Site #4 – Oldest House
Saint Augustine's Oldest House- Saint Augustine, FL
The Llambias House and the Oldest House Museum Complex
Site Visit #4- February 11th, 2021- Lavinia Lenssen
The
Overview of the Site:
Located on St. Francis Street in Saint Augustine, FL, our fourth site visit was to the Oldest House and Llambias House. The Oldest House is also known as the Oldest House Museum Complex or the Gonzalez- Alvarez House. It is known to be the oldest house in the state of Florida. Though it has been an inhabited site since the 1600s, it was built in 1723 and lived in starting in the year 1727. In the early to mid-1700s it was occupied by the Spanish, but in the year 1775, a wealthy British man purchased the house and renovated it to look the way we can see it today, almost 250 years later.
In addition to the Oldest House, we also visited Fernandez Llambias House. When Spain had ceded Florida to Great Britain, this house already existed in the 1760s. Very few houses in this time period are still around now in the 21st century. Though the house was smaller than it is today, the foundations and basic structure still remain. The second story of the house was added in 1838, by brothers Joseph and Peter Antonio Manucy. Currently, the Llambias House serves as a National Historic Landmark and wedding venue. It is one of the oldest buildings in the nation's oldest city. The house dates back to before 1763, but complete construction was accomplished by 1788. This building process occurred during the First Spanish Period, when Saint Augustine, was under Spanish ownership. When viewing the house, a combination of both Spanish and British architecture can be witnessed.
Source Links:
For more information on the Oldest House (Gonzalez- Alvarez House) :
Click here!
For more information on the Llambias House:
Click here!
Artifact #1:
Caption: The first artifact that I wanted to highlight is from the Oldest House Museum Complex. I love cartography and geography so I thought that bringing in some insight from this map would be fantastic. This map is titled the Cantino Planisphere, the map shown here is a copy of the original from 1502. It was the first map to show the coast of Florida displayed on a map of the world. It was created only ten years after Columbus's voyage to the Americas in 1492. In addition, this is the first map that has the American continent to be dated.
Artifact #2:
Caption: The Oldest House Museum Complex showed copies of many different kinds of maps. But here instead of revealing another world map, I wanted to be specific to the Saint Augustine area. The image above was engraved in 1764 by Thomas Jefferys. The engraving was inspired by a survey of the town area by cartographer Don Juan de Solis. He was a long-time surveyor and Saint Augustine resident in the mid-to-late 1700s. Fun Fact: This map even labels the Governor's house! At the time, this map was innovative as it was the New and Accurate Plan of the Town St. Augustine.
Exterior Photo #1:
Caption: Image captivating the beautiful green and luscious green in the backyard of the Llambias House.
Exterior Photo #2:
Caption: This is one of four statues outside of the Oldest House, the four statues together are known as the Four Seasons.
In-Conversation Image #1:
Image Source Link: For more information click here.
Brief Statement: The following picture was an image of a past celebration, urging people to attend the 243rd anniversary of the minorcans in St Augustine, this event occurred on March 7th 2020.
Brief Statement: The image presented above is an old 19th-century image for the Llambias House. Though not the oldest house, it has a history of its own. It is also a national landmark within Saint Augustine's Historic District and like the Oldest House dates back to Spanish Colonial Times. The Llambias family acquired this house from Pedro Fernandez in the 1800s, to which its name came. Minorca is a small island off the coast of Spain. Immigrants would sail off from this island to the New World with their eyes set on one destination, the Florida Colony to raise cotton, indigo, silk, olives, and grapes for wine. Minocrans first settled in New Smyrna, Florida and in 1768, Minorcans migrated to St. Augustine.
Passage/Concept ENG202:
I think that the Llambias House can be compared to the Weylin Plantation home in Kindred by Octavia Butler, a work of literature that we delved into in ENG202. Antonio Pappy was a slave who belonged to the Llambias family in Saint Augustine, and likewise, when Dana traveled back in time, slaves worked in the Weylin Plantation home. I wonder if Antonio felt that he was at home but also in a foreign and dangerous place the same way that Dana felt.
Quote: Part 1- "The Storm"
“I could recall walking along the narrow dirt road that ran past the Weylin house and seeing the house, shadowy in twilight, boxy and familiar . . . I could recall feeling relief at seeing the house, feeling that I had come home. And having to stop and correct myself, remind myself that I was in an alien, dangerous place.” - Dana
Creative Component:
This creative component from the Oldest House that I wanted to share is an edited collage that I made of three painted portraits that are put on display. Though it does not appear as such a grand feat to have simply combined the photos I took of these portraits together, I also edited them by giving them a higher saturation. I really wanted the viewer to notice what contrasting and bold colors are used that really make these three portraits stand out. The three men are wearing ornate clothing to signify wealth and status. The man on the very left is Pedro Menendez de Aviles, he is the founder of Saint Augustine, in 1595. The man in the middle is Patrick Tonyn, the governor of Florida from 1774-1783, and the rightmost image is of Ee-mat-la, the Osceola War leader of the Seminole Indians. He was captured in 1838.
Comments
Post a Comment