- Joined
- Jul 30, 2018
- Location
- Germany
During my recent trip to Florida, I stayed a night in St. Augustine and chose the historic St. Francis Inn Bed & Breakfast, the city's oldest inn.
The house was built in 1791 during the city’s Second Spanish Colonial Period and features the era's typical architecture - built like a fortress to defend the inhabitants in case of an invasion. Most of the owners served in the military, be it during the Spanish rule or later American when Florida joined the United States. In 1838, Colonel Thomas Henry Dummett (1775-1839) acquired the house.
One of his daugthers, Elizabeth Hennery Dummett, married William Joseph Hardee in 1840. Serving in Florida during the Seminole War, he became ill and had to be hospitalized; that's when the two met. According to the Florida Civil War Heritage Trail booklet, Hardee owned the Dummett House.
When Elizabeth died in 1853, her sister, Anna Maria Dummett (who never married), raised the couple's children at the Dummett House while Hardee served at West Point as Commandant of Cadets and later as a Confederate general. Anna was an ardent Confederate supporter, and after the war, she became the first president of the St. Augustine Ladies Memorial Association. In that position, she raised funds for the Confederate monument that still stands at the Plaza de la Constitución.
The house's ownership went to John L. Wilson in 1888 who added the third floor mansard roof and who built various buildings around the Dummett House that today house rooms and suites for the inn. Various literary figures stayed at or owned the house at one point or another.
Historically, the inn is known as the Garcia-Dummett House (Gaspar Garcia built the house in 1791), but it has been known as the St. Francis Inn since 1948.
The main entrance is in the back of the house through the back courtyard. Coming in, you're greeted with the lobby under the staircase.
If you walk straight ahead from the lobby, you reach the parlor which is community space and can be used by all guests.
To the right of the parlor is the dining room where breakfast is served and where you can get dessert in the evening.
The inn has 11 rooms in the main house, two rooms and two suites in the Wilson House across the street, The Garden Hideaway as well as The Cottage (former separate kitchen for the main house) with two rooms. There's also the 1894 House with two more rooms.
I stayed in the main house on the second floor, in the Ballerina Room.
The inn is located just 10 minutes walking distance to the Plaza de la Constitución and Flagler College, and about five minutes walking to the National Cemetery. It has free guest parking across the street. I really loved staying there and will book it again when revisiting St. Augustine.