96 Washington Street

96 Washington Street

96 Washington Street, St. Augustine, Fla 32084

St. Sebastian Lodge # 3117 c/o Edward Kearse

The eastern section of Dumas Tract Subdivision, the genesis of Lincolnville, is bounded on the north by Bridge Street, and 18th century thoroughfare which led to one of the three late colonial San Sebastian River ferry crossings. The subdivision is in the vicinity of the early 18th century Indian village of Palica. The tract evolved out of two early 19th century Spanish land grants to Bartolo Jaurez and Gaspar Papy, a prosperous Greek merchant who came to St. Augustine from New Smyrna in 1777. Both soon developed some of the first commercial orange groves in Florida. [1] By the late 1830s, the grants were consolidated by Peter Sken Smith, a prominent Territorial period land speculator, who subdivided much of the tract and commenced selling lots. The economic depression of the 1840's ended attempts to develop the areas of the fringes of the old city, and by 1840 Phillip Weedman and Peter Dumas, county clerk and post-Civil War leader of the Florida Radical Republicans, acquired most of the property formerly belonging to Smith. [2] After the war, the community of Africa soon developed on the marshes of the Maria Sanchez Creek as newly freed Blacks began renting the property from the city. Africa, later called Lincolnville, extended along the banks of the Creek and by the early 1870's, Blacks began buying lots and buildings along Central Avenue and Benedict Street. Construction along Oneida and Bridge Streets commenced later in the decade. By 1885, Lincolnville was a rapidly growing Black community, although some Whites lived along Bridge Street next to the Craddock Hotel. The eastern edge of Lincolnville, Washington Street, became a prosperous Black commercial district in the first several decades of the 20th century. By that time, Lincolnville had extended beyond its original boundaries into adjacent areas, particularly Genovar and Atwood Tract Subdivisions. Today Lincolnville generally refers to the all Black neighborhoods in the southwest peninsula. [3]
The buildings at 96 [94] Washington Street has been used both as a private residence and for commercial purposes over the years. At one time it was the Sun Beam Boarding House and in 1911 it was the offices of the Black operated Florida Building and Loan Association, the president was C. S. Daniels. At one time the Sun Beam Grocery was located in the building and there was a restaurant in the front with a small one-story porch on the street. Currently it is used as a private residence on the second floor and by the St. Sebastian Lodge No. 3117 on the first. [4]

The two and one -half story Frame Vernacular residence at 96 [94] Washington Street was constructed between 1904 and 1910, and is one of the later structures built in this area. The 1899 Sanborn Map, first to cover this area, shows a one-story building with a one-story porch marked "vacant" occupying this site, and that building is also shown on the 1894 Birds-Eye View. The 1904 Sanborn shows this same building on the site marked as "old" and "vacant". The 1910 Sanborn shows a two-story L-shaped private residence with a two-story porch on the site. By 1917 it is the Sun Beam Boarding House and by 1924 it is shown as a boarding house with a one story addition on the south half of the front marked "store". The 1930 Sanborn shows it as a boarding house with a later addition to the map showing it as a private residence with the store used as a restaurant. Although in need of restoration, the building has retained some of its nice Victorian gingerbread which contributes to the ambiance of old Washington Street. The building is located due east of the "old" house at 85 Oneida Street that was removed between 1917 and 1924.

The Lincolnville area first developed along Washington Street after the Civil War. But the development that preceeded its heyday took place in the Flagler Era. The 1885 Birdseye view of St. Augustine shows churches and small residences scattered along the banks of Maria Sanchez Creek. The 1894 Birdseye shows the Creek filled in, where the Ponce de Leon and Alcazar Hotels and Ponce de Leon Barracks were built. By this time several commercial buildings had been constructed along Washington Street. By the early 20th century it played the role of "Main Street" in Lincolnville. It has long been an area of combined usages--residential building shared the street with churches, commercial, and fraternal buildings. Many buildings along the street have combined usages as well with commercial first floors and residential second floors. Washington Street has some of the city's few surviving wooden Victorian commercial structures. Earlier buildings along the street are wood frame. Later ones are masonry. There are problems of deterioration, abandonment, vandalism, and demolition of buildings along Washington Street. In recent years the Lincolnville Restoration and Development Commission has worked to reverse these trends. They encouraged the city to put in a new street and sidewalks to deal with the serious drainage problem. The street, though it has lost many distinctive features over the years, still retains a suggestion of the overhang, whether porch, balcony or awning, that once contributed to the distinctive look of the street, and might be easily restored. Washington Street is adjacent to the downtown area of St. Augustine, and the towers of the Ponce de Leon and Alcazar Hotels loom over the street from the north.

David Nolan

Olivia Brown

Florida Site Master File

Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board

7811

8SJ2328