Old Spanish Treasury - St. Augustine, FL - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The OLD SPANISH TREASURY (Anna G. Burt House) (open 1-5 daily; adm. 25¢), SE. corner St. George and Treasury Sts., a two-story flat-roofed, white-shuttered house, the first story of yellow stuccoed stone, the second of wood, houses the Woman's Exchange. The orginal building is said to have been erected about 1600.

The house contains intact the furnishings of the Burt family that occupied the premesis from 1830 until the death of Miss Burt in 1931, when the property was deeded to the city. Among the contents are fine old mahogany pieces, oil paintings, rare glass, old spreads on carved four-poster beds, old-time clothing, and other accessories of a well-to-do household of that time. The heavy-walled treasury room contains an authentic Spanish chest, a collection of old coins, two ghoulish apelike figures used for intimidation by the Spanish court of inquisition, and a separate well to provide potable water should the supply in the garden be poisoned. In the garden outside is the other well, under an arched colonnade with square vine-covered piers. Part of the garden wall is the original coquina fence around the treasury. The plants include Japan plum, sago and date palm, a rare frankincense tree, camphor and orange trees, the night-blooming jasmine, Mexican coral, and many others.