Secessionists in Charleston, South Carolina attack federal troops who still occupy Fort Sumter, which is an island fort in the Charleston Harbor. This was the first battle in the American Civil War.

A month before Abraham Lincoln would be sworn in as President, eleven southern states band together to form a new country. These rebel states were (in order of secession) South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Confederate troops occupy Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos). The White citizens of St. Augustine were generally supportive of this change of government, excepting the small number of Unionists who lived here.

The American Statehood Period begins.

With the signing of the Adam-Onís Treaty, Florida went from a Spanish colony to an American territory. To Americans, this opened up what had been an international southern border between the United States and Spain. A fascination with the Historic Coast as a land of antique wonder sprouted a tourist industry throughout the region. The climate of Florida also attracted many sick northerners during the winter, and St. Augustine's status as a convalescence retreat started to grow.

This treaty between the United States of America and Spain transferred ownership of East and West Florida to the U.S.

This two story mansion is made out of coquina, a stone native to Florida, and is one of a short list of buildings constructed by the Spanish that is still standing. It is now a house museum with rooms decorated to depict life in an 1800s boarding house.