"Oldest, permanently occupied European... " a Saint Augustine Travel Page by BLewJay

Nearly every school child knows St. Augustine is the oldest, permanently occupied European settlement in the United States. Situated on the northeastern Atlantic Coast of Florida, the colonial city has kept a historical era suspended in time with 144 blocks of historic houses, many listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historical characters of the past whose legacy endures in St. Augustine include Ponce de Leon, whose spirited search for the legendary Fountain of Youth still captures the imagination, and renowned Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Avilis, who founded the city more than 435 years ago.

St. Augustine was founded in 1565 (42 years before the English colonized Jamestown and 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock). It is the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States. Near the end of the 19th century, oil magnate Henry Flagler envisioned St. Augustine as "America's Riviera," preserving much of its centuries-old structures and initiating a golden renaissance that added exciting new architectural and recreation features that turned the slumbering town into one of Florida's earliest resort locations.