Free previewStop 9 of St. Augustine Walking Tour: Nights of Lights and the Old City
A Boston Millionaire's Concrete Moorish Palace
You're on King Street, at number 83, in front of the building locals call Zorayda Castle. Take in the walls first: pale, blocky, with a crenellated roofline and windows cut in geometric shapes, like a fortress from somewhere much farther east than Florida. Now look just above the front entrance. That line of Arabic script reads, "There is no conqueror but God." It's the same phrase reproduced in the tracery of the Alhambra, the Moorish palace in Granada, Spain.
The man who put it here was Franklin W. Smith, an eccentric Boston millionaire. He was an early member of the Republican Party, he helped found the Boston YMCA, and in 1861 he and his wife danced at Abraham Lincoln's inaugural ball. He was also an amateur architect, and the building he had fallen for was the Alhambra.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 9 of St. Augustine Walking Tour: Nights of Lights and the Old City (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
