González–Alvarez House Informations

The González–Alvarez House, also known as The Oldest House, is a historic house museum at 14 St. Francis Street in St. Augustine, Florida. With a construction history dating to about 1723, it is believed to be the oldest surviving house in St. Augustine. It is also an important example of the St. Augustine's Spanish colonial architectural style, with later modifications by English owners. It was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970. The house is now owned by the St. Augustine Historical Society and is open for public tours as part of the Oldest House Museum Complex. Evidence can be seen of the Spanish, British, and American occupations of St. Augustine.

The González–Alvarez House is located in a residential area south of downtown St. Augustine, on the north side of St. Francis Street between Charlotte and Marine Streets. It is a two-story structure, its first floor built out of coquina and its upper level framed in wood with a clapboarded exterior. It is covered by a hip roof finished with wooden shingles. The building is reflective of multiple periods of alteration and enlargement, during different periods of colonial administration.

The land on which this house stands has been occupied since the 17th century, when a building is documented to have been standing here. The present house's earliest period of construction dates to about 1723, when the first floor was built, and it was documented as being occupied by Tomás González y Hernández, an artilleryman at the Castillo de San Marcos, and his family. The design of this house is one that was adopted by Spanish colonial settlers to deal with the living conditions and available building materials. It was built out of readily available coquina limestone, and is oriented with its main thick walls east-west, and has an open covered loggia on the east side. The latter allows prevailing southeasterly winds to cool the structure, while the thick walls provide insulation from the hot Florida sun. The interior floors are made of tabby concrete.

After the British took over Florida in 1763, the González family left for Cuba. In 1774 it was purchased by Major Joseph Peavett, an Englishman, who added the wood-frame second story, and put glass windows into openings previously only enclosed by wooden shutters. It was further enlarged by the third owner, Geronimo Alvarez, who added a two-story coquina wing. The house was taken over by the St. Augustine Historical Society in 1918, which undertook its restoration to a late 19th-century appearance in 1959-60, reversing a number of intervening alterations.

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