Old Town Fernandina Land Plats – 1811-1821
Fernandina was the last city platted by the Spanish in the New World, thirty years after the plat of Los Angeles. The plat of what is now known as Old Town follows the traditional elements of city planning in the New World by the Spanish. A town plaza faced the harbor with streets laid out in a grid pattern with lots measuring 46 feet wide and 96 feet deep. The Spanish Governor’s order to rezone Fernandina was signed on May 10, 1811, and read as follows: “Whereas, for the purpose of regulating the town of Fernandina on the Island of Amalia in this province, which town your Governor has observed to grow day by day, and in Order to lend it greater usefulness, comfort and beauty, I, Governor (White) ordered the Surveyor General, George I. F. Clarke, to prepare a plat of that establishment and of possible improvements which could be made in it.” The land grants given here were originally published in the American Guide Series, “Seeing Fernandina: A Guide to the City and its Industries,” in 1940. The material was compiled from documents in Spanish land grants. Square 1 Half Lot 1: Granted to Miguel Mabrite, at some time previous to 1814, presumably to build a dwelling house. Half Lot 2: Granted to Jose Jimenez, who built an eating place on it about 1813. Half Lot 3: Granted to James Cashen, Subaltern (military) Judge of the Island of Amalia and the Frontier for the Spanish Government, about 1809....
