05/28/2026
St. Augustine house turned public library lifted in 1890
By Charles Tingley, St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library
Dozens of homes in St. Augustine have been lifted out of harms way since the horrible flooding during hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Irma (2017). Flooding caused by tropical storms has been a constant in St. Augustine history. Part of the reasoning behind moving the city from Anastasia Island to the mainland in 1572 was that structures were being “eaten by the sea.”
The house at 28 St. Francis Street may be the earliest example in St. Augustine of a house being lifted in order to insert a new ground floor. In 1872, John L. Wilson acquired the one and a half story, wooden house as well as some adjoining property. He was a retired merchant from Framingham, Massachusetts. He had made a fortune in coffee and mahogany from Haiti. For many years, he was the U.S. Consul in Cap-Haitien.
In 1890, he elevated the old house that was built in the 1830s and inserted a ground floor made in a new way: Concrete blocks as a veneer on a wood frame structure. There were several buildings in St. Augustine made in this revolutionary technique such as 20 Valencia St., and 116 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The street façade originally had a wooden porch with turned posts and balustrade downstairs as well as upstairs. At some point this was changed into a balcony supported by wooden brackets.
John Wilson and his wife Elizabeth founded the St. Augustine Free Public Library in 1874 and for a few years it was located on the ground floor of 28 St. Francis Street. In 1895, they purchased the Segui-Kirby Smith House and gave it to the library. The public library remained there until 1987 when a new St. Johns County Public Library was built. It is now the home of the St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library.
