History of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt (Roanoke Island, 1585). The Spanish didn't just explore, they settled, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico also predates Jamestown, Virginia (of Pocahontas fame, founded in 1607) and Plymouth Colony (of "Mayflower", Pilgrims and Thanksgiving fame). In 1566 Pedro Menendez established Fort San Felipe on Santa Elena- which is present day Parris Island near Beaufort South Carolina. The fort was part of the Spanish King’s ongoing effort to
Saint Augustine Historical Society history of Saint Augustine, colonial East Florida, and Saint Johns County. The collection includes maps, photographs, vertical subject files, church records, circuit court cases, city government records, manuscript collections, circuit court records, and biographical files. It is a closed-stack library with a small reference collection in the main reading room, and is free to the public. The two hundred and thirty year-old building was built as a private residence and was the birthplace of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith (1824). It was given in trust to the Saint Augustine Library Association in 1895, and was a free public library until