The Santoyo House is located at 91 St. George Street,

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 a First Spanish Period (1565-1763) house in Florida.

History

A 1764 Spanish map indicates that there was a one-story flat-roofed house at this site made of tabby and plaster coating, belonging to Miguel Santoyo, a soldier at the

Castillo de San Marcos The Castillo de San Marcos (Spanish for "St. Mark's Castle") is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. It was designed by the Spanish ...

. Miguel Santoyo was the son of Juan de la Rosa Santoya and Maria Ana Cavallero. Miguel, his father, and his brother were all soldiers at the Castillo. Miguel belonged to a regiment of

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

s. The floor of his home was most likely wooden or earthen and he had no loggia or porch, common in Spanish architecture, connected to his dwelling The

1763 Treaty of Paris The Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain and Prussia's victory over France and Spain during the S ...

ceded Florida to Great Britain 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 ...

, British agent, sold the house in 1769 to a George Kemp, surgeon and a member of the British General Assembly in East Florida. The home was most likely destroyed at some point during St. Augustine's

British Period British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

(1763-1783) for use of materials. 1917 Sanborn Insurance maps show that there was later a two-story brick building on this location that was used as retail space until it was torn down in the 1960s for the reconstruction of many of St. Augustine's historic buildings.

Reconstruction

In 1966 the St. Augustine Restoration Foundation Inc. purchased the Miguel Santoyo lot and reconstructed a house to its 1760s appearance.

Present day

Today the Santoyo House is retail space operated by Sea Gems. The property is owned by St. Augustine Foundation, Inc.

References

{{Reflist Houses in St. Augustine, Florida