
It is believed that the
name "St. Lucie" was first introduced to the area by the
Spanish. In 1565 Fort Santa Lucia was built by the Spanish, at
the Jupiter Inlet.
Construction for this fort began on
December 13th, the feast day of the Roman Catholic Saint Lucia.
Pedro Menendez de Aviles established a colony in 1567 called
"Santa Lucia" somewhere between Vero Beach and Stuart. Old
Spanish maps identify the area as Santa Lucia.
The current Saint Lucie County was
known as East Florida in 1810.
In 1821 the area was
renamed St. Johns County. St. Johns was split into several
counties in 1840 and this area became Mosquito County. Ten years
later the Mosquito County area was slashed into two new counties
and our area became St. Lucie for the first time.
Thirty
more years pass and in 1880 the borders were again changed and
St. Lucie became Brevard County.
On July 1, 1905 St.
Lucie County, Florida was established with Fort Pierce as the
county seat. Portions were stripped away over the years, first
in 1917 western acres were taken away to become Okeechobee
County. In 1925 a northern chunk of land was removed and became
Indian River County and the southern part of St. Lucie as well
as a portion of Palm Beach County became Martin County that same
year.
1916
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