Casa Monica at Dusk St Augustine Original Painting

This original painting is 24x30 inches. When I visited St Augustine I was taken by the architecture of Flagler College and the Lightner Museum and learned they were formerly hotels built in the 1880s. What I didn’t realize was The Casa Monica was built around the same time and has its own history. It looks newer, and more pristine yet still has the same style as the Spanish Renaissance. The newness comes from a remodel in the 1960s that covered the poured concrete with stucco. More renovations happened twenty years ago when the building was bought by Kessler hotels. Originally the hotel was built by Franklin W. Smith, who built his house Villa Zorayda with the newly poured concrete method. When Smith ran into financial difficulties Henry Flagler bought the hotel. It was connected by a bridge to the Hotel Alcazar (Lightner museum) at the turn of the century until the hotel closed during the Great Depression. At one point later it housed a courthouse. As I was reading about the history of the hotel the phrase time stands still for no man came to mind. The building has remained, yet it’s gone through many changes over the decades. As time and history progress, it brings change. The challenge is to learn, and grow, improve as changes come.