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34-495: The González–Álvarez House , also known as The Oldest House , is a historic house museum at 14 St. Francis Street in St. Augustine , Florida . With a construction history dating to about 1723, it is believed to be the oldest surviving house in St. Augustine. It is also an important example of St. Augustine's Spanish colonial architectural style, with later modifications by English owners. It

68-500: A building is documented to have been standing here. The present house's earliest period of construction dates to about 1723, when the first floor was built, and it was documented as being occupied by Tomás González y Hernández, an artilleryman at the Castillo de San Marcos , and his family. The design of this house is one that was adopted by Spanish colonial settlers to deal with local living conditions and available building materials. It

102-669: A collection consistent with the historical structure. Some museums choose to collect pieces original to the period, while not original to the house. Others, fill the home with replicas of the original pieces, reconstructed with the help of historic records. Still other museums adopt a more aesthetic approach and use the homes to display the architecture and artistic objects. Because historic homes have often existed through different generations and have been passed on from one family to another, volunteers and professionals also must decide which historical narrative to tell their visitors. Some museums grapple with this issue by displaying different eras in

136-634: A different time and place and perform everyday household tasks, crafts, and occupations. The goal is to demonstrate older lifestyles and pursuits to modern audiences. Household tasks might include cooking on an open hearth , churning butter , spinning wool and weaving , and farming without modern equipment. Many living museums feature traditional craftsmen at work, such as a blacksmith , pewtersmith , silversmith , weaver , tanner , armorer , cooper , potter , miller , sawyer , cabinet-maker , woodcarver , printer , doctor, and general storekeeper . The North American open-air museum, more commonly called

170-472: A late 19th-century appearance in 1959–60, reversing a number of intervening alterations. Historic house museum Historic house museums are sometimes known as a "memory museum", which is a term used to suggest that the museum contains a collection of the traces of memory of the people who once lived there. It is often made up of the inhabitants' belongings and objects – this approach is mostly concerned with authenticity . Some museums are organised around

204-604: A living-history museum, had a different, slightly later origin than the European, and the visitor experience is different. The first was Henry Ford 's Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan (1928), where Ford intended his collection to be "a pocket edition of America". Colonial Williamsburg (opened in 1934), though, had a greater influence on museum development in North America. It influenced such projects through

238-400: A year, more than fifty percent of historic house museums received fewer than 5,000 visitors per year. These museums are also unique in that the actual structure belongs to the museum collection as a historical object. While some historic home museums are fortunate to possess a collection containing many of the original furnishings once present in the home, many face the challenge of displaying

272-453: Is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum . Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings". In the loosest sense, an open-air museum is any institution that includes one or more buildings in its collections, including farm museums, historic house museums , and archaeological open-air museums . Mostly, "open-air museum"

306-399: Is a two-story structure, its first floor built of coquina and its upper level framed in wood with a clapboarded exterior. It is covered by a hip roof finished with wooden shingles. The building is reflective of multiple periods of alteration and enlargement, during different periods of colonial administration. The land on which this house stands has been occupied since the 17th century, when

340-517: Is applied to a museum that specializes in the collection and re-erection of multiple old buildings at large outdoor sites, usually in settings of recreated landscapes of the past, and often including living history . Such institutions may, therefore, be described as building museums. European open-air museums tended to be sited originally in regions where wooden architecture prevailed, as wooden structures may be translocated without substantial loss of authenticity. Common to all open-air museums, including

374-504: Is based on the dialectics of memory, however it also has the inclusion of joyous festivals to mask the turmoil. The Hiroshima Traces (1999) text takes a look at the importance of collective memory and how it is embedded in culture and place. Thus, collective memory does not only reside in a house or building, but it also resonates in outdoor space – particularly when a monumental event has occurred, such as war. Problematic creation of collective memory occurs within historic house museums when

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408-594: The union with Sweden . Most open-air museums concentrate on rural culture. However, since the opening of the first town museum, The Old Town in Aarhus , Denmark , in 1914, town culture has also become a scope of open-air museums. In many cases, new town quarters are being constructed in existing rural culture museums. Living-history museums, including living-farm museums and living museums , are open-air museums where costumed interpreters portray period life in an earlier era. The interpreters act as if they are living in

442-729: The Nordic Museum in Stockholm , to establish his own open-air museum Skansen , adjacent to the Nordic Museum. Skansen, opened to the public in 1891, was a more ambitious undertaking, including farm buildings from across Sweden , folk costumes, live animals, folk music, and demonstrations of folk crafts. The second open-air museum in the world to open its doors was also in Sweden: Kulturen in Lund in 1892 . In 1894

476-525: The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History ( Norsk Folkemuseum ) was founded in Oslo by Hans Aall , inspired by Skansen. Aall bought a large tract of land adjacent to King Oscar's royal collections, probably with a merger between them in mind. The open-air Norsk Folkemuseum was opened at Bygdøy in 1902. In 1907 the royal collections were incorporated after the death of King Oscar and the dissolution of

510-551: The 1970s and 1980s, as the Revolutionary War's bicentennial set off a wave of patriotism and alerted Americans to the destruction of their physical heritage. The tradition of restoring homes of the past and designating them as museums draws on the English custom of preserving ancient buildings and monuments. Initially homes were considered worthy of saving because of their associations with important individuals, usually of

544-688: The Norsemen". He believed that traditional peasant houses should be preserved against modernity, but failed to attract support for the idea. The first major steps towards the creation of open-air museums was taken in Swedish union ruled Norway in 1881, when the Swedish union King Oscar II transferred four historic farm buildings and the stave church from Gol to the royal manor at Bygdøy near Oslo (Christiania) for public viewing. This, in turn, in 1884 and 1885 inspired Artur Hazelius , founder of

578-541: The continent as Mystic Seaport , Plimoth Patuxet (formerly Plimoth Plantation), and Fortress Louisbourg . The approach to interpretation tends to differentiate the North American from the European model. In Europe, the tendency is to usually focus on the buildings. In North America, many open-air museums include interpreters who dress in period costume and conduct period crafts and everyday work. The living museum is, therefore, viewed as an attempt to recreate to

612-521: The earliest ones of the 19th century, is the teaching of the history of everyday living by people from all segments of society. The idea of the open-air museum dates to the 1790s. The first proponent of the idea was the Swiss thinker Charles de Bonstetten , and was based on a visit to an exhibit of sculptures of Norwegian peasants in native costumes in the park of Fredensborg Palace in Denmark ,"Valley of

646-403: The elite classes, like former presidents, authors, or businessmen. Increasingly, Americans have fought to preserve structures characteristic of a more typical American past that represents the lives of everyday people. Historic house museums usually operate with small staffs and on limited budgets. Many are run entirely by volunteers and often do not meet the professional standards established by

680-508: The fullest extent conditions of a culture , natural environment , or historical period . The objective is immersion, using exhibits so that visitors can experience the specific culture, environment or historical period using the physical senses. Performance and historiographic practices at American living museums have been critiqued in the past several years by scholars in anthropology and theater for creating false senses of authenticity and accuracy, and for neglecting to bear witness to some of

714-428: The home's history within different rooms or sections of the structure. Others choose one particular narrative, usually the one deemed most historically significant, and restore the home to that particular period. There are a number of organizations around the world that dedicate themselves to the preservation, restoration, or promotion of historic house museums. They include: Open-air museum An open-air museum

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748-399: The house was purchased by Major Joseph Peavett, an Englishman, who added the wood-frame second story, and put glass windows into openings previously only enclosed by wooden shutters. It was further enlarged by the third owner, Geronimo Alvarez, who added a two-story wing built of coquina. The house was taken over by the St. Augustine Historical Society in 1918, which undertook its restoration to

782-564: The lives of communities in earlier eras, which would then be performed to modern audiences. They often occupied large wooden architecture buildings or outdoor sites and landscapes, that were true to the era, adding to authenticity. Collective memory is sometimes used in the resurrection of historic house museums; however, not all historic house museums use this approach. The notion of collective memory originated from philosopher and sociologist Maurice Halbwachs , in "La Memoire Collective" ("On Collective Memory", 1950). This extended thesis examines

816-498: The mid-twentieth century among scholars who were interested in the history of people, as opposed to political and economical issues. Social history remains an influential branch of history. Philip J. Ethington, a professor of history and political science, further adds to social history and its relationship to locations by saying – Following this historical movement, the concept of " open-air museums " became prominent. These particular types of museums had interpreters in costume re-enact

850-553: The museum industry. An independent survey conducted by Peggy Coats in 1990 revealed that sixty-five percent of historic house museums did not have a full-time staff, and 19 to 27 percent of historic homes employed only one full-time employee. Furthermore, the majority of these museums operated on less than $ 50,000 annually. The survey also revealed a significant disparity in the number of visitors between local house museums and national sites. While museums like Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg were visited by over one million tourists

884-403: The narrative of all people who lived there is dangerous. While some plantation museum narratives have changed following an outcry from the public and the academy, "plantation museums reflect, create, and contribute to racialized ways of understanding and organizing the world" by limiting or eliminating the narrative of the enslaved inhabitants. A degree of authenticity is also to be considered in

918-554: The narrative of non-family members is dismissed, ignored, or completely rejected. Within the Southern United States, plantation museums (the former homes of enslavers) constitute a significant portion of the museum community and contribute to the racialized collective memory of the United States. Because museums are responsible for "the building of identity, cultural memory and community", neglecting to include

952-498: The person who lived there or the social role the house had. Other historic house museums may be partially or completely reconstructed in order to tell the story of a particular area, social-class or historical period. The " narrative " of the people who lived there guides this approach, and dictates the manner in which it is completed. Another alternative approach, deployed by nonprofit organization House Museum , includes contemporary art integration, where artists are invited to respond to

986-426: The physical and conceptual history of a site, thus injecting contemporary perspectives and value into historic places. In each kind of museum, visitors learn about the previous inhabitants through an explanation and exploration of social history . The idea of a historic house museum derives from a branch of history called social history that is solely based on people and their way of living. It became very popular in

1020-468: The public good and the preservation of American history, especially centered on the first U.S. president, General George Washington. Since the establishment of the country's first historic site in 1850, Washington's Revolutionary headquarters in New York, Americans have found a penchant for preserving similar historical structures. The establishment of historic house museums increased in popularity through

1054-405: The restoration and creation of a historic house museum. The space must be authentic in terms of truly replicating and representing the way it once stood in its original form and appear to be untouched and left in time. There are three steps when declaring if a space is authentic: The earliest projects for preserving historic homes began in the 1850s under the direction of individuals concerned with

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1088-549: The role of people and place, and how collective memory is not only associated with the individual but is a shared experience. It also focused on the way individual memory is influenced by social structures, as a way of continuing socialisation by producing memory as collective experience. An example of a site that utilizes collective memory is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan. It was restored and

1122-532: Was built of readily available coquina limestone, with its main thick walls oriented east–west, and has an open covered loggia on the east side. The latter allows prevailing southeasterly winds to cool the structure, while the thick walls provide insulation from hot weather. The interior floors are made of tabby concrete . After the British took over Florida in 1763, the González family left for Cuba . In 1774

1156-599: Was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970. The house is now owned by the St. Augustine Historical Society and is open for public tours as part of the Oldest House Museum Complex . Evidence can be seen of the Spanish, British, and American occupations of St. Augustine. The González–Álvarez House is located in a residential area south of downtown St. Augustine, on the north side of St. Francis Street between Charlotte and Marine Streets. It

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