Downtown Pensacola is the economic, political and historical core of Northwest Florida. It is located in southern Escambia County, centered at Palafox Street and Garden Street, bounded to the south by Pensacola Bay. The other boundaries are more nebulous and open to debate, but A Street to the west, Ninth Avenue to the east, and Cervantes Street to the north (the legal boundaries of the Community Redevelopment Area) are probably the most inclusive borders. The Community Redevelopment Area and Downtown Improvement Board, both "downtown" taxation districts, have their own, explicitly-defined boundaries.
The downtown area grew from the Spanish Panzacola settlement and its later successors, remnants of which can be found in the preserved homes and buildings of Historic Pensacola Village.