Spanish Military Hospital Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Spanish Military Hospital Museum
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Spanish Military Hospital
Location in Florida
Location	3 Aviles St St. Augustine, Florida
Built	1965 (1965)
Architectural style	Spanish Colonial
Website	The Spanish Military Hospital Museum
Part of	St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District (ID70000847)

The Spanish Military Hospital Museum is a cool place to visit in St. Augustine, Florida. It's located at 3 Aviles Street. This museum shows you what medical care was like during Florida's Second Spanish Period, which was from 1784 to 1821.

You can visit the museum every day from 9 AM to 5 PM. Tours start often throughout the day. On a tour, you'll see a demonstration of old-time surgery and learn about an apothecary (a place where medicines were made). You can also explore a garden filled with plants used for medicine long ago.

History of the Hospital Building

During the time when the British controlled St. Augustine (from 1763 to 1783), a Scottish carpenter named William Watson bought and changed the building into a home. The hospital was actually made up of three main parts. There was Hospital West, built during Florida's First Spanish Period. Then there was Hospital East, built when the British were in charge. Finally, the Apothecary was located in the William Watson House, also built during the British time.

These three buildings, along with their smaller buildings and gardens, worked together as a hospital complex. This was during the Second Spanish Period. The street that runs between the two hospital wings, Aviles Street, was even called Hospital Street until 1924.

This hospital was only for military people. Only soldiers were treated there, and only military staff worked there.

Hospital West sadly burned down in 1818. The rest of the hospital kept running for two more years into the American Territorial Period. It officially closed in 1823. Hospital East was destroyed in a fire in 1895. Luckily, the Watson House, where the apothecary was, is still standing today!

Rebuilding the Hospital

In 1966, a group called the St. Augustine Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission decided to rebuild the Spanish Military Hospital. They wanted it to look just like it did in the 1790s. They even built it on its original foundations!

Once it was finished, a historian named Dr. William M. Straight suggested that the building should become a medical museum. Everyone loved this idea! So, plans were made, and a local committee started raising money in 1967. The rebuilt Hospital East building opened to the public in 1968. Today, there are shops where Hospital West used to be.

Visiting the Museum Today

The reconstructed Hospital East building opened in 1968. The Medical Museum itself opened on the second floor in July 1973. It was supported by several groups and showed exhibits about medical history. However, it closed in 1977 because of costs.

The building was used for businesses until 1990. Then, the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board reopened the museum on July 20. It became part of a special program that recreated life in old St. Augustine.

Today, the State of Florida owns the building. The University of Florida helps manage it, and a private business runs the museum. When you take a tour, you'll see how hospital practices were done in the late 1700s. This includes a full demonstration of surgeries from that time. You'll also see an apothecary demonstration, where they explain the medicines used and how they were made. Plus, you can walk through the medicinal herb gardens!

See also

• William Watson House