This is on St. Francis Street, opposite the U. S. Barracks. The street is old and narrow, and to-day it is surrounded by the rest of the city. The material of the house walls is "coquina," a rock-like combination of sea-shell remains and mortar, with which a good many building experiments were made in old times, in this part of the country. That portion of the old house has stood the wear and tear of almost three hundred and fifty years, though the wood finish which you see is of course modern.

This very house that you see standing to-day stood here away back in the times when Michael Angelo was building the dome of St. Peter's over in Rome, and while the doctrines preached by Martin Luther were still startlingly new and strange. The building of this house was, in fact, begun about 1562 by French Huguenot (Protestant) emigrants who came over here by a long, hard journey in a little sailing vessel, hoping to find under the Florida palm trees a peaceful refuge from the religious quarrels that were growing so fierce and furious at home. But peace was not to be had even in this far-off retreat. Spanish adventurers came following after, led by Pedro Menéndez d'Avilés, and the poor Huguenots were butchered without mercy. The house was afterwards used (1565-1580) as a home for the monks of St. Francis; it must have been a picturesque sight when the brothers lived here.

In 1586 came another fierce wave of warfare, when Sir Francis Drake, with his band of bold English boys, landed here on his way home from San Domingo and made havoc of the little Spanish town. All around this house other buildings were sacked and burned. Off and on, up to 1762, the English and Spanish were quarrelling over this territory. It was not until 1821 that the Spanish flag finally came down in St. Augustine and this street became actually a part of the United States.

From Descriptive Bulletin No. 2, copyrighted, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.

Oldest House in the U. S. A. — St. Augustine, Florida.

La maison la plus ancienne des E. U. d'A. — Sainte Augustine, Floride.

Das älteste Haus in den Wer. Staaten zu St. Augustine, Florida.

Casa más antigua de los E. U. de A. — Augustine, Florida.

Det äldsta huset i Förenta Staterna, St. Augusttine, Florida.

Старший дом в Американских Соединенных Штатах; Флорида.