A Walk Around the Block - Sisters of Saint Joseph Motherhouse

A wall of cochina stone runs the entire length of the south side of Cadiz between St. George and Avilez.  On the other side of the wall is the motherhouse of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of St. Augustine.  This society was first established in France in 1650 and came over to St. Augustine in 1866.  While their acknowledged mission is wisely, to change with the needs and times, their main focus seems to lean towards education.  Here is the vision quote from their web site, "Centered in contemplation, we work toward changing patterns of relationships which contribute to alienation, poverty and oppression".  That's beautiful!

The cornerstone of the motherhouse was laid on January 15, 1874.  The address is on Avilez, but the entrance from St. George looks more like the main entrance.

West entrance to Sisters of Saint Joseph motherhouse

The grounds between us and the motherhouse contains an inlaid stone cross with circles at each of the cardinal points, a circle at the intersection and a circle surrounding the whole thing.  A live oak tree is growing from the center.  Here is my feeble interpretation of this.  If anyone else has other info please, please chime in!

• The basic cross symbol is a vertical line representing the spiritual and a horizontal line representing the temporal.  (the motherhouse is at the south end of this, representing heaven?  If so are we in hell at the north end? Just kidding)
• A cross and circle combination is usually labeled as a Celtic cross.
• Circles radiating from the center usually refer to a Eucharistic symbol with the radiating circles representing manna.
• The four points of the cross can sometimes represent the four basic elements - earth, wind, fire and water.  There is a sundial in the eastern circle (sun/fire?) and a bird bath in the southern circle (water?).

Grounds to the north of the motherhouse

Sundial at Eastern point of cross

Inside view of the cochina stone wall which parallels Cadiz

View of grounds and north side of motherhouse

The cochina stone wall on Cadiz has a single break for a gate.

Gate at Cadiz street entrance

Cochina stone wall on Cadiz

Cochina stone wall detail

A Walk Around the Block - Stanbury Cottage

Continuing south on St. George past Palm Row we come to the Stanbury Cottage which, as you can see from the photo, is clearly haunted.

Gothic Revival house at Cadiz and St. George

I have not been able to find much out about this house.  The style is Gothic Revival and could be classified as Carpenter Gothic due to the use of wood to mimic the Gothic stone carvings, but with additional features which could only be done with wood.  It seems to still be individually owned.  It is included in the Historic American Buildings Survey and I understand that this was commissioned to document structures built prior to 1860.  I can't find the original construction date or who built it.  Here's a photo taken in 1936.  You can see that the ghosts have been doing a decent job of keeping the place up over the years.

Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress - HABS collection

A view of the south side of the cottage shows how much it sprawls to the west.  I thought that I had run across an article that indicated this was used as a hotel or boarding house at one time, but I can't find it.  I'll have to keep digging.

Note the ghost peeking through the shutters on the 2nd floor.

There is a whole lot more of interest down St. George, but this is a tour of the block and we are now at the Corner of St. George and Cadiz.  Here's a final glimpse south on St. George past the Stanbury Cottage before we turn left onto Cadiz.