Youth Ambassadors tour Historic Lincolnville

by: Kayley Sutton, Youth Ambassador
Pedro Menendez High School, Class of 2015

Local historian David Nolan offered an informative guided tour of the historic Lincolnville community to members of St Augustine’s Youth Ambassadors on September 8th.

The neighborhood southwest of downtown St. Augustine was settled by former slaves after the Civil War. They rented land for $1.00 a year on what was then the west bank of Maria Sanchez Creek. When Henry Flagler came to town in the 1880’s, he had the north end of Maria Sanchez Creek filled in and built his Alcazar Hotel–now City Hall and Lightner Museum–on the site. Where did he get his landfill? From the site of Fort Mose, the pioneer free black settlement north of town dating back to 1738!

Lincolnville houses the oldest brick school building in St. Augustine: the former St. Benedict School, built in 1898 with funds from Mother Katharine Drexel, who was made a saint in the Catholic Church in the year 2000. Across the street from it is historic St. Paul AME Church, where both Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King spoke at civil rights rallies in 1964.

Another important civil rights landmark is the Elks Rest on Washington Street. This white building with purple trim was an important meeting place, and Dr. King held press conferences in the upstairs of the building.

There is a Freedom Trail marker on the De Haven Street home of Mrs. Rena Ayers, one of the “housemothers of the civil rights movement.” Among the guests at her home in 1964 was attorney Alvin Bronstein, who went on to spend 5 years as head of the Lawyer’s Constitutional Defense Committee in the south, though he had originally planned to spend only two weeks in St. Augustine when he first came to her door. He returned for a visit in 2004 when Mrs. Ayers was 100 years old. She recently passed away at the age of 109, the oldest resident of the Ancient City.

Lincolnville is now the home to two museums: the Lincolnville Museum, located in the historic Excelsior School building on Martin Luther King Avenue, and the new Civil Rights Museum located in the former dental office of movement leader Dr. Robert B. Hayling at 79 Bridge Street.

We learned so much about Lincolnville and we hope that you, citizens of St. Augustine, go visit and enjoy historic Lincolnville as much as we did!