Trolley Stop 5 - St Augustine - Orlando / Florida Guide
Florida Guide > Days Out
On our first day of exploring St Augustine our first stop had been to see the Old Jail and St Augustine History Museum. We then hopped back on the trolley bus to get off again at Stop 5.
A fabulous site to see here are the Old City Gates at the north end of St George Street. These columns mad of stone were at one time were the only entrance to St Augustine. They had been built in the early 1800s as a defense for the city for the original American colonists.
We then went into the Spanish quarter and felt like we had gone back 200 hundred years. Here we strolled amongst the various buildings of this restored colonial village and learnt about the lives of the colonists who called Spanish St. Augustine their home.
We then took a tour through the Government House Museum, where Spanish governors once administered the colony of La Florida and current exhibits showcase the city' s past. We saw professional costumed historians relive the life of Spanish soldiers and their families. Blacksmiths, carpenters, candle-makers and other tradesmen demonstrated how the settlers lived during the 1740’s. It was a fantastic experience, lots of adults and children were about really enjoying their visit to the Spanish Quarter. In fact throughout our time in St Augustine there were lots of children on school tours so lucky to be learning about their history in such a lovely place.
We then went over to the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse which was completely made by hand. The red cedar and cypress along with wooden pegs date this antiquated building and it is really charming.
The schoolhouse dates back to early 18th century and originally obviously the building had no electricity, no running water, no kitchen or bathroom. We were quite surprised to learn that the kitchen was purposely put in a separate building to avoid the dangers of fire.
You can go through the one-room schoolhouse and see the schoolmaster and students and listen as they tell the story of what they did each day. We saw copies of original books that the boys and girls used and other artifacts. We then looked around the kitchen and went into the garden. There is an old pecan tree there that has been there for 250 years, the school house really was worth a visit.
We then strolled along the rest of St Georges Street stopping along the way for a coffee and a well earned sit down.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not was also at this trolley stop but we did not visit it on this occasion we left that for the next day.
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