Some are made of exotic materials like tabby (a mix of lime, shell, and sand) or coquina (stone formed from crushed shells). Many are charming and well-maintained, with interesting architectural details and lively stories about prior owners. Unfortunately, they often house some sort of tourist facility. St. Augustine has 27 museums, plus many gift and souvenir shops, restaurants, inns, and other structures that capitalize on its historic status.
The city boasts not only “the oldest house’’ (built between 1702 and 1707), but also “the oldest wooden schoolhouse’’ in the country (1716), a plaza claimed to be “the oldest public space in America’’ (1573), and a public marketplace “with the first system of weights and measures to protect consumers buying meat and produce’’ (1598). Even “the oldest wash house’’ (1802) is proudly displayed.
If you want to find a grocery store, pharmacy, or other business (except for restaurants) serving the local population, you have to travel outside the historic downtown, often for several miles.
It may be touristy, but it’s not tacky. Not only on St. George Street and its pedestrian mall, but down many side streets and especially south of the plaza, you can find scores of architecturally significant homes that project a genuine gentility. The best way to see them is to get one of the many walking guides available at the cavernous tourist center on Avenida Menendez and tour around on your own.
Architecture buffs will find Spanish Colonial (12 Aviles St.), British Colonial (55 St. George), Carpenter Gothic (232 St. George), Colonial Revival (32, 33 Sevilla St.), American Territorial (46 St. George), Romanesque Revival (30 Carrera St.), Spanish Renaissance (Flagler College), Moorish Revival (Casa Monica Hotel), Venetian Renaissance (36-38 Sevilla St.), Mediterranean Revival (Visitors’ Information Center, Avenida Menendez), Queen Anne (9 Carrrera St.), and Victorian (142 Avenida Menendez) styles, as well as idiosyncratic vernacular structures dating to the 18th century (26 Cuna St.). All are located in a compact area about 12 blocks long and seven blocks wide.
