Explore 10 of the oldest buildings in Florida

From the state’s largest cigar factory to a 350-year-old military fort, the oldest buildings in Florida contain multitudes of history.

It’s no Sunshine State secret that St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement (of European or African-American origin) in the United States. International visitors flock to historic downtown St. Augustine daily to marvel at its many preserved homes, shops, and military barracks built in the late 1600s and 1700s. Yet, Florida’s history isn’t confined to the First Coast. 

We’ve combed from coast to coast to find a few of Florida’s historic structures erected between the 18th and 19th centuries, many of which now serve as museums welcoming curious visitors. Read on to learn more about Florida’s earliest buildings.

1. Castillo de San Marcos Fort

In 1672, a century before the United States was founded, construction began on Castillo de San Marcos Fort. St. Augustine’s historic crown jewel and the oldest masonry fort in the continental U.S., Castillo de San Marcos was built to house the Spanish army. Its fortifications built from hearty coquina shell made it resistant to enemy attacks, like when the British attempted and failed to burn it to the ground in 1702, 1728, and 1740. In later years, it served as a prison, detaining members of the Seminole tribe throughout the 1830s and 1840s, as well as Great Plains tribespeople and the Apache tribe throughout the late 1800s. In 1924, Castillo de San Marcos was named a national monument, and today, scores of tourists visit the site for self-guided tours, cannon firing, and weaponry demonstrations, but one of the best ways to enjoy this site is by resting on its low outer walls and gazing out at the boats in the Matanzas River.

2. Gonzalez-Alvarez House

Constructed sometime between 1702 and 1727, St. Augustine’s Gonzalez-Alvarez House holds the record for America’s oldest standing Spanish colonial home. Located at 14 St. Francis St. in historic downtown St. Augustine, the Gonzalez-Alvarez House is currently operated by the St. Augustine Historical Society as the Oldest House Museum Complex and Gardens. Here, docents are on hand each day between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to offer hourlong, detailed tours through the home and grounds. Visitors can marvel at the elaborately carved four-poster bed in the bedroom or giggle at the “rat rack” in the kitchen, which was a wooden board suspended over the table meant to prevent mice from nibbling at food.

Exterior of the González-Alvarez House, a National Historic Landmark in St. Augustine, Fla. (Brent Moore/CC BY-NC 2.0)

3. The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux 

Though not technically constructed in Florida, The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux in North Miami Beach is definitively Florida’s oldest structure. Built in 1133 in northern Spain, the monastery was named in honor of St. Bernard de Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, mystic, and founder of the Abbey of Clairvaux. Nearly 800 years after its construction, American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst decided to purchase the monastery, so it was dismantled stone by stone and shipped to the United States in 1925. When Hearst’s financial woes sent most of his riches to auction, the massive crates containing the monastery remained in a Brooklyn warehouse for nearly three decades. In 1952, a pair of Florida entrepreneurs bought the building in pieces and reconstructed it for use as a tourist attraction.

Today, the building houses an active congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida. Tours are offered on select Saturday afternoons, though visiting hours vary from month to month, so be sure to contact the monastery before heading over.

4. Kingsley Plantation

Florida’s past is inextricably tied to the history of slavery, and Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville is one site where visitors can become intimately familiar with the conditions of life experienced by every person on a plantation. Built in 1798 by the Quaker slave trader Zephaniah Kingsley and his partner, an African princess known in America as Anna Kingsley, Kingsley Plantation saw enslaved African people work fields of rice, indigo, and cotton. 23 of the small cabins that once housed the enslaved workers remain, their tabby walls made of crushed oyster shells still standing. The plantation house also remains, its barn, kitchen house, and planter’s house available to explore. Today, the grounds are part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, and admission is free.

The main house of the Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Fla. (Jon Dawson/CC BY-ND 2.0)

5. Lavalle House

One of Florida’s oldest standing examples of French Creole colonial architecture, the Lavalle House in Pensacola was constructed as a residential duplex in 1805 by Charles Lavalle, an Alabama-born builder and speculator. Today, the house is a museum, and its furnishings and authentic artifacts reflect the popular styles during Florida’s last days of Spanish rule. Its external architecture exemplifies a popular form of cottage construction that historians say may have been introduced to Florida’s Gulf Coast by refugees from the Dominican Republic. Tours of the Lavalle House—as well as several other Pensacola historic homes of note—are offered each Tuesday through Saturday at 11 a.m. and 1 and 2 p.m. by the University of West Florida Historic Trust.

6. The Oldest House in South Florida

History buffs will want to pay a visit to 322 Duval St. in Key West, where they’ll find the Oldest House in South Florida Museum and Garden. This 1829 New England Bahama-style home, restored to its original glory by the nonprofit organization Old Island Restoration Foundation, was constructed by Richard Cussans, a ship’s carpenter who migrated to Key West from the Bahamas. It later served as the home of Captain Francis Watlington, the sea captain, customs inspector, and Florida House of Representatives member who made his fortune being a “wrecker,” or one who salvages ships and cargo that have wrecked along the Keys’ many coral reefs. Admission to a self-guided tour of the Oldest House is $5, and docents are on hand each day except Wednesday and Sunday to provide historical information.

The “Oldest House in South Florida” located in Key West. (Robert W/CC BY-SA 2.0)

7. The Columns

Its stately façade complete with four Greek revival-style columns, the Benjamin Chaires House, more commonly known as The Columns, is one of Tallahassee’s oldest and most recognizable buildings. Constructed in 1835 for the banker, landowner, and brick yard proprietor Benjamin Chaires, the home’s history includes stints as a boarding house, a doctor’s office, the popular Dutch Kitchen Restaurant, and a public library.  In 1975, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Today, the building is closed to the public, but its breathtaking exterior can still be studied at its location at 100 N. Duval St.

Building known as The Columns in Tallahassee, Fla. (Library of Congress)

8. Orange Masonic Lodge

The oldest Masonic lodge to be continuously utilized in Florida, the Orange Masonic Lodge in Apopka, was built in 1859. The lodge’s earliest members were settlers drawn to northwestern Orange County for its resource-rich lands and abundant lakes. For 165 years, the upper story of the lodge has been reserved for Masons to meet, while the lower floor has served as a post office, general store, school, and church over the years. Planning a visit to Apopka? Note that the Orange Masonic Lodge is another historical building that can only be viewed from the sidewalk. According to the University of North Florida, the lodge is still in use by local Masons as a moon lodge, meaning members convene here on the full moon and two weeks thereafter for meetings.

9. House of Refuge at Gilbert’s Bar

The House of Refuge at Gilbert’s Bar in Stuart holds the title of Martin County’s oldest structure, as well as the only remaining House of Refuge along Florida’s eastern seaboard. Built in 1876 by the U.S. Treasury Department, the House of Refuge—along with its nine sister houses built along Florida’s east coast—served as a safe haven for sailors and victims of shipwrecks to receive medical care, food, and a dry place to sleep after battling the area’s dangerous coral reefs and underwater shoals. In 1955, the Martin County Historical Society was formed in order to protect the House of Refuge, and today, visitors can embark on self-guided and historian-led tours of the building, where they’ll find century-old shipwreck report ledgers and historical furnishings. The House also hosts lectures and events on topics ranging from shipwrecks to coastal birds.

10. El Modelo Cigar Factory 

You can’t miss the massive brick structure resting at the corner of Bay and Clay streets in Jacksonville—the El Modelo Cigar Factory building, as it’s commonly known, was erected in 1887. Though the building first housed a furniture manufacturing company, its claim to fame comes from its tenure as Florida’s largest cigar factory, employing as many as 225 workers. El Modelo gained international prominence in the 1890s for its cigars with names like “La Tropica” and “Florida Alligator.” In 1893, the building welcomed a guest appearance from José Martí, the Cuban poet and philosopher who led Cuba’s Revolutionary Party. As the Florida Times-Union reports, Martí gave a speech at El Modelo with aims of rallying support for Cuban independence from Spain. In 1900, the factory closed its doors, as the cigar industry was booming in Ybor City on Florida’s other coast. Today, it houses the law offices of Moseley Prichard Parrish Knight and Jones.

The El Modelo Building in Jacksonville, Fla. (Library of Congress)

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.