The Old Blacksmith Shop is located at 26 Charlotte Street in

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...

. It is a reconstruction of an outbuilding located on the site during the British possession of Florida.

History

Not much is known about the history of the original blacksmith shop. The oldest known record of the structure is 1771, during the British Period in St. Augustine. At that time, there were several similarly constructed outbuildings. In 1782 the property was sold to David Morran, who rented one of the buildings to a blacksmith. When the

1783 Treaty of Paris The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and overall state of conflict ...

gave Florida back to Spain, David Morran returned to England but left his wife in St. Augustine to manage the sale of his properties. She was unsuccessful, and

Jesse Fish Jesse Fish (1724 or 1726–1790) was a shipmaster, merchant, and realtor who lived in St. Augustine, Florida under both Spanish and British rule, and is infamous in the town's history to this day. He was a schemer involved in contraband trade and ...

and James Henderson managed the sale to the Spaniards.

Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board

The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board began the reconstruction of the Blacksmith Shop in late 1967 and completed it in 1968. The home that stood on the site at the time, known as the Judson Property, was demolished in 1967. The Preservation Board's in-house construction crew built the 12 x 16 foot wooden outbuilding from pine logs that were cut with a broad axe and adze, in accordance with the historic construction methods that would have been used at the time. The shop had a dirt floor with no windows and no insulation. During the 1970s, it served as a working blacksmith shop for San Agustín Antiguo. The board wanted to closely replicate the experience of an 18th-century shop and installed a double forge. Visitors could watch the blacksmith, who was a descendant of early

Minorcan Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capita ...

settlers, making

horseshoe A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toen ...

s and doing more intricate ironwork for other Preservation Board properties.

Present Day

Today the Blacksmith Shop operates as a coffee shop, Crucial Coffee Café. It is managed on behalf of the state by University of Florida Historic St. Augustine, Inc.

References

{{reflist Tourist attractions in St. Augustine, Florida American blacksmiths Blacksmith shops Buildings and structures in St. Augustine, Florida