Pensacola's Urban Origins | Investigations

History lies not just in great events or famous people, but also in the everyday activities of society as a whole. The Colonial People of Pensacola Project investigated the cultural remains related to citizens who lived in small residential complexes around a military fortification that was the physical embodiment of Spanish and, later, British power on the Florida Gulf Coast. From the onset of European exploration in North America, Pensacola Bay was seen as a promising area for settlement. Ship captains and navigators considered the bay to be the best on the Gulf Coast. A serious settlement attempt in 1559 failed, but the Spanish tried again in 1698 and succeeded in occupying the Bay area. Around 1753 the Spanish established a small double-bastioned fort on the bay shore approximately three miles from the mouth of the bay, close to the site of an existing block house and mission.

The total population of the town in the early 1760s was around 800. While a majority of that number was associated with the military, there were about 100 civilians, 100 convicts and 100 converted Indians. Housing consisted of approximately 100 huts situated both in the fort and around the stockade. The structures were described as bark huts lacking fireplaces and windows as well as every other amenity. Pensacola was a poor outpost on a hostile frontier. At the conclusion of the Seven Years War in Europe, the 1762 Treaty of Paris transferred West Florida from Spain to Great Britain. Evacuating Pensacola in the fall of 1763, the Spanish left most of their property to be disposed of by the British, whose early reports on conditions in the town were most uncomplimentary.

One of the first steps taken by the British was to establish an orderly plan for the layout of the town. Twenty-eight blocks of lots were laid out on a north-south grid which surrounded the fort. Streets forming the grid were named after British monarchs, war heroes, and politicians. In order to obtain and keep a lot, grantees were required to build a house at least 15x30 feet in size which also had a brick chimney within two years. Each lot also had to be enclosed with a five foot high fence. Although no structures dating from the early Spanish settlement or the British occupation have survived above ground, there is plenty of evidence for what the town looked like. Foundation remains, historical accounts and early sketches of the town indicate that the structures in Pensacola were architecturally similar to structures in the West Indies. The British occupied Pensacola for eighteen years. During that time, Pensacola evolved from a small disorganized frontier settlement into a planned town. That order can still be seen in downtown today.
 

 

For the graduate supervisors involved in the Colonial People Project, field work began a week before the undergraduate crew arrived. The supervisors, aided by UWF mapping expert Lee McKenzie, projected the “footprints” of the colonial houses that once stood in Ferdinand Plaza. These projections were based on a 1765 British map. This map was digitized and over laid with the modern street map of Pensacola. The combination of the colonial map and the modern city map told UWF archaeologists exactly where to dig. The projected corners of the homes, outbuildings and fences were accurately set with a transit, a precision mapping instrument. The projected walls were then spray-painted on the ground as a visual reminder where the homes once stood.

Once the house locations had been projected, excavation trenches were placed in strategic locations in order to give excavators the best possible chance of finding the ruins of the old Spanish homes. As the crew excavated the test trench in the northern section of the plaza, they uncovered an architectural feature that was interpreted as the ruins of a wall to a Spanish home. The foundation was constructed of limestone rock fragments, possibly imported from a Spanish settlement to the east at San Marcos (St. Marks) south of Tallahassee. Another test trench in the northwestern corner of the plaza uncovered trash pits full of the remains of everyday colonial life. Trash pits were the common disposal method of early settlers. These pits were located right where archaeologists expected to find them: in the back and side yards near where the homes once stood. These and other archaeological remains were sealed by layers and layers of fill dirt that were brought in over the years to raise the ground surface of the plaza. The modern utility lines that service the city of Pensacola have not impacted the archaeological remains because of these layers of fill.

A larger excavation block (20 x 23 feet) along the north wall and in the "backyard" of a Spanish house was also opened. Here archaeologists found the brick and mortar remains of the Spanish house foundation and construction trenches and also a second wall which did not appear on the 1765 map. Numerous trash pits were also found. Surprisingly, most of the broken ceramics were British rather than Spanish. This indicated that although the Spanish built this large house, it was occupied by the British for several years after the British took over Pensacola. The broken ceramics and glassware were very finely made and suggest the house was occupied by a wealthy British family.