.S. Alexander, physician, is listed as living at 148 St. George], and the fine grounds and residence of the late Holmes Ammidown [in 1899, H.B. Ammi down 220 St. George], of New York. On the same street, north of the Plaza, stands the well-constructed mansion of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Moore [East St. George and Cathedral Place, today occupied by the Cathedral garde ns]. This street is also beautified by the pleasant residence of Mr. R.D. Bronson [252 St. George], of New York, the beautiful estate of Mr. J.L. Wilson [273 St. George], of Framingham, Mass.; the winter home of Col. Tyler, w hose garden abounds in rare plants, and is also noted for its noble date tree; the elegant grounds and stylish building, with the windmill, of Mr. George Lorillard, of New York
1887 - The Florida House on St. George Street, and the St. Augustine Hotel on the Plaza were among the buildings destroyed by a fire that consumed the block north of the Plaza between St. George and Charlotte Streets. [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.173]
1893 - Houses were numbered to facilitate residential mail deliveries. [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.185]
1890 - Cathedral Place, which runs perpendicular to St. George along the north side of the Plaza, is extended towards Cordova Street. Bishop's Block is directly affected by this change.
1914 - A fire spreads from St. George St. accross to Charlotte Street: "For years the burned area north of Treasury was not rebuilt." [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.190]
1917 - Frank A. Munsey, a magazine publisher and winter resident proposes in an interview conducted by the St. Augustine Record, that while St. George Street "is the logical business street of the city", it was " handicapped by its narrowness" and shou ld be widened and bordered by up-to-date houses." [Parker Waterbury 1994, p.191]
1920 - In a speech on Armistice Day, Dr. Andrew Anderson warns about "St. Augustine's threatened historical buildings," and denounces "the proliferation of the town's false antiquities and commercial tourist attractions." Anderson considered Dr. Peck's House as one of the town's historic buildings. [Parker Waterbury 1994 , p.198]
s u b t o p i c s / a b o u t the a u t h o r / b i b l i o g r a p h y
