Do Ghosts Haunt the Oldest City in the United States?
Stumble It!Where is St. Augustine?
St. Augustine According to Wikipedia
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously settled city established by Europeans in the continental United States. It was founded by the Spanish under Admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565. The first Christian worship service held in a permanent settlement in the continental United States was a Catholic Mass celebrated in St. Augustine. A few settlements were founded prior to St. Augustine but all failed, including the original Pensacola colony in West Florida, founded by Tristan de Luna y Arellano in 1559, with the area abandoned in 1561 due to hurricanes, famine and warring tribes. Fort Caroline, founded by the French in 1564 in what is today Jacksonville, Florida only lasted a year before being obliterated by the Spanish in 1565.
St. Augustine is the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, in the United States. Founded in 1565, it is the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States.National Historic Landmarks Program - St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District 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. According to the 2000 census, the city population was 11,592; in 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that its population had reached 12,157.Table 4: Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places in Florida, Listed Alphabetically: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004
The Ghosts of St. Augustine
Ghosts of St. Augustine
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 11/09/2009)
Author Dave Lapham has collected twenty-four stories from St Augustine's rich oral history into a light yet sometimes hair-raising peek at the spooky side of the Oldest City.
Haunted St. Augustine
Looking for a Ghost Tour?
- Welcome to Ghost Tours of St. Augustine
- Ghost Tours of St. Augustine, Florida offers award-winning supernatural ghost tours every night including seasonal and private tours with over 20 professional tour guides. Call today for professionally planned and historically accurate guide services.
- St.Augustine Ghosts - Haunted Walking and Trolley Tours - Ghostly Encounters
- Ancient City Ghost Tours of St. Augustine, Florida features nightly haunted walking tours, ghostly trolley tours, and ghostly horse drawn carriage tours. Ask us about our school and group discounts.
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- Haunted St Augustine Paranormal Field Investigations
- A SMALL GROUP EXPERIENCE, this interactive walking tour as they introduce you to the investigation of haunted sites. You will learn how to assess seeming haunted phenomena, and what does compromise an actual haunting.
- St. Augustine Haunted Tour | Ghosts & Gravestones
- St. Augustine tours: Ghosts and Gravestones haunted tours.
More Ghosts of St. Augustine
Ancient City Hauntings: More Ghosts of St. Augustine
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 11/09/2009)
St. Augustine is America's oldest city-and perhaps its most haunted. David Lapham's first volume, Ghosts of St. Augustine, has proven very popular. Enjoy another twenty-five hair-raising stories from the ethereal shadows of the Ancient City's murky past.
Why is St. Augustine so ghost-ridden, so filled with spirits? Since the release of Ghosts of St. Augustine, the Ancient City has been the subject of numerous television documentaries and paranormal investigations. Ghost tours have burgeoned. Few have been disappointed in their quests for supernatural experiences.
Come walk again with Dave Lapham through the dark, enduring streets of St. Augustine and shiver in the ice-cold pockets of air that smother you in the black of night, listen to the gentle lapping of the water along the bay front and the distant murmurs of French sailors being slaughtered on the river. Come visit the Oldest House, the Old Jail, Ripley's, the Oldest School House, and all the many haunted B&Bs and other establishments that harbor wandering souls and spirits from ancient times.
Chill to the ghosts you'll find in the Pumpkin Church, the Casa de La Paz and Casa de Sue%uFFFD Meet the warriors of Moultrie Creek, the ghost of the old Spanish Washer Woman, and the ghosts of the Minorcans. You'll encounter dogs and demons, herbal creations, and even ghost magnets.
Come explore these Ancient City hauntings.
St. Augustine Lighthouse
Built by the Spanish in the 1600s, this prominent attraction became and official U.S. lighthouse in 1824. Just because it's been here a long doesn't make it automatically haunted....does it? You be the judge.Does the ghost of Mr. Andreu, the original lighthouse keeper, still keep watch since he fell to his death while painting tower? A former lighthouse keeper claims to have heard footsteps following him during his rounds, as well as noticing the smell of cigar smoke.
The apparitions of a little girls have been seen by at the lighthouse on the catwalk. Could it be one of the three girls who drowned when a handcart in which they were playing in went off the tramway that was built to carry supplies from ships to the lighthouse during the 1870s? The girls were the daughters of Hezekiah Pittee, Superintendent of Lighthouse Construction.
Reports of a "Blue Man" in the basement and a woman who walks the yard outside and is sometimes seen on the staircase have been recorded. Visitors and workers have claimed to have seen shadows and heard voices and sounds.
Ghost Hunters: Return to St. Augustine Lighthouse
Spend the Night with a Ghost
Haunted B&Bs, Hotels and Inns
- St. Francis Inn
- Ask to stay in Lily's room on the 3rd floor and you might catch a glimpse of a young girl who used to be a house servant searching for her lover. Major William Hardee killed himself after he was forbidden to see his love again when his Uncle found out of his affair with Lily. She was dismissed and the depressed soldier either hung himself or jumped out of the window in what is now Lily's room.
- Casablanca Inn Bed and Breakfast St Augustine Florida
- This historic Inn was once owned by an elderly lady back in the 1920s. The story goes that she would aid booze smugglers during the prohibition by swinging a lantern to tell them if the coast was clear. People claim that you can still see the "ghost lantern" at night at the top of the Inn, especially from the waterfront. Guests in the Inn have claimed to feel cold spots, items disappearing and then re-appearing in odd places and an apparation in the hallways and staircases.
- Casa de Solana. A Bed and Breakfast Inn located in St Augustine Florida for unique B&B lodging.
- The Casa de Solana is the second oldest Inn in St. Augustine. Perhaps you will run into a mysterious blonde woman dressed in white. Ask to stay in the Montejurra room, which is one of the most haunted areas of the home. It seems that two ghosts haunt that room. You will be sharing your space with Mary and Victoria.
The ghosts at Casa de Solana are also seen on the grounds of the Inn. Supposedly there is a Spanish soldier who walks around the courtyard and entry way. The ghost is believed to be Fredrico but goes by Frederick. In the 1800's, he used to guard the entrance to the home. One day when he was protecting his home, he was chasing Indians away and was tragically killed when he was shot in the back by an arrow.
Books About Haunted Florida
Florida's Ghostly Legends And Haunted Folklore: North Florida And St. Augustine
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 11/09/2009)
List Price: $12.95
Florida's Ghostly Legends And Haunted Folklore: Volume One: South And Central Florida
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/09/2009)
List Price: $14.95
Haunted Florida: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Sunshine State
Amazon Price: $9.31 (as of 11/09/2009)
List Price: $10.95
Haunt Hunters Guide to Florida
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 11/09/2009)
List Price: $12.95
Haunted Daytona Beach (Haunted America)
Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 11/09/2009)
List Price: $19.99
Castillo de San Marcos
This historic Fortress is one of the first things you see when you come to St. Augustine. It's huge. And it's a major tourist attraction with historic tours and re-enactments. It's a definate must-see when visiting this historic city.Is it haunted? Well there are a few stories associated with the Fortress, but nothing really major, given the age and history. Sightings of a soldier leaning against a wall have been reported. Some people even claim to hear the old cannons firing. One ghostly story claims that an officer at the Fort caught his wife cheating on him. He put both the wife and her lover in the dungeon, shackled and chained. Then he had the room bricked up. Though nothing was recorded historically of this, in the 1830's an engineer had the wall removed and found 2 skeleton's shacked in the room. People have reported smelling sweet perfume in the area.
According to Wikipedia: "The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called "coquina", literally "little shells", made of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a type of stone similar to limestone. Workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba, to construct the fort. The coquina was quarried from Anastasia Island across the bay from the Castillo, and ferried across to the construction site. Construction lasted twenty-three years, being completed in 1695."
See a Video About the Castillo de San Marcos
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Haunted Places to Stay
Haunted Inns of America: Go and Know: National Directory of Haunted Hotels and Bed and Breakfast Inns
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Ghostly Encounters: True Stories of America's Haunted Inns and Hotels
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Texas Guide to Haunted Restaurants, Taverns, and Inns
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Let's Have a Discussion
Sign the Guestbook!
Bed-and-Breakfast-Deals wrote...
I love it! These types of paranormal things have always interested me...great lens! Thanks for sharing!
Posted April 10, 2009
poddys wrote...
Great lens, 5***** I love haunted history, and just worked with someone who moved from St. Augustine to South Florida too. He made it sound like a great place to live.
Posted February 24, 2009
Intuitive wrote...
I'm about to go on my first ghost hunt to a friend's farm that was a stagecoach stop here in Iowa. I'm a psychic medium but only just recently have I felt the pull to do the ghost hunting thing. 5*
Posted October 18, 2008
lou16 wrote...
Great lens, I've never been to Florida, but maybe one day and if I do I'll be sure to make sure we visit St. Augustine.
I've actually lived in two haunted houses in two different countries so maybe I'll have to visit the paranormal site.
Posted October 10, 2008
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