"Ripio" of Juan de Muros

"Ripio" of Juan de Muros

Luciano de Herrera House

Neil Pope’s Garage

Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company

La Pentola Restaurant

Luciano de Herrera

c.1750s

1785

1788

1792

1797-1803

1960s

2018

2025-2026

The original structure was a private home.

The expanded structure was turned into a car repair shop.

A reconstruction of the 18th century home was built in the 1960s and served as offices for the telephone company before becoming a restaurant.

Originally built in mid-1700s, the Luciano de Herrera House is located at 58 Charlotte Street. The house was built during the First Spanish Period for Juan de Muros. The first records for the original structure was in 1764 as Muros's property, but he married in 1755 so the original home would date at least to the 1750s.

During the British occupation of St. Augustine, the owner, William Wilson, built a small outbuilding on the property. When St. Augustine was once again ruled by the Spanish, the home was owned by the Spanish Indian Commissioner, Luciano de Herrera starting in 1785 who had remained in St. Augustine through much of the British Period "serving" the British while spying for the Spanish. He died shortly after renting the house to Eduardo Esten, a tailor in St. Augustine in 1788. The Herrera family sold the house to Capitan Miguel Ysnardy in 1789, the naval officer who also designed the Cathedral Basilica. The house was sold in 1792 to a free black man, Pedro de Cala. Jose Lorente bought the house in 1797 and made extensive improvements. In 1803, Don Garbriel Guillermo took over ownership of the house.

The house was either heavily converted or demolished and replaced by Neil Pop's Garage in the mid-1900s. When St. Augustine was revitalized back to its Spanish roots in the 1960s, the garage was torn down and replaced by the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board in 1966 with a reconstruction of the 18th Century Luciano de Herrera House. It was planned that as Charlotte Street had been the street of merchants under the Spanish, this would be resumed in the reconstructed buildings so a ten-year lease was agreed upon with the Southern Bell Telophone Company.

The house was used as offices for the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company before it became La Pentola Restaurant. The fine dining restaurant, owned by Susan and Jorge Talvera, closed in January 2018. This building is currently unoccupied and undergoing some restoration work.

58 Charlotte Street
St. Augustine, FL 32084

This building is located on Charlotte Street.

The following books, articles, websites, and photographers were used to find the above photographs or illustrations:

Photograph 1 (pre 1966): San Agustin Antiguo: The Restoration of Old St. Augustine, 1960-66. St. Augustine Historical, Restoration and Preservation Commission and St. Augustine Restoration, Inc., [1967].

Photograph 2 (1971): Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board. Guide Book, Including Descriptions of the Buildings, Crafts, and a Brief History of the Restoration of the Nation’s Oldest City. [Tallahassee, FL]: Department of State, 1971.

Photograph 3 (2025): Zufelt, Holly. "Luciano de Herrera House." December 16, 2025.

The following books, articles, and/or websites were used to find information about this location:

Gordon, Elsbeth “Buff.” Walking St. Augustine: An Illustrated Guide and Pocket History to America’s Oldest City. Univ. of Florida Press, 2015.

Governorshouselibrary. “Property Spotlight: Herrara House.” UFHSA Governor’s House Library: Exploring St. Augustine’s History. September 17, 2019. https://governorshouselibrary.wordpress.com/2019/09/17/property-spotlight-herrera-house/.

Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board. Guide Book, Including Descriptions of the Buildings, Crafts, and a Brief History of the Restoration of the Nation’s Oldest City. [Tallahassee, FL]: Department of State, 1971.

Rajtar, Steve, and Kelly Goodman. A Guide to Historic St. Augustine, Florida. 1^st edition. The History Press, 2007.

San Agustin Antiguo: The Restoration of Old St. Augustine, 1960-66. St. Augustine Historical, Restoration and Preservation Commission and St. Augustine Restoration, Inc., [1967].

Visit St. Augustine. “La Pentola – Closed.” https://www.visitstaugustine.com/restaurant/la-pentola-restaurant.

Waterbury, Jean Parker, ed. The Oldest City: St. Augustine, Saga of Survival. St. Augustine, FL: St. Augustine Historical Society, 1983.

Flagler College’s Rare Books, Floridiana & Institutional Repository are neither the original nor current copyright owner for the photographs. Please contact the publisher or source cited for each photograph to obtain a copy and/or permission to reproduce these items.

The following St. Augustine Fiction books feature this building as a location:

Maria

This record was last updated on January 7, 2026.