Old Town Fernandina area
The original town site north of modern downtown, laid out on a Spanish plat of 1811 — one of the last towns platted under Spanish rule in the New World. A quiet residential grid around the Plaza San Carlos, with Fort Clinch State Park beyond it.
Old Town is where Fernandina actually started, and almost nobody visits it.
It sits north of the modern downtown, and it is laid out on a Spanish plat of 1811 — reputedly one of the last towns platted under Spanish colonial rule anywhere in the New World. The grid, the block pattern and the Plaza San Carlos survive.
A quiet residential neighbourhood. There are no shops, no restaurants and no visitor centre. What there is: the street grid itself, historical markers, the plaza, some very old houses, and a view over the Amelia River.
That is either a disappointment or the appeal, depending on what you came for. If you want to understand how this island was settled, standing in a Spanish plaza laid out in 1811 does more than a display case.
The railroad. When David Levy Yulee's Florida Railroad arrived in the 1850s, its terminus and the deep-water wharves went south of Old Town, and the commercial centre followed. What is now the Centre Street historic district is the second Fernandina, built on railroad and shrimping money in the decades after 1875.
Old Town was left as a residential remnant, which is why so much of the early street pattern survived — nothing was rebuilt over it.
The island's old burial ground, established in the Spanish period, sits nearby. It is worth twenty minutes: a live-oak and Spanish-moss cemetery with graves spanning the island's several nationalities, and one of the quietest places on Amelia Island.
The entrance to Fort Clinch State Park is at the edge of Old Town on Atlantic Avenue, which makes the two a natural pairing. Do the fort first while the light is good, then drive the Old Town grid and the cemetery on the way back.
This is a residential neighbourhood, not an open-air museum. The houses are people's homes. Drive slowly, park considerately, read the markers, and do not go up anyone's path for a photograph.
North on 8th Street and then following Atlantic Avenue and the signs for Fort Clinch. It is about five minutes from downtown Fernandina Beach.
The exact 1811 plat date and the claim about it being among the last Spanish plats, the founding date of Bosque Bello Cemetery, and which specific structures in Old Town are the oldest. All are on our verification list — see our editorial policy for how that works.
Amelia Island's old burial ground north of downtown, established in the Spanish colonial period and still in use. Live oaks, Spanish moss and graves spanning the island's several nationalities — one of the quietest places on the island.
Details unconfirmed
A long-established waterfront restaurant built out over the docks at the Fernandina Harbor Marina, at the foot of Centre Street. Seafood and American cooking with the closest thing on the island to dining on the water rather than beside it.
Details unconfirmed
The working marina at the foot of Centre Street on the Amelia River, with the shrimp fleet, boat tours and charters, a public boardwalk and the island's best sunset view. The reason downtown Fernandina Beach faces the water it does.
Part of Areas of Amelia Island — our full guide to the complete amelia island, florida visitor guide.