A Tour of the Oldest House...

Back to Chapter Six: St. Augustine

I enjoyed our tour of the oldest house in Florida.  It started out as not much more than a wood hut during St. Augustine's beginnings, but kept getting burnt when the fort was attacked.  That's when the owners decided to upgrade to stone.

Not very impressive, the house started out as a one-roomed stone structure.  The only heat came from a fire in the center and whatever smoke didn't escape through the windows and doors hung around the rafters.  Bedding was kept rolled to the side when not in use and the food was kept on that swinging shelf so that rodents couldn't get to it.

That lovely curved part on the end was added quite a bit later.

The upper level was added by later owners.

Because of the risk of fires, the kitchen was housed in this small building across the yard.

The item that Eli is examining on the left is a water filter.  Water dumped into the top part would slowly drip through the stone and would be clear by the time it reached the lower container.  We prefer more modern technology. 

There were lots of these huge, old oak trees in Florida.