Gonzalez House

Gonzalez House

Geronimo Alvarez House

Gonzalez-Alvarez House

St. Augustine Historical Society

Oldest House Museum Complex

1720s

1775-1785

1790

1866-1882

1884-1886

1900s

1914

1918

1950s

This building was built as a private home with a public tavern for a source of income.

This building was used as city hall during the early 1790s.

This building was a private home.

This building became the headquarters for the St. Augustine Historical Society and a museum.

On  March 14, 1599, much of wooden St. Augustine was destroyed by a fire, including the Franciscan convent on the south side of St. Francis Street. For many years, it was popularly believed the house/church/hospital on the north side of the street was where the monks took refuge (i.e. the Oldest House). While primary sources exist from the time-period recounting the move of the friars, the location of the building to which they moved was not specified, but by 1962 was believed to have been located on St. George Street south of Bridge Street. In 1702, it is recorded that Governor Moore burned all but two buildings of substance in St. Augustine (the Castillo and the above-named hospital). After 1702, St. Augustinians who could afford to, began rebuilding using coquina, although wood or straw continued to be the most frequently used building materials.

Archaeological digs on the property of the Oldest House show evidence of structures/habitation dating back to 1650 and it is known that the wooden home on this property in 1702 was one of those burned by Moore.

Located in the St. Augustine Historical District, the Gonzalez-Alavarez House was built before 1727 for Tomas Gonzalez and his wife, Francesca de Guevara using coquina from Anastasia Island. Baptismal records from 1727 identify the residence of the Gonalez family. Reflecting the common designs of the time period, the current structure is a one-story rectangular building with a loggia (street balcony or open-sided room) that served as the entrance to the home and a walled garden in the rear. The oldest surviving woodwork is red cedar.

When the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, the Gonzalez family abandoned the property a year later into Jesse Fish's care, likely stripping it of its original furnishings before leaving. The home remained vacant until 1775 when Seargant-Major Peavett, a wealthy Englishman, purchased it and added the second story in the British style. After Peavett passed away in 1786, his wife, Mary, married an Irish soldier named John Hudson whose debts lost them the home on October 6, 1790 to the highest bidder, Geronimo Alvarez, who used the house as city hall during his mayorship.

Alvarez claimed during his lifetime that his family had owned the home during the 1st Spanish Period so may have been a relative of the Gonzalez family. The Alvarez family owned the home until 1882, remaining in St. Augustine through the change of flags from Spain to the United States and the house was deeded on November 15, 1839 to Antonio Alvarez, and in 1866 the house came into the possession of his niece, Ella O'Hara Acosta. Upon her death in 1882, her estate administrator sold the building to William Duke of New York, ending the line of ownership by Spanish descendants. Some enlargement of the building took place between 1866-1882, the details of which are not recorded.

In 1884, Dr. C.P. Carver and his wife Mrs. Mary E. Carver acquire the home and begin renovations two years later. He built a Victorian round tower at one end of the building, inset with stained glass windows and wood panelling taken from a demolished Presybeterian church.

James W. Henderson owned the Gonzalez-Alvarez house starting in 1898 and his wife opened it as a 'showplace,' plus owned one of the first vehicles in St. Augustine, before her husband sold the property to George Reddington for him to operate from 1914-1918. Mrs. Henderson had a garage built in the 1900's to house her vehicle. The St. Augustine Historical Society purchased the property on November 15, 1918.

Throughout the 1950s, the Historical Society did renovations to restore the home to its early 19th-century appearance to turn it into a museum reflecting St. Augustine's history. These renovations included but were not limited to, removing the Carver Victorian tower, and building a kitchen building.

In 1970, the Gonzalez-Alvarez House was added to the National Register of Historic Places. 

Although the decision of which is the oldest standing home in St. Augustine has been contested all the way back into the mid-1800s, according to Walter Knibloe in his 1885 Schneur's Illustrated Guide and History of St. Augustine, Fla. the wall overhung by the now gone, but famous date palm, was the oldest standing wall in St. Augustine, with reports of the date palm's size indicating no growth for the previous 90 years.

The Gonzalez-Alvarez House is the headquarters of the St. Augustine Historical Society.

The Gonazalez-Alvarez House is open to the public. For visitor information please go here: Oldest House Museum Complex and Gardens.

The St. Augustine Historical Society
14 St. Francis Street
St. Augustine, FL 32084
https://staughs.com/

The St. Augustine Historical Society's Oldest House Museum Complex is on the corner of St. Francis Street and Charlotte Street.

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

Photograph 1 (1883/1885): Knibloe, Walt. F. Schneur's Illustrated Guide and History of St. Augustine, Fla. St. Augustine, FL: Chas. F. Schneur, 1883/1885.

Photograph 2 (1908): Pollack, Deborah C. Felix F. de Crano: Forgotten Artist of the Flagler Colony. Lightner Museum, 2014.

Photograph 3 (post-1918): Bowen, Beth Rogero, and the St. Augustine Historical Society. St. Augustine in the Roaring Twenties. Acadia Publishing, 2012.

Photograph 4 (1952): Vollbrecht, John L. St. Augustine’s Historical Heritage as Seen Today…With Historical Notes on the Oldest House. Photography by J. Carver Harris. Foreword by David R. Dunham. St. Augustine, FL: The Record Press/J. Carver Harris, 1952.

Photograph 5 (2025): Zufelt, Holly. "The Oldest House Musuem." June 20, 2025.

Photograph 6 (2025): Zufelt, Holly. "The Oldest House Musuem Plaque." June 20, 2025.

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

Brooks, Miss A.M., compiler. The Unwritten History of Old St. Augustine Copied from the Spanish Archives in Seville, Spain. Translated by Mrs. Anne Averette. [1917].

Gjessing, Frederick, et al. “Evolution of the Oldest House.” Photography by J. Carver Harris. Notes in Anthropology. Vol. 7. Tallahassee, FL: The Department of Anthropology, 1962.

Knibloe, Walt. F. Schneur's Illustrated Guide and History of St. Augustine, Fla. St. Augustine, FL: Chas. F. Schneur, 1883/1885.

Lawson, Edward W. The Saint Augustine Historical Society and Its “Oldest House:” A Documentary Study of Fabricated History. Published by the author, 1957.

Reynolds, Charles B. “The Oldest House in the United States:” St. Augustine, Fla.; An Examination of the St. Augustine Historical Society’s Claim that Its House on St. Francis Street Was Built in the Year 1565 by the Franciscan Monks. The Foster & Reynolds Company, 1921.

St. Augustine Historical Society. “About Us.”  2025. https://staughs.com/about/.

Vollbrecht, John L. St. Augustine’s Historical Heritage as Seen Today…With Historical Notes on the Oldest House. Photography by J. Carver Harris. Foreword by David R. Dunham. St. Augustine, FL: The Record Press/J. Carver Harris, 1952.

Winsberg, Morton D., compiler. Florida’s History through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places. Institute of Science and Public Affairs/Florida State Univ., 1988.

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:

The Devil's Own Dear Son: A Comedy of the Fatted Calf
Dirt McGirtt: The Man Florida Loved to Hate
Gullible's Travels
Maria
My Mother Is a Violent Woman
Pablo's Search
The Triplets Go South

This record was last updated on July 14, 2025.