St. Francis Barracks

St. Francis Barracks is a historic structure constructed of coquina stone located on Marine Street in St. Augustine, Florida, named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. The barracks were constructed between 1724 and 1755 by monks of the Order of St. Francis, to replace a series of wooden buildings which had been destroyed by the ravages of the tropical climate in La Florida and by fire, both accidental fires and occasional intentional ones, such as when the city was razed by the English in 1702.

The barracks were turned into a military structure by the British in 1763, after Florida became a British possession at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. At that time, the Franciscan monks vacated St. Augustine, along with a majority of the other Spanish residents.

The name St. Francis Barracks also came to be applied to the military reservation which developed around the barracks, on the shore of the Matanzas River. There are several historic structures, including the King's Bakery, the only extant structure in St. Augustine constructed entirely within the twenty-year period of British occupation.

Today the St. Francis Barracks serve as the Florida State Arsenal, headquarters for the Florida National Guard and its two subordinate organizations, the Florida Army National Guard and the Florida Air National Guard. A portion of the area is also the site of the St. Augustine National Cemetery.

When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine for the Spanish Crown, Jesuit priests were among the initial colonists to provide for the spiritual needs of the settlers and to help convert the native Timucua Indians to Christianity. In the 1570s the Jesuits were replaced by monks of the Order of St. Francis who were allocated land in 1588 at the southern end of the city for their monastery and church, Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion (Our Lady of the Conception).

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