Old Fort Park Ruins

History of the Old Fort Park Ruins

The Old Fort Park Ruins in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, have conclusively been around since the 18th century, but their origin remains a mystery. Was it a Spanish or English fort? Or was it the foundation of a house built by Dr. Andrew Turnbull, New Smyrna’s founder?

Dr. Andrew Turnbull, Founder of New Smyrna

Dr. Andrew Turnbull, a Scottish physician and entrepreneur, is best known for founding the New Smyrna Colony in Florida during the British colonial period. Born in Scotland around 1718, Turnbull pursued a career in medicine, which took him to various parts of the world, including the Mediterranean, where he served as the British consul in Smyrna (modern-day İzmir, Turkey). His life combined elements of ambition, vision, and controversy, leaving a lasting yet complex legacy in Florida’s history.

Turnbull’s Mediterranean experiences profoundly influenced his worldview and future plans. In the early 1760s, he married Maria Gracia Dura Bin, the daughter of a wealthy Greek merchant from Smyrna. This union strengthened his ties to the region and laid the foundation for his interest in Mediterranean culture and people. Turnbull believed that settlers from this area, accustomed to warm climates and agricultural work, would thrive in East Florida, which had recently been acquired by Britain from Spain in 1763.

Turnbull’s ambition aligned with Britain’s colonial goals. The British government sought to populate East Florida with loyal settlers to establish a sustainable economy. Turnbull envisioned creating a large agricultural colony to produce valuable cash crops such as indigo, sugar, and hemp. In 1767, he secured financial backing from British investors and obtained a grant for 101,000 acres of land along the Indian River in East Florida.

Turnbull traveled to the Mediterranean to recruit settlers for his colony. He promised them land, provisions, and the opportunity for a better life in the New World. By 1768, he had assembled a group of approximately 1,400 people, primarily from Minorca island but also Greeks and Italians. This diverse group of settlers made the arduous journey across the Atlantic and arrived at the site of the new colony, which Turnbull named New Smyrna in honor of his wife’s birthplace.

The settlers faced significant challenges upon their arrival. The Florida climate was harsh, and the colony lacked sufficient resources to support the large population. Diseases such as malaria and dysentery spread rapidly, claiming many lives. Additionally, the settlers were subjected to grueling labor conditions, as they were required to clear land, cultivate crops, and build infrastructure for the colony. Turnbull’s management of the colony became increasingly authoritarian, and his promises of land ownership and prosperity for the settlers went unfulfilled. Many of the settlers felt exploited, describing their situation as akin to slavery.

Despite these hardships, the colony initially showed some promise. Indigo became a successful cash crop, and New Smyrna contributed to East Florida’s agricultural output. However, the settlers’ discontent grew as the years passed, fueled by Turnbull’s strict governance and the failure to improve living and working conditions. By the late 1770s, many original settlers had died or abandoned the colony, and those who remained sought assistance from British authorities.

In 1777, the settlers petitioned Patrick Tonyn, the British governor of East Florida, to intervene in their plight. They accused Turnbull of mistreatment and demanded their release from the colony. After an investigation, Governor Tonyn granted the settlers permission to leave New Smyrna and resettle in St. Augustine, the colonial capital.

Turnbull Ruins

The fort-like walls of the ruins are the exposed foundation walls of the structure initially embedded within a large shell mound. These foundations were designed to support a building atop the mound. In the early 1900s, the shells on this side of the mound were removed down to ground level and transported for use in roadbed construction. During the 1930s, WPA workers “restored” the exposed façade, adding features to make it resemble a fort. A portion of the shell mound still exists and is visible on the slopes leading up to the west and south sides of the ruins.

Despite decades of claims that this structure was a fort, hence the name of the park, local archaeologists believe that the founders of New Smyrna, the Turnbull colonists, had begun constructing a large plantation house for Turnbull’s partner, Sir William Duncan, but did not complete it before the colony failed.

Several written accounts indicate that the site was the location of a large stone structure associated with the New Smyrna settlement. A letter written in 1772 by Turnbull indicates his intention to build Duncan a house for him, and a second was written in 1776 regarding “improvements” to the settlement, “especially a very large stone building.” This may have been referring to this building. An 1817 Spanish map also identifies “Turnbull’s Palace” in the area of modern Old Fort Park. A later British survey speculated that the ruins were the foundation of an estate house, warehouse, fort, or possibly for shipbuilding.

After the colony was abandoned, New Smyrna ceased to be a town. It existed only as a spot on the map, part of a string of cotton and sugar plantations established along Florida’s northeast coast during Spanish rule of Florida.

Ambrose Hull’s Plantation

Spain regained control of Florida from England after the American Revolutionary War. Another doctor, Ambrose Hull of Connecticut, petitioned Spain and was granted rights to start another settlement at New Smyrna in 1801. Hull’s goal was to grow sugar and cotton in the place where Turnbull had failed. Hull had stonemasons working to construct his plantation house, which he described in detail, including its size and notable features. The house was being built atop an existing foundation.

Hull experienced some initial success, but in 1812, a group of “Patriots” from Georgia, with covert support from the American government, launched an attack on Fernandina and Amelia Island. They aimed to wrest Florida from Spanish control and establish it as an American territory. This began what became known as “The Patriot War.”

After capturing Fernandina, the Patriots attempted to drive the Spanish out of St. Augustine and capture Castillo de San Marcos. Unsurprisingly, they failed, and the conflict settled into a stalemate. Faced with growing political pressure at home and the outbreak of war with Great Britain, President James Madison withdrew his support, leaving the Patriots to fend for themselves. The war devolved into sporadic raids and minor skirmishes. During one of these raids, Hull’s settlement was abandoned after it was attacked and burned to the ground.

The Last of the Sugar Plantations

After Florida became a United States territory, a frame structure was constructed on the hill to serve as the home of John Dwight Sheldon, the overseer of a sugar plantation owned by a New York-based family. Compared to the neighboring plantation houses, which were far more grand and opulent, this structure was modest.

On Christmas Eve in 1835, Seminole Indians launched an attack on the plantations in New Smyrna, including the Cruger-dePeyster and Dunlawton sugar plantations, destroying them all. Following this devastation, New Smyrna was abandoned again, and no further attempts were made to establish large-scale plantations in the area.

Sheldon Hotel

After the Second Seminole War, John Sheldon returned to New Smyrna as a customs inspector and purchased the Old Fort property. A new economy had taken root, centered around smaller-scale farms in the backcountry that cultivated citrus and raised cattle. New Smyrna became a thriving port for shipping goods north to Charleston and south to Cuba. Meanwhile, the abundant fish and game in the Mosquito and Indian River Lagoons began attracting sportsmen from as far away as England.

To serve travelers passing through New Smyrna by land or sea, Sheldon built the town’s first hotel atop the Old Fort Park foundations around 1858, making it the only hotel south of St. Augustine. Five years later, during the Civil War, the Union Navy shelled and destroyed the hotel to disrupt the blockade running through the port. At that time, New Smyrna consisted solely of the Sheldon family, and the attack again left the settlement in ruins. The Sheldons moved to the Bahamas, where John Sheldon died in 1862.

After the Civil War, Sheldon’s widow, Jane Murray, returned to New Smyrna and a smaller structure that served as a pioneer general store, port collector’s office, boarding house, and print shop, which published The Florida Star, one of the region’s early newspapers. This building endured for many years as the area experienced peaceful times, allowing New Smyrna to stabilize and grow into a proper town. Around 1900, the dilapidated structure was torn down, revealing the coquina foundations beneath.

Today, the ruins sit inside Old Fort Park in New Smyrna Beach and are a popular tourist attraction. It is located at 115 Julia St, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168, and is open to the public from sunrise to sunset.

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