Letter: Salvage Fort Mose artifacts during Alcazar Gardens remodel

David Nolan
Proud Life Member of the Fort Mose Historical Society
St Augustine, FL

Dear Historic City News subscribers:

I would like to remind the community and members of the St Augustine Historic Architectural Review Board that the fill dirt used to build the Alcazar Hotel was taken from the 40-acre waterfront site of Fort Mose.

I bring this up because I would like you to make sure that any ground disturbance during the remodeling of the Alcazar Gardens is carefully monitored as a pre-condition of any construction or landscaping and that any items dating back to Fort Mose be carefully salvaged and preserved.

The fact that the archaeological remains of Fort Mose lie beneath what is now our City Hall, has always made me feel that we have the finest foundations for democracy of any government building in America.

In 1738, the Spanish governor of Florida chartered the settlement of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, as a settlement for those fleeing slavery from the English colonies in the Carolinas.  It is the site of the first legally sanctioned free African settlement in what is now the United States.

It was a working farm owned by a Union veteran of the Civil War named Batewell.  Henry Flagler bought the Fort Mose site in the 1880’s specifically to provide fill dirt for his hotel project.  He had his crews dig it up, then they ran it downtown on tracks, where it was dumped into the creek bed of the Maria Sanchez Lake.

The current style in archaeology is not to focus on sites that have been disturbed.  But in this case, artifacts from Fort Mose are so rare and significant that we should make an extra effort to preserve all we can and not carelessly throw them on the trash heap.

Today, Fort Mose Historic State Park is recognized as a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

I should think these artifacts would make an interesting exhibit, either in City Hall, the Lightner Museum or at the authentic Fort Mose site. I could see the new National Museum of African American History in Washington D.C. wanting to exhibit some of them.

Perhaps some Lightner Museum volunteers would like to hone their archaeological skills by contributing to this effort.