Saint Augustine, Florida

 city, county seat

City with a 2004 population of 12,157. County seat of St. Johns County. The oldest continuously occupied European-established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States. St. Augustine lies in a region of Florida known as The First Coast, which extends from Amelia Island in the north, south to Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Palm Coast.

The city was founded by the Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on September 8, 1565. Menéndez first sighted land on August 28, the feast day of Augustine of Hippo, and consequently named the settlement San Agustín. The settlement grew over the preceding years and came under repeated English and native attacks. The city became the de facto capital of the Spanish colony of Florida. In 1763, Florida was transferred to British control and most of what is now the state of Florida, minus much of the panhandle, was separated into the colony of East Florida, of which Saint Augustine became the capital.

East Florida remained Loyalist during the Revolution; St. Augustine was the site of anti-revolutionary demonstrations. In 1783 the terms that ended the war granted the colony back to Spain. The city remained the capital of the renamed Florida Oriental. In 1819 the colony was transferred to the United States, and St. Augustine remained the territorial capital until it was moved to Tallahassee.

Union troops occupied the city during the Civil War from 1862 onward. During the Civil Rights Movement, Klan violence against African-American protests were a major factor in swaying public opinion toward supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964.