America's 1st Settlement Trail

Explore the trail

The America’s First Settlement Trail is a three-mile marked path through downtown Pensacola and the Pensacola Historic District. Along this trail are twenty stops and over seventy points of interest. Along the Trail you will see sites from as early as 1756, when the Spanish built Fort San Miguel in what is now downtown Pensacola. Tour over 260 years of history and learn the fascinating story of how Pensacola developed into the city you see today.

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Download a PDF of the America's 1st Settlement Trail.

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An Insider’s Look

You can experience a self-guided foot trip through that fascinating journey with America’s First Settlement Trail, a three-mile marked path through Downtown Pensacola.

Luna and First Settlement

In 1559, a Spanish expedition led by Tristán de Luna y Arellano, brought 1,500 soldiers, colonists, slaves, and Aztec Indians in 11 ships from Veracruz, Mexico, to Pensacola to begin the Spanish colonization of the northern Gulf Coast.

America's 1st Settlement Trail Map

1Plaza Ferdinand VII

Plaza Ferdinand VII is a National Historic landmark for being the site of the formal transfer of Florida from the rule of Spain to the United States.

2ZARAGOZA & JEFFERSON

When city leaders decided to build a new city hall in 1906, it was a natural choice to select the location facing Plaza Ferdinand VII, a site of much political activity in Pensacola’s past.

3100 BLOCK E ZARAGOZA

The M. F. Gonzalez Co. Wholesale Grain company, also known as Golay Mill, operated a grain dealership and grist mill out of a wooden building on the corner of Zaragoza and Tarragona streets in 1884 where the current parking lot is now located.

4200 BLOCK E ZARAGOZA

Historic Pensacola encompasses 8 1/2 acres and 28 properties, 11 of which are open to the public.

5SEVILLE SQUARE

The Dorr house was built by Clara Barkley Dorr in 1871 during a time of economic prosperity, partly the result of a thriving lumbering industry.

6400 Block E Zaragoza Street

Built in 1888, by sea captain Gustave Axelson, this two-story frame vernacular house features a two-story verandah facing Pensacola Bay.

7Intendencia Street

East Intendencia Street is one of the best-preserved early streets in Pensacola. The majority of the houses are Gulf Coast Creole Cottages and shotgun frame vernacular houses, built from 1810 to 1900.

8Alcaniz and Intendencia

The Pensacola Historic District was the first to be designated within the city of Pensacola – and is one of the oldest historic districts in the state of Florida.

9Garden & Alcaniz

Historical research and early maps indicate that the land in and around the St. Michael’s Cemetery was in use as a burying ground beginning in the mid to late 18th century.

10East Garden

Under the British city plan drawn by Ellas Durnford in 1764, each individual building lot was issued a corresponding garden lot.

11100 block N Palafox, east side

This site was once the location of the Escambia County Courthouse from 1885-1937.

12300 block N Palafox, east side

In 1867, this house was built for Danish sea captain Charles F. Boysen.

13Top of Palafox

In December of 1885, the Pensacola Water Company was established to provide a public and private supply of water in and near the city of Pensacola.

14500 block N Palafox, west side

Fort George was a fort built by the British atop Gage hill and was the largest of the trio of forts built upon the hill. The fort belonged to the British until the siege of Pensacola by the Spanish.

15300 block N Palafox, west side

Christ Church, founded in 1827, was incorporated by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida in 1829.

16100 block N Palafox, west side

Dr. Martin Luther King Plaza is a memorial park on the Palafox Street median between Chase and Gregory Streets.

17N Palafox

Pensacola’s first Methodist congregation was established in 1821 by Alexander Talley, M. D. It met in a series of small, wood frame churches until 1881, when construction of a three-story, Romanesque Revival sanctuary was begun on this site.

18South Palafox

The Thiesen Building, 40 S Palafox, represents a time of optimism in the business community of Pensacola.

19100 Block S Palafox

Many of the early commercial structures along Palafox were Frame Vernacular buildings using wood-frame construction. On December 11, 1880, a fire burned five blocks along Palafox Street, destroying over 100 businesses.

20200 Block S Palafox

As the economy of Pensacola grew in the early 1890s from to the success of the lumber industry and the port, banking became an important part of commerce.

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