Florida History: Nation's Oldest House

Today we visited the nation's oldest city, St. Augustine, FL. I know we were just there in March but if I were to go there a million times, I would never see all there is to see or learn all there is to learn. I have loved that city since I first visited in 1994! We have finally been seeing a peek into Florida Fall and the breezes were beckoning me to St. Augustine. 



Nation's Oldest House

Each time we go, we try to focus on something different than the last time we visited. Today we focused on the Oldest House in the United States which is called The González-Alvarez House. Archaeologists can show continuous occupancy of the Oldest House site from the early 1600s to the present day. Prior to 1702, the home would have been a simple board or log home with a palm thatch roof. This structure would have burned down in 1702 with the rest of the city  as the result of the battle of 1702 which the British lost (Florida was  under Spanish occupancy at the time) but before they left the city was set on fire. (Sore losers!!)

1702-1775

The first official record mentioning the house occurred in  1727 when a priest recorded the death of the infant son Tomas Gonzalez, Spanish artilleryman, and his wife Francisca de Guevara. The house had been a part of her dowry and so the structure as it existed at that time, would have been built sometime between 1702 and 1727.  The new structure was made of Coquina which was cemented together with tapia (now called "tabby") which was made by mixing equal parts of sand, lime, water, and oyster shell. The floors of this structure are made of "tabby".

The Gonzalez family consisted of Tomasa nd Francisca and their 6 children who lived in these two rooms.

Living area. The rack above the table is called a Rat Rack. Food was stored there and
if rats jumped onto it, the swinging motion scared them away.

In 1763, when Florida was ceded by Spain to Great Britain, the town’s 3,000 Spanish residents, had to leave. And so the Gonzalez family departed.

1775-1790
The next occupant was during the British occupancy of Florida. Sergeant-Major Joseph Peavett, a very well-to-do British soldier purchased the house and made alterations to it. He added a second floor. This gives us the entire structure as it stands today.

 

Two years after the British gained control of Florida, Peavett died. His widow remarried soon after to an Irishman named John Hudson who had a gambling problem. To pay off his debts, the house was sold at auction, in 1790, to Spaniard, Gerónimo Alvarez. He and his descendants lived in the house for almost a hundred years. In 1882, the house passed into other hands and over the next 40 years was owned by various people including those who first opened it up as “The Oldest House in the United States.”

In 1918, The St. Augustine Historical Society acquired the house. It has been the site of archeological studies, renovation and restoration to what we have now. In 1970, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the González-Alvarez House a National Historic Landmark.

The Kitchen was a separate building so as to prevent loss of home in case of fire.