Ximenez-Fatio House History

History

In April, 1791, Andres Ximenez, a native of Ronda, Spain married Juana, 15-year-old daughter of Francisco Pellicer, a Minorcan in St. Augustine. Ximenez bought a two story wooden house on the east side of Hospital Street (known today as Aviles), at the corner of the lane, now Cadiz Street. There, with a store in his house, he prospered enough to acquire the northwest corner lot directly across the street, while retaining his original property. Ximenez's new site, a prime location, was situated in the heart of the colonial settlement.

Here, about 1798, he built a coquina block house with tabby floors, which included two westerly warehouses along the lane, and a separate coquina kitchen building. The general store occupied the ground floor and living quarters were upstairs, Spanish style. Family visitors entered from Aviles Street into the courtyard and ascended the outside staircase. The Ximenez family would include five children before Juana died in 1802 at the age of 26. The two youngest children died the next year and their father three years later.


	In 1819 the first treaty in the acquisition of Florida by the United States was signed. In 1821 the change was made from Spanish to United States authority in St. Augustine. This change brought new money into St. Augustine's slow economy. Among the early arrivals were Margaret and Samuel Cook of Charleston. It was she, after her husband's death in 1826, who acquired the property from the Ximenez heirs. It was during her ownership that the structure became a boarding house.


			Adventurers, invalids and investors came to Florida to see what the new land could offer. Mrs. Cook took advantage of the resulting demand for lodging, by converting her property into an inn. It was managed by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Whitehurst until her death in 1838. Twenty-four guests could be accommodated in the seven or eight rooms made available for visitors. The quality and quantity of the meals served in the dining room pictured at the left were paramount to the contentment of the guests.

The Seminole Wars raged in Florida until 1842, bringing soldiers and their families, as well as plantation refugees into the walled city of St. Augustine.

Mrs. Sarah Petty Anderson's Dunlawton Plantation, south of St. Augustine, was the first of 16 plantations to be burned. She purchased Margaret Cook's boarding house and resided there with her extended family from 1838 until 1850.

In 1845, Florida became the 27th state in the Union. With statehood came more travelers, business men and government representatives. The inn prospered.


		Miss Louisa Fatio, pictured at left, began operating the inn in 1850 for Mrs. Anderson. She bought the property in 1855 and continued operating it as a fashionable inn until her death in 1875. One traveler wrote, "From personal experience I can speak only of one of these establishments kept by Miss Fatio, a most estimable and popular lady; and if the others are as home-like and comfortable as this, the ancient city may well be proud of her houses for the accommodation of travelers and invalids." (Harold L. Peterson, Americans at Home: From the Colonists to the late Victorians. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.) The property was owned by Miss Fatio's heirs until it was purchased by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in The State of Florida in 1939. As its state house museum, the NSCDA in Florida's mission is to preserve and interpret the historic Ximenez-Fatio House in St. Augustine as an inn depicting early tourism in Florida (1821-1861).