Supermarkets and grocery stores play an important role in our communities. They keep us fed and supplied with everything we need and want. These days, we could not be more grateful for their essential work. So today let us take shopping trip back in time to one such store which once stood on St. George …
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 …
In celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, we have been looking back at the formation of the Pan American Center during the event of the 400th Anniversary of St. Augustine’s founding. In 1965, Herbert Wolfe and the Quadricentennial Committee invited all to celebrate the restoration of St. Augustine to its colonial appearances and to celebrate the creation …
Over on our Instagram, we're celebrating the great outdoors with the National Archives! We knew we had the perfect story to share, but it was too long to fit in one caption. From August 7 to September 18 1973, six Flagler College students spent six weeks "time traveling" back to Spanish colonial-era St. Augustine to …
Artists' Rendering of the Salcedo House. UFDC. The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board (HSAPB) uncovered the original foundations of the Salcedo House & Kitchen (at 42 and 42 ½ St. George Street) during archaeological excavations in 1962. This discovery led to the subsequent reconstruction of both buildings on their original foundations. The Salcedo House was …
There are a plethora of art galleries in downtown St. Augustine. But none perhaps have the same unique history as those inside the Florida Heritage House, or the Wakeman House located at 11 King Street. This building, with its hard-to-miss second floor balcony, is a reconstruction of a late Second Spanish Period home built in …
The reconstructed Rodriguez House as it appears today. At 58 St. George Street, tucked away behind the main drag down a wooden planked footpath stands the reconstructed Rodríguez House (not to be confused with very nearby Casa Rodriguez). A small tabby house with a flat wooden roof occupied this site during Florida’s First Spanish Period …
When you celebrate any holiday there are certain traditions you revisit year after year that make the occasion special and personalized, even if it’s celebrated by millions of other people. If you celebrate Christmas, chances are you have been steeping yourself in these traditions for the past month. Of course most of our present-day traditions, …
Visitors watching live demonstrations at the Blacksmith Shop. UFDC. One of the most interesting aspects of the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board’s restoration efforts was the operation of interpretive spaces for visitors to the downtown. Many of the houses reconstructed by the board decorated to reflect the families who lived in them during the Spanish …
The first day of spring may be four weeks away, but it definitely is already feeling like spring here in St. Augustine. The temperatures are increasing every day, the flowers are blooming again, and the lizards are back: a true sign of warm weather in Florida. If you've been reading our blog, you already know …
Governor's House Library 