The Oldest House in St. Augustine

By Elton Meta

 

On March 25, 2023, I went to the oldest house in St. Augustine. I went with my girlfriend Rosey and was invited on a tour inside the house where our tour guide told us everything we needed to know about the house. The tour took about an hour and we stayed for 30 minutes after(3-4:30)! This was one of the most fun and educating tours and a recommend to anyone in the St. Augustine area! I will begin by telling you what is so important about this house.

Let's start off with who lived here. There were 4 families that lived in this house and in that span of time, it took about 180 years of people living in the house before the city of St. Augustine bought it for memorabilia. In this blog, I will discuss the wars that this house went through, who lived there, and what they used to survive. 

Let's start off with the first family. The Gonzales family, who weren't wealthy because they weren't capable of doing notary. Only 8 out of 100 people could read and write. The family slept on stuffed moss mattresses, and had "wind holes" as windows meaning they would have a window frame with no glass in it and that's why it's called "wind holes". In this family, the men of the house went fishing and the women cooked and prepped the house for the men. They would use smoke as a mosquito repellant. 3000 people lived in St. Augustine at the time yet, when the British were coming, only 70 Spaniards stayed. From the text, "800 Spanish subjects departed Pensacola for Havana and Veracruz, leaving behind approximately 350 of their family."(pg. 144) The Gonzales family stayed as the British invaded St. Augustine and the rest fled to Cuba. From our text, as the British invaded, Fort Caroline supplies ran short and the British started to panic. "Supplies soon ran short in Fort Caroline, and not enough food could be obtained from the natives... All the deserters headed for the booty they hoped to gain the Spanish Caribbean." (pg.56)

During the English period, the second family to live here was the Jones family. Mary and Joseph Jones were their names Joseph worked in the army and Mrs. Jones worked as a midwife. They used the downstairs living area as a tavern as shown below and let the army men drink and play cards. Instead of using the back door as a main entrance like the Spanish did, the British opened the front door facing the street because that was what they were accustomed to.

After the British 20-year period, the Spanish took back St. Augustine. The third family that lived here was the Alvarez family. This family stayed in this house for 3 generations (92 years!). Mr. Alverez was a baker from Spain. He became a shopkeeper and also took over the Tovar House, which at that time was a boarding school. He purchased it in 1791 and remained in the family till 1871 until St. Augustine Historical Society took over in 1918. Mr. Alvarez later went on to become the mayor of St. Augustine.

(Some of the Alverez tableware)

Overall, This trip was amazing. It was very educational and kind of made me feel like I went back in time to live a life in St. Augustine as the British took over. I learned that the British either pillaged or burned down the town as we also learn in the History of Florida book we read! Something interesting that the guide said that I remember from the book was that, after the British took over St. Augustine, the Spanish fled to Cuba to protect themselves from these British. Overall, I recommend this trip to anyone in the area. It definitely connects to the History of Florida book and lets us connect to what we are reading, for example, the book says "First, and foremost, soldiers rather than settlers remained the core of most of Florida's Spanish families." (pg.92)

TOVAR HOUSE GUIDE

ALL INFORMATION WAS FROM THE TOUR GUIDE AND THE PHOTOS WERE FROM ME!

Gannon, M., & Landers, J. (2018). Free and Enslaved. In The history of Florida. University Press of Florida. Pg 55-150