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Many years ago, I remember sitting in my first-grade Catholic-school classroom listening to Sister Mary Marshall play songs to help us recall vocabulary, spelling and mathematics. Sitting next to my friend, Nina, we watched our teacher write on the giant chalkboards in her neat “nun” handwriting and cowered from her wrath when we were caught misbehaving!
Although our school was relatively small, it was gigantic compared to the some of the first schools established in the United States.
After the first settlements were founded, eventually, the need arose for the children’s education. Small one-room schoolhouses were built and a teacher was brought in to deliver instruction. Since there was a small number of children, all ages were taught together.
Although the Oldest Wooden School House, located in St. Augustine’s historic district, only dates back to the early 18th century and was by no means the first, it does hold the title of the “oldest” as it is the only one still standing. No other wooden structures in the city, built prior to 1702, remain as the British burned St. Augustine to the ground during that year.
The Oldest Wooden School House was built for the Genopoly family in the Minorcan Quarter. It was a single-story building made of cypress and red cedar and had a detached kitchen and a privy. The first schoolteacher, Juan Genopoly, eventually commissioned a second story to guarantee privacy for himself and his family.
Today, visitors enter through the gift shop and pay the admission fee. From the gift shop they step into the quaint walled-in garden and observe the many statues of international educators, the old school bell in the corner of the courtyard and a 250-year-old pecan tree which still bears fruit.
After my walk through the garden, I took a peek inside of the kitchen and learned that it was not used as a cafeteria, but as the location where the teachers whipped up their own meals for themselves and their family. Students brought their own “lunch pails” and the kitchen was built as a separate entity to avoid unnecessarily heating the schoolhouse or catching it on fire.
Turning to find the entrance to the schoolhouse, I stepped inside, taking care to monitor the uneven floorboards. The two rooms on either side were decorated in the style of the time and it was evident that one was used as an office for Teacher Genopoly.
Passing into the main room, I observed the small, narrow stairway leading up to the family’s main living and sleeping quarters and the small space underneath the stairs which demonstrated “the dungeon” where unruly students were placed for punishment. To the right was the main space where instruction took place around the fireplace.
In long showcases along the back wall, there are many artifacts, including old textbooks and school supplies from the eighteenth century and a list of the last class which attended school there in 1864.
As I ventured closer to the students, I wondered how they were segregated for learning purposes and observed how the dunce cap was used not on the head of the ill-behaved child, as I had thought, but the head of the slow learner. Although it was a common practice, it was not one that I thought was fair.
And with that, my time visiting the Oldest Wooden School House was complete.
Short and sweet, yet very educational…for me and for those who came before me…both visitors and students…I really enjoyed this American Treasure, such an important part of St. Augustine’s past.
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Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse
- Address: 14 St. George Street, St. Augustine, Florida, 32084
- Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 1000-1700, Friday and Saturday, 1000-1900
- Admission: Adult, $5.00, Students (ages 6-12), $4.00, Children (under 5), free