One of the things I love most about St Augustine is its surprises… just when you think you have the city figured out and you know most of its secrets, something new pops up. So, when I discovered one of St Augustine’s most particularly delightful treasures had a special secret, I was thrilled.
On that first visit to St Augustine when I was nine, my dad naturally took us to see The Nation’s Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse. Of course, having lost my pop-bottle glasses in the Atlantic on our first day there, 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, feeling the unevenness of the floor, and inhaling the air inside that smelled like aged wood and stone.
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. 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, and 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. Unfortunately, the small city was almost as ill-equipped to handle the group as the New Smyrna plantation had been. Housing, food and supplies were seriously short.
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.
Here’s what I love about this house: it is a living testament to a man who walked through the St Augustine City Gate with literally nothing. He may have owned a worn out coat, or a blanket. He may have had a sack with a little food in it that he hastily grabbed as he was leaving New Smyrna; food he would have shared with those around him. He may have had a tool or some nails. But he didn’t have a horse, or a wagon, or money. All he had was his personal knowledge and abilities, and a determination to overcome the adversity that had killed so many of his friends. Being in this house brings me close to Juan, and some days it seems that if I could only listen closely enough I’d hear him speaking to me, telling me his story.
How I wish he could.
Juan’s house is one of the most unique places in the city where you can truly 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 perfectly the necessity for cooking away from the main structure to prevent fires. The little wooden 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 patch…the garden feels like an extension of the house and seems 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 importance of the site. What a fitting tribute that Juan’s house eventually became a place of education!
Looking around, it is easy to peel away the centuries and picture energetic children playing tag down the paths, tossing a ball beside the back wall, quietly 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 doesn’t happen often, but it does get cold in St Augustine, too! The fireplace inside the house is one of its best features. 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 learn something new every time I visit the little old “schoolhouse.” I learn about struggle and perseverance, and I learn about never giving up. I think old Juan is a pretty good teacher!