Hispanic America USA
Colonial America USA
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Oldest House
The González-Alvarez House

A National Historic Landmark
14 St. Francis Street
St. Augustine, Florida

The González-Alvarez House, known to generations
of tourists and townspeople as "The Oldest House,"
is certainly one of the country's best documented
and studied old houses.  it presents a unique record
of life in St. Augustine over more than 400 years.

For more than a century after its founder, Pedro
Menéndez de Avilés, landed in 1565. St. Augustine
was a military outpost, and as such was a threat to
other nations.
Archaeologists can show continuous occupancy of the
Oldest House site from the early 1600s to the present day.

Palm thatching and logs or boards formed the earliest shelters
here, for the Spanish soldiers and settlers had to use what
material came easiest to hand.

St. Augustine was burned to ashes numerous times by
the English troops, however, the Spanish would
rebuild the famed city.

Each time the Spanish would rebuild St. Augustine,
the structures would be more substanial, for royal
permission was granted to use coquina, the native
shellstone from across the bay on Anastasia Island.

At the Oldest House site, a floor for the two main rooms
was laid of tapia (tabby), a mixture of lime, shell and
sand. That, with the coquina walls, mark this oldest
part of the Oldest House as typical of
Spanish St. Augustine.