Monument Restoration
The City of St. Augustine Plaza is the central fixture of the urban plan for the city, which was drafted by the Spanish Governor Gonzalo Mendez y Canzo about the year 1596 and then approved by royal authorities in Madrid, completing the first urban plan of any city in the United States. The Plaza is situated in the central part of the 22-block colonial town plan, whose outlines and streets remain largely intact more than four centuries later. Civic life in St. Augustine has swirled about the Plaza ever since. At its corners rest the Cathedral and Government House, representing the two great institutions of Spanish society. The monuments within and about the Plaza represent the long history and traditions of the city. The Constitution Monument (Monumento de la Constitucion) is one of the oldest civic monuments in the United States and represents an important episode in the history of Spain, St. Augustine's "Mother Country," and in the colonial history of Florida itself. Like, the Civil War Monument and World War I Victory Memorial Flagpole and Monument represent significant episodes in American history.
Colonial St. Augustine Foundation has received a Florida Dept. of State matching funds grant to restore three historic monuments that stand in and adjacent to St. Augustine's historic 16th-century Plaza. The immediate threat to all three monuments resides in their continuing deterioration, which must, sooner or later, be addressed and arrested.
You can help in this effort by purchasing an inscribed brick and/or making a donation to Colonial St. Augustine Foundation.
The Monumento de la Constitucion
This monument was erected in 1813, during the Second Period of Spanish Colonial Occupation, to commemorate promulgation of Spain's first democratic constitution, following the expulsion of the Napoleonic regime. In 1814, the constitutional government was overthrown and the monarchy restored, at which point Madrid ordered the destruction of all such monumnets throughout Spain's worldwide empire. St. Augustine officials, however, refused to destroy their monument, and today it remains perhaps the only surviving such monument in the world. The approximately 18-foot all pyramid-shaped monument was constructed of native coquina stone. It contains tablets describing its historic purpose. The stucco coating that protects the coquina stone is detaching itself, and the coquina is beginning a process of disintegration. That must be arrested and the stucco cover that adheres to the coquina restored.
The Civil War Monument
The Civil War Monument was erected in 1872. The approximately 20-foot all pyramid-shaped masonry monument contains the names of St. Augustine citizens who were killed in battle. The monumnet has never been cleaned or otherwise subjected to preservation treatment in its 131-year life. It requires stabilization and cleaning. 
The World War I Victory Memorial Flagpole and Monument
This war monument was erected in Anderson Circle, next to the Plaza, in 1923. The disintegrating decorative masonry needs to be restored and the base of the monument stabilized. The decorative iron base to the flagpole needs to be removed and the footing of the flagpole reviewed for rust and possibly repaired and re-stabilized. The flagpole at Anderson Circle may fall victim to a hard wind, especially one of hurrican force, if its base is as deteriorated as we suspect. But that cannot be determined without an expensive dismantling of the decorative ironwork encasing it.
