The Houses of St. Augustine, 1565-1821

As architecture documents history, ""The Houses of St Augustine"" records architecture, preserving and interpreting the history of housing in the oldest city in the continental United States. The charming two-storey house so distinctive to St Augustine offers tangible evidence of Spanish settlement in the New World. Long before Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded St Augustine, houses similar to the loggia-and-balcony houses of St Augustine existed in his home province of Oviedo and in nearby Santander. The special feature of the ""casa Santanderina"" design, which Manucy calls the ""St Augustine Plan,"" is a loggia, or sometimes a sheltered porch, opening onto the yard that anticipates the ""Florida room"" of this century. On both the north coast of Spain and the northeast coast of Florida, the porch excludes the cold wind and admits the sun in winter; it lets in the breeze and tempers the hot sun in summer. Upon its first publication 30 years ago, this classic volume contributed to an awakening of interest in St Augustine architecture; it continues to be the basic reference tool for colonial period restoration and for the ongoing archaeological and anthropological research in the city. In detailed drawings and nontechnical language, the book identifies basic house types and records their dimensions, construction techniques, materials, and design details from foundations to roofs. It has been the cornerstone that enabled the St Augustine government to frame architecture guidelines for preservation and restoration of existing historic buildings, reconstruction of lost structures, and construction of contemporary homes in designs that are compatible with the historic architecture.