On November 18, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made a five-hour trip to Tampa, Florida. From his family's winter home in Palm Beach, Kennedy flew into MacDill Air Force Base. The president then toured Tampa International Airport before embarking on a 28-mile motorcade through downtown Tampa. Thousands of people came out to see the 35th …
Images in Governor's House Library's collection reveal the faces of those responsible for the excavations and reconstruction of colonial St. Augustine between the 1960s and 1980s - many of which were Black men. The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board hired general laborers to systematically recover foundations and source building materials - enabling the restoration and …
Continue reading Unidentified: Looking For Names And Stories In The Archives
In 1969, St. Augustine Record journalist Anne Carling wrote "everything's coming up chrysanthemums, marigolds, zinnias, or petunias" for the St. Augustine Historic Restoration Commission (later renamed the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board). She really meant it as she covered the Commission's new project to construct a greenhouse on Cuna Street. With 15 gardens, the Commission …
March is both Women's History Month and Florida Archaeology Month! Can you dig it? To celebrate the occasion, we are excavating the career of archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Deagan, whose work focuses on the colonial past of the Caribbean and St. Augustine. Deagan began her journey in archaeology in 1965 - when she enrolled into the …
Continue reading Digging Up The Past With Dr. Kathleen Deagan
There’s nothing quite like a cookie to get us in the holiday spirit, so we’re celebrating by highlighting the sweet treats from the Spanish Bakery. Located behind Salcedo House, this bakery once offered tourists "Spanish bread and cookies in the old-fashioned way" as part of the living history museum San Agustin Antiguo. Salcedo Kitchen, looking …
Here at Governor’s House, we spend a lot of time researching and talking about the buildings that the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board restored and reconstructed, but lately we’ve become interested in learning more about the people who made the dream of San Agustín Antiguo, their museum village, possible. One couple in particular, Kjell and …
Some say if you take a picture, it will last longer. For us at Governor's House Library, this common saying holds truth. Among our collections, we preserve photographs related to the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board's archaeological projects. So on this winter day, let us take a look at some snapshots from a dig during …
Not all archaeologists wear fedoras and carry whips like in the movies. Our real-life heroes are more likely to use trowels and notebooks. Let us take a look at some of the archaeologists featured in the collections of Governor's House Library: Hale G. Smith Hale G. Smith at Arrivas House in its early stages of …
The sound of a blacksmith's hammer once rang out from what is now Crucial Coffee Cafe. Fifty years ago the wood frame structure on Charlotte Street operated as a blacksmith shop. The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board based the reconstruction on a blacksmith shop from the late 1700s. The shop operated as part of the …
"Wood" you have ever guessed that carpenters built Crucial Coffee Cafe by hand? The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board employed traditional woodworking skills on the wood frame structure fifty years ago. They based the reconstruction on a blacksmith shop from the late 1700s. The project aimed to exemplify the craftsmanship of both colonial and contemporary …
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