Some in St Augustine who are watching with interest the transformation of the Dow Museum of Historic Homes into the Cordova Inn, say that the rhetoric used to pressure neighbors and influence members of the city’s two governing boards, city management, and city commission, limiting acceptable options for the subject real estate to either an upscale hotel or apartments, has been made because the new owner, David Corneal and his Old Island Hotels Inc., are trying to take advantage of an Internal Revenue Service 1031 tax exchange.

Four hundred and fifty years ago, on September 8, 1565, Captain-General Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés stepped ashore at Matanzas Bay and founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest, continuously occupied European city, port, and parish in the continental United States.

The third and fourth generation of stewards of America’s First Colony came together to unveil a statue of St Augustine’s founder, Pedro Menendez de Aviles; on the grounds of the Fountain of Youth property where, 450-years earlier, the Spanish conquistador actually stood.

Historic City News readers are invited to sample the traditions of St. Augustine’s Spanish, Minorcan and Greek ancestors during the “Maritime Folklife Festival” at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum on Saturday, September 5th, during the citywide 450th birthday celebration.

.For two weeks, from September 4th to 18th, Historic City News readers are invited to visit the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum on Sevilla Street to view 53 obelisks, decorated by professional artists and area school children, reflecting the four foundational values of St. Augustine’s 30-foot Constitution Monument in the local public square: freedom, democracy, human rights and compassion.