UPDATE: Perfect Plain hit its goal of $1,750 raised between 9 and 10 p.m. Thursday. The brewery plans to fly the banner in St. Augustine Saturday morning and will send a photographer to takes photos.

ORIGINAL STORY

The great "oldest city in America" debate between Pensacola and St. Augustine has raged on for centuries, but it may be just now reaching its fever pitch.

Perfect Plain Brewery owner DC Reeves has launched a GoFundMe page in the name of cross-state smack talk.

The brewery owner is trying to raise the money needed to create a banner that reads "1. Pensacola 2. St. Augustine" and fly it over St. Augustine.

As luck would have it, St. Augustine's Founder's Day is this Saturday, with the Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landing reenactment taking place at 10 a.m.

Should the GoFundMe continue its blistering pace — $840 of the desired $1,750 was raised in one hour — the banner will flutter through the morning skies exactly as the reenactment begins.

"We were going to put 'Happy birthday little brother, love Pensacola' on the banner but we found out it wouldn't fit," Reeves said Thursday. "Too many letters."

Residents of the two Florida cities have long debated which city was established first. St. Augustine residents will tell you their hometown is the oldest "continuously occupied" city in America.

St. Augustine was founded in September 1565, but University of West Florida research points to Tristan de Luna establishing his Spanish colony of Pensacola in August 1559.

The banner idea comes a day after Perfect Plain sold out of a set of T-shirts that also read "1. Pensacola 2. St. Augustine."

"We just had great feedback from the shirt the day before, then we were getting a couple comments from St. Augustine people, just having fun with them and this kind of came up," Reeves said.

Aside from just hometown pride, there's plenty of extra incentive to donate to the GoFundMe, for as long as it's active. From Reeves' GoFundMe description:

DONATE $10: Get a free beer card from Perfect Plain and recognition as a #FountainofTruth Donor

Get a free beer card from Perfect Plain and recognition as a #FountainofTruth Donor DONATE $50: Get a "1. Pensacola, 2. St. Augustine" shirt (see below) in your size and two free beer cards.

Get a "1. Pensacola, 2. St. Augustine" shirt (see below) in your size and two free beer cards. DONATE $100: One T-shirt, 2 beer cards, 2 tickets to a future #FountainofTruth support group VIP event/beer tasting (Date TBD)

Words have been exchanged online between the two cities since the shirts were unveiled Wednesday, and Reeves said he welcomes the war. He said he's not too concerned about any extra tension the airplane banner might bring.

"Often times, you may see pushback from younger siblings," he joked. "But it's all good, we're just trying to set the record straight."

Jake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.