#13, Historical St Augustine and the Oldest Wooden School House

 February 20 - 22, 2024

That St Augustine is rich in history is obvious.  It is, after all, the oldest city in the United States.  My desire to visit here was birthed in Eugenia Price's "Florida" trilogy.  That series began as the Spanish were leaving for the first time in 1763.  The final book ends well after Florida has become a state.  For me, this series was much more complicated that the series that she wrote about St Simon's Island.  Yet, there are several key people that I want to "find" in St Augustine.  As I visit various places, it's a thrill when their name comes up and I can make a connection.  However, I can tell that there will be fewer, and less personal connections.  

The first property that I visited on a very chilly Wednesday morning, was right in the thick of things on St George Street.  The Oldest Wooden School House. 

There is a large discrepancy on the dates given for the construction of this small building, but as the British burned St Augustine in 1702, it is certain that a wooden structure would not have survived.  City tax records show it to be present in 1716.  In 1780, it was sold by Jesse Fish, a savvy land broker who represented the fleeing Spanish in the sale of their property, to a Juan Genopoly.  Juan was a carpenter from Greece, and now a British citizen.  Jesse Fish was a dear friend and confidant to Maria, (of the first book in the series) who came to St Augustine as a skilled midwife and wife of a British soldier.

The children taught by Mr. Genopoly were Minorcans.  Minorcans and their history have a large presence in St Augustine.  Originally they were brought over as indentured servants by a Dr. Andrew Turnbull, to work on his indigo plantation of New Smyrna.  They (and other Europeans brought with them) were dreaming of the promised land but suffered under harsh conditions and deprivation.  After nine years many of them were able to flee to St. Augustine.  Juan Genopoly invited the children into his home to learn to read and write.

 

Discipline and punishment was much different in those days.  In the brightness of the window, beside the teachers desk, a young boy stands wearing the dunce cap. No doubt he wasn't able to memorize his spelling.  For misbehaviors like fidgeting while sitting for hours on a backless bench, a child might find himself in the closet under the stairs (aka, "the dungeon").  

Originally a one room home, Juan, after marrying a woman in St Augustine, added on a family parlor at the back as well as an upstairs, and an outdoor kitchen.  All made of bald cypress and red cedar, fitted together with hand carved wooden pins and handmade nails.  He and his wife had four children.  Two of them went on to teach in the school.  

The last class to attend the school was in 1864.  The school master of the day, John Genopoly, (presumably a son) is said to have gone off to serve as a sergeant in the Civil War.  Nine members of that last class had a memorable reunion in 1931 that was written up by the local newspaper.  They tell of their days of learning, of watching out for rats in the dungeon and other interesting things.  It was they who, in their advanced years, set up the schoolhouse as a museum the way they remember it looking during their years of attendance. 

In the photo above is the interior of the detached kitchen.  Below, taken while standing in the garden you can see the back of the building.  A heavy chain (also visible in the photo of the front) was placed around the building in the 1930s to hold the building in place in a hurricane.  I wasn't able to take photos of the garden as there was a school group occupying most of it.  

This tiny schoolhouse could be easily missed, situated as it is in the bustle of the shopping district of historic St Augustine, but I'm glad that I took the time to visit, as it's truly a treasure.