Cofradia Archaeological Site

, English , Foundations of a Stone House , Wooden boards sit atop and mark the coquina stone foundations of a building that formed the street corner for more than a century (circa 1740 - 1870). Constructed by Spanish residents, the building over the years served as a home, a general store and a liquor store through the American Civil War. From 1889 until 1989 a 2-story brick building completely covered these old foundations and the rest of this park. , Coquina Stone Buildings , The Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament was the first known owner of two shell stone buildings that stood here from circa 1740 to 1850. The religious organization probably used this as income property, rented as homes or shops. , Among the many artifacts excavated here in 1990 were two religious objects lost centuries ago. A hand-shaped higa, an amulet hung around the necks of children for protection from the evil eye, and a Blessed Sacrament medal attest to the important role of religion in the lives of colonial Spaniards. After 1763 the buildings became private residences., Seventeenth-Century Well , Inside this long-forgotten coquina stone well archaeologists found pieces of St Augustinians' lives from the late 1600s. One of the largest and earliest stonewalled wells in St. Augustine, it served perhaps as a public well for the neighborhood. , Archaeologists excavated remnants of furniture, chunks of a burned building, a cow skull, seeds from long-ago dinners, and even a small cactus with its thorns. Preservationists rebuilt the above-ground well curb that you see today. The original 17th-century well remains in the ground. ,