On that first visit to St Augustine, when I was nine, my dad naturally took us to see the The Nation's Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse. Of course, without my pop-bottle glasses I couldn't really see it well but I knew it was a treasure just from the way it smelled, and the way the air felt around it. My dad took me over to the side of the little building and put my hand on the giant chain draped around the old house. The links alone were almost the same size as my child's hand... oh, how I wanted to see this house! I had to content myself with running my fingers along its walls and feeling the unevenness of the floor.

So, as an adult, when I was able to go back and take my time and explore every inch of the little wooden dwelling and its inviting garden, I discovered a charming monument to the tenacious St Augustine spirit. For I discovered that while the little house did indeed serve as a schoolhouse for a brief period, it has far more historical significance as the home of Juan Genopoly.

Juan was Greek, but he was part of the Minorcan colony from New Smyrna. He arrived in St Augustine sometime in mid-1777, along with the rest of the pitiful group that had been promised so much and had realized so little. The Minorcans straggled into St Augustine, hoping for better lives and a fresh start. But the small city was almost as ill-equipped to handle the group as Turnbull had been when he first brought the colonists to New Smyrna; housing, food and supplies were seriously short.

So it took time, but many of the Minorcans were able to acquire lots and acreage and build homes and new futures. Juan Genopoly managed to get his hands on the tiny lot near the City Gate and build a small wood frame house for himself and his family. That house is what we now know as The Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse. It remains much as Juan built it, and is the oldest wooden structure standing in St Augustine today; having been built sometime around 1800.

Juan's house is one of the truly unique places in the city where you can actually look back in time. The house itself is beautifully preserved and a very nice example of second Spanish period living. The kitchen building in the garden illustrates beautifully the necessity for cooking away from the main structure, to prevent fires - the little house would have gone up in a second from one unfortunate spark!

The garden path winds graciously through lovingly tended foliage and blooms and an herb garden... the gardens seem almost isolated from the rest of the world behind the coquina wall that surrounds it. Benches and chairs provide quiet places to stop and reflect a moment on the history you touch as you walk the uneven paths, and the uneven floors in the house itself. Looking around, it is no trouble to peel away the centuries and picture energetic children in your mind - playing tag down the paths; tossing a ball beside the back wall; pupils bent over their books and slates on wooden benches in a corner of the garden. The Florida heat had to have made the little house terribly stuffy and warm inside, so it is easy to imagine the children moving outside to work in the fresh air.

It got cold in St Augustine, too! I love the fireplace inside the house; it just looks like you could stand in front of it on a cold winter's day and its heat would soak right into your bones. The fireplace was a practical addition to life in St Augustine; before the British Period, the Spanish residents lived in small, one-story, flat-roofed houses which they heated with braziers in the floor. Juan's house was actually quite modern for its time!

I find I learn something new every time I visit the little old "schoolhouse." I learn about struggle; I learn about perseverance and I learn about never giving up. I think old Juan is a pretty good teacher!