Site #7 – Governor's House

Government House- Saint Augustine, FL

Site Visit #7 - March 4, 2021- Lavinia Lenssen

The  

Overview of Site: Our second to last site visit was the Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum, located on 48 King Street, Saint Augustine, FL, the nation's oldest city. Located in the heart of the downtown historic district. It is historically known as Government House. Like the city, this building has had a long-standing history, having been home to several government offices since the late 16th century. Archives are collected nowadays in this building and there is a museum portion for guests, all being run from the University of Florida. 

Source Link: For more information, visit the link here !

Artifact #1:

Caption: The first artifact that I wanted to highlight was in the museum area of the Governor's House, a postcard from 1937. In the 1930s the Governor's House was a post office. It was the former post office for the city of Saint Augustine from 1937 to 1966. Nowadays, it can still be seen where mail would have been transferred to the back room. 

Artifact #2: 

Caption: Though not a photo of the Governor's House, this second artifact was on display at the site visit museum. I am a hospitality and tourism major and currently work in a hotel, so presenting the Hotel Granada felt fitting. This building used to be diagonal to the Lightner Museum, but it was torn down! The photo and postcard pictures were taken a little over a hundred years ago in 1919. The postcard is addressed to W.J Harris.

This is what the postcard says: 

Sunday Morning

Dearest Dade,

 This is the very nicest place we have seen in Florida, and we are sorry not to be here long. I wish you were here to see it all. Father has brightened up and taken notices since we have been here. He went to the movies for the first time last night. They had three big pictures, they changed the time here this A.M. And, we rubes are all mixed up, if a train hadn't been late this morning we should be missing it. There is a beautiful row of violets along the sidewalk to the street in this Motel. 

Love, Mother

    

Exterior Photo #1:

 Caption: The first exterior photo that I wanted to use shows the second-floor balcony of the Government House in Saint Augustine from the courtyard area next to Cathedral Street, the Historic District's former slave market, and Saint George Street, this building is in the heart of town! It is important to note the different flags blowing in the wind that are hanging on the balcony poles. The American, Spanish, English, and Floridian flag stand tall and proud.

Exterior Photo #2: 

Caption: Here my second exterior image highlights the other side of the building from the outside. Governor's House was central to the city's social and political growth, nowadays the employees in the building seek to preserve Saint Augustine'sheritage and histories.

In-Conversation Image #1:

Image Source Link: To learn more, click the link here!

Brief Statement: After seeing the artifact of the old postcards from both the Governor's house and the Hotel Granada I was motivated to find an in-conversation image that reminded me of what I saw already. Though not a postcard, this is a painting that is 200 years older than both of these postcards! Created in 1764, this watercolor painting reveals a drawn view of the governor's house at St Augustine, the surrounding property is a lot more barren than it is today. But something I found confusing was that it looks like there's a Norwegian flag next to the property? 

In-Conversation Image #2:

Image Source Link: Click here for more information!

Brief Statement: This drawing is of Robert Mills, he is a South Carolinian architect most well known for designing both the first Washington Monument in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Washington Monument in Washington DC. Rumor has it that he was the first native-born American to be a professional architect. But this drawing of him exists in conversation with the Government House in St Augustine because before he designed the Washington Monument he designed the Government House. When Florida was annexed by the United States in the year 1821, the building was in ruins, with only its walls remaining at the time. In 1833, it was rebuilt with federal funds, and the architectural plans were drawn up by Robert Mills.

Passage/Concept ENG202:

Learning about the government house in downtown St Augustine reminds me of the character Father Grepilloux, from The Surrounded by D'Arcy Mcnickle. In the novel, he is the priest at the Saint Xavier Mission Church, and he is 80 years old. He has been writing a book about the arrivals of the missionaries and his impressions of the Native Salish peoples. In a way by creating this book, Father Grepilloux is creating an archive. At the Government House Museum, the museum curators from the University of Florida are also delving into archives and writing about the histories of arrivals of all sorts of people into Saint Augustine. They are writing about their impressions of characters in history too. In this way, parallels between literature and real-life can be witnessed.

Creative Component:

My creative component for the seventh site visit was a sonnet written in dedication to my grandmother. When we learned that the government house in St Augustine used to be a post office it made me remember when I used to pick up letters that my grandmother would write to me when I was little. Omchen means grandmother in East Prussian, she used to write letters to me in German. Occasionally, I would write letters back to her. It was my way to learn the language and to communicate with my grandmother, who refused to learn how to use a phone. She with a teenager during the second World War, all communication there was was handwritten, so text messages really made no sense to her. My grandmother was alive at the time when the government house with the post office, if she had lived in St Augustine during that time she probably would have used it. This poem's for you Omchen. :)

    

A Pen Pal

Lavinia Lenssen

It was mismatched, misshaped, misused, abused

Without a foundation to hold its base

With only its walls Robert Mills rescued

Restored the building with great care and grace

It was to be made as a post office

Where handwritten letters travel miles 

And miles, where I open a promise

To a brighter future, where the smiles

Of children shine bright, to see her letter

Beauty in her delicate penmanship

I missed her, but distance was the better

Omchen, my penpal I loved our friendship

No longer a post office, who knew when

I'd ever read a letter from you again