“I Lived Here, As Well” will return January 2022

The Ximenez-Fatio House Museum is excited to announce the second installment of our specialty tour, “I Lived Here, As Well – A Woman’s Story.” For guests who had the opportunity to experience the first “I Lived Here, As Well” series told from an enslaved man’s point of view in Spring of 2021, the new program will continue the story of urban slavery from the woman’s perspective. The tour will be open to the public, led by costumed historical actors and last approximately 60 minutes. The program will include stories and accounts not heard during the traditional museum tour and guests will also have access to the newly opened African-American exhibit.

(Our permanent exhibit will remain as part of our regular museum tour)

I Lived Here, As Well

At the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum, guests are invited to step into our 220+ year-old boarding house and experience firsthand the lives of the people that lived within. Of course, we have traced the history of the owners of the house with relative ease — they left behind documents, artifacts, and, yes, homes. But what about people whose lives are not always documented, whose belongings are not always preserved? Well, they lived here, as well.

And now, it is time we tell you the story of our museum as seen through the eyes of those invisible to the owners, guests, and even historians: the African-descended people who were enslaved or working as servants at this house. It is time we take you on a journey through time and history, along a path that has not been explored at the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum — until now.

“I Lived Here, As Well” is a story as told by the people who may have spent their entire lives in this house, yet never used the front door. You will be introduced to several people whose paths were restricted because of the color of their skin. Some are free. Some are enslaved, yet hopeful. Some see no silver lining to their dire circumstances. This is not simply an historic home tour; it is a journey that walks you through nearly one-hundred years of African American history in 19th-century St. Augustine.

A journey you will not soon forget.