A reproduction of Sims Silversmith Shop, operated by the
Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board, is located on the site that is now 12 Cuna 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 ...
. The precise location of William Sims's 18th century original shop is unknown.
William Sims
William Sims was a
silversmith from Scotland who operated a shop in the town of St. Augustine during the town's
British Period (1763-1784). When he moved to St. Augustine he came with a wife, a son, and four enslaved people. It is possible that in
Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
, being a
loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
, he was convicted of treason and left the colony of
Georgia approximately in 1774.
History
The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board constructed the building in 1964 to be a typical shop built by
Anglo-American
Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...
refugees from the
American Revolution in the 1780s. It is a wooden framed building consisting of a gable roof, wood floors, wood shingles, and a brick foundation.
One half of the reconstructed building was put on display as a silversmith's shop. During the era of the living history museum San Augustín Antiguo in the 1960s and the 1970s, the room was full of iron tools such as
anvils
An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually forged or cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked").
Anvils are as massive as practical, because the higher th ...
and
hammers. The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board furnished the museum space with modern reproductions as well, such as a set of dies for shaping silver wire, a work bench, and a
bellows beside the fireplace where casting was done.
Present day
Today the site of Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board's reproduced silversmith shop is a retail space occupied by Southern Lights Candle Company.
References
{{reflist
Silversmithing
Buildings and structures in St. Augustine, Florida