XIMENEZ-FATIO HOUSE MUSEUM

By  Mike Miller November 7, 2025

Ximenez-Fatio House Museum in St. Augustine, Florida is a three-story coquina building built in 1798 by Don Andres Ximenez.

He built it as a family home with a ground-floor store. Later it served as a boarding house for decades. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Florida opened it as a museum in 1939. 

Gardens and courtyards surround the structure. It preserves one of the city's oldest residences. Exhibits recreate 19th-century life through furnishings and stories.

Ximenez-Fatio House Museum

In 1798, Don Andres Ximenez built this three-story house made of coquina for his wife Juana Pellicer and their children.

Juana's father, Francisco Pellicer, had spearheaded the 1777 escape of Menorcans from the New Smyrna settlement, freeing them from the harsh indentured labor imposed by Dr. Andrew Turnbull.

Pellicer guided roughly 600 survivors northward to St. Augustine, welcomed by British Governor Colonel Patrick Tonyn.

As a skilled master carpenter, Francisco Pellicer likely contributed to the building of his daughter's new home. Ximenez constructed the house for $1,500.

The first floor held a grocery and billiards hall. Family quarters filled the upper levels. Juana died in 1802 at age 26. Two children followed in 1803, then Ximenez passed in 1806.

The home was rented by tenants until Margaret Cook bought it in 1830. She turned the two large warehouses on the property into guest rooms.

The house became a boarding house during the Second Seminole War. From 1838 to 1855, Sarah Petty Anderson owned it. In 1855 Louisa Fatio bought the house and took over.

She ran Madame Fatio's Boarding House from 1855 to 1875. Regular guests included tourists and health seekers. Rates ran $15 to $20 weekly.

Union troops occupied St. Augustine during the Civil War. Fatio signed the Oath of Allegiance in 1864.

She kept the place afloat through Florida's secession from the Union, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. After her death, family managed it.

Tourism boomed, but modern hotels negatively affected the number of guests at the boarding house.

The Dames purchased the house in 1939 and restored it over seven years. The Museum opened in 1946, focusing on the 1850s era.

The museum is at 20 Aviles Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084. Tel. 904-829-3575. It lies south of the Plaza de la Constitucion. Reach it via U.S. 1 to downtown.

Enter the courtyard to the Museum's Fig Tree Gift Shop. It’s open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all days but Wednesday, which starts at 11 a.m. It's closed on Sunday.

Docent-guided tours are available daily at 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m., weather permitting. Self-guided audio tours run all day.

Parking is free but limited at 28 Cadiz Street. If it’s full, use the paid lots at Trinity Episcopal Church as street parking fills up quickly. You must climb stairs to get to the upper floors.

• Coquina walls came from local quarries, mixed with oyster shells and lime. 

• Fatio employed formerly enslaved Louisa and Lewis Williams as servants post-1863. 

• Writer Constance Fenimore Woolson described it in her 1873 Harper's story "The Ancient City."  She was a grandniece of the author James Fenimore Cooper.

• The billiards hall once drew local men for evening games and gossip. 

• Period herbs like rosemary, used in 19th-century remedies, are planted in the garden. 

• Sightings of a playful child spirit known as "Little Miss Madison" have been reported by visitors and staff.  She is described as running up and down the stairs, moving objects, and interacting with a dollhouse on the third floor.

XIMENEZ-FATIO HOUSE MUSEUM WEBSITE

Florida is the fastest-growing state in the United States and also the fastest-changing.  If you see anything in this article that has changed or is in error, please let me know.

Our free daily Ezine, Florida Heritage Travel, has 18,000 subscribers.  We also have 130,000 followers on Facebook who love off the beaten path Florida.