Free previewStop 2 of St. Augustine Walking Tour: Nights of Lights and the Old City
A Minorcan Homestead and an Unproven Title
You're on Saint George Street, just inside the City Gates, the two stone pillars you walked past a moment ago. On your right, at number 14, is a small, dark wooden house that looks like it wandered in from another century. Look at the walls themselves. In a town famous for stone, this one is made of boards.
The name over the door is the Oldest Wooden School House, but the man at the center of this story is Juan Genopoly. The museum here describes the place as his homestead, a Minorcan family home set up in the late 1700s. To understand who Genopoly's people were, you have to look about 70 miles down the coast.
In 1768 a British planter named Andrew Turnbull brought well over a thousand settlers to Florida for a plantation called New Smyrna.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 2 of St. Augustine Walking Tour: Nights of Lights and the Old City (2 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
