The oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States is St. Augustine, Florida, and not Jamestown, Virginia. After Ponce de Leon took possession of the area for Spain in 1513, Pedro Menendez de Aviles colonized the community for King Phillip II in 1565. Jamestown was not colonized until 1607.
In 1738, the Spanish established Fort Mose. This was an outpost in St. Augustine that consisted of 100 men, women and children who were mostly runaway slaves of the British. In order to keep their freedom, these former slaves were required to serve in the militia and convert to Roman Catholicism.
Potter's Wax Museum, in St. Augustine, is known as the oldest wax museum in the United States. It houses over 170 wax sculptures covering a wide variety of celebrities, sports stars, authors, poets and fictitious characters. There is also a theater and wax studio in the museum.
