The Fullerwood Park Residential Historic District [†] is located in St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is situated on the east coast of Florida, approximately 35 miles south of Jacksonville and 55 miles north of Daytona Beach. The city lies on a peninsula bounded on the east by the Matanzas Bay and North River and on the west by the St. Sebastian River. Several major state and federal highways, including US Highway 1, Interstate 95 and Florida Al A, serve as the major thoroughfares into the city.
Fullerwood Park sits a little over a mile north of the colonial downtown district of St. Augustine. It is located in an area historically referred to as either "North City" or "White City." The immediate setting of the district is defined by natural and manmade features. Tidal estuaries of Hospital Creek and North River delineate Fullerwood Park on the north and east. The district is bounded on the south by the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB). On the mainland portion to the north of Fullerwood Park, is the Hildreth Back Bay Subdivision. San Marco Avenue roughly demarcates the boundary of the subdivision to the west. Motels, gas stations and retail stores are common post-World War II building types along San Marco Avenue. These post-World War II commercial enterprises are out of character with the residential neighborhood of Fullerwood Park to the east, as the commercial structures are typically one and two-story stucco masonry buildings.
The topography of Fullerwood Park is mostly flat and only between five and ten feet above sea level. A defining feature of the Fullerwood Park Residential Historic District is its mature hardwood tree canopy, particularly live oaks, magnolias, and pines. These are interspersed throughout the district with subtropical foliage, such as palm trees and banana plants. Landscaping is generally informal, with St. Augustine grass lawns and ornamental shrubs associated with individual lots. Coquina stone, a local rock formation, appears in landscaping elements of garden borders and occasional knee-walls.
The Fullerwood Park Residential Historic District, platted in 1914, reflects two different periods of development. The first period of development is pre-1930 and was a consequence of the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s. The second period of development occurred after World War II. Houses in Fullerwood Park front the streets and sidewalks. They generally share a similar scale and uniform lot setbacks on picturesque, tree-lined streets. In rare instances, modern houses (post 1960) break the fa9ade line with a deep setback. Residences are modest and most are one-story in height. Driveways are not a major landscape feature for houses built prior to 1930; rather, these houses have ribbon driveways that travel alongside the building to a detached garage in the rear of the property. Houses built in the post-World War II years reflect the importance of personal transportation. These houses have large paved driveways directly in the front of the house that lead to an attached garage or carport.
The Fullerwood Park neighborhood includes concentrations of buildings that appear to have been built by local building contractors from similar plans, prior to 1930. The homes share common features such as concrete, coquina or brick pier foundations, platform frame structural systems, horizontal board siding or stucco, sash and casement windows and gable or hip roofs. Two local companies produced cast coquina stone products used in residential development, mainly columns and blocks. These coquina stone elements are found commonly throughout the neighborhood and represent original design features utilizing local materials. Roofs are surfaced with asphalt sheets, galvanized metal, composite shingles or tile. Porches are other common features, reflecting a climatic adaptation before air conditioning became widely available.
Development of Fullerwood Park was completed in the post-World War II years, with infrequent building activity occurring in the district during the Depression and World War II eras. In the post-war era, builders introduced new styles, materials and methods of construction. Slab foundations on grade, concrete-block wall systems, jalousie and metal awning windows, asbestos cement siding and roof shingles became common place. Styles found in Fullerwood Park from this era are Ranch, Modern Contemporary, and Masonry Vernacular. The Masonry Vernacular style, utilizing concrete blocks, became popular in the post-war years of St. Augustine due to a shortage of lumber and followed no set design plan. The Masonry Vernacular structures found in Fullerwood Park are modest homes with a utilitarian design reflecting function over form.
The streets in Fullerwood Park generally follow an east-west pattern. Douglas Avenue and Rainey Avenue are the only north-south streets. This rectilinear pattern is broken by East Park Avenue, which juts diagonally on a northwest-southeast axis and Fullerwood Drive, which gently curves north to its terminus. East Park Avenue, Fullerwood Drive, and Macaris Street are shaped by the natural contours of Hospital Creek and the marshes of the North River. The curving streets offer aesthetically pleasing avenues of transportation and reflect intentional planning by the developers. All streets are bordered on both sides by poured coquina concrete sidewalks and coquina curbing, original to the subdivision. Streets remain paved in asphalt; the original marketing of Fullerwood Park touted the wide paved streets.
The Fullerwood Park Residential Historic District covers thirteen blocks. Portions of the subdivision plan are curvilinear, as opposed to the gridiron pattern of most subdivisions in the city. The block pattern is irregular. At the intersection of Bay View Drive and Rainey Avenue, a large median exists that could not be incorporated into the block pattern, because of the irregularities of the intersection. A small pocket park exists on the median with a tree and two benches. Three of the western most blocks are rectangular in form with the same dimensions and lot patterns. All the remaining blocks have irregular forms and dimensions. Most individual lots are oriented north-south and are rectangular in form. The lots are approximately 50' by 100' in dimension.
Architectural Styles
Representative examples of the styles present in the district include:
Frame Vernacular
The 1905 Frame Vernacular building at 223 Rainey Avenue represents one of the earlier structures in the Fullerwood Park District. The one-and-one-half story house is notable for a massive full-length wraparound porch with an independent roof supported by several Tuscan columns resting on a base of coquina stone. The house is sided in wood weatherboard with cornerboards. The house has a gable roof with a hipped dormer and a 3-V crimp sheet metal roof. Fenestration consists of single 1/1 double hung sash windows along the main elevation and two 1/1 double hung sash windows located on the hipped dormer.
Another good example of a Frame Vernacular house in the Fullerwood Residential Historic District is 23 Sylvan Drive. It is two stories in height, with a wood-platform frame structural system and a brick-pier foundation. It has a rectangular ground plan, with the wide side of the building facing the streets. It has a sidefacing gable roof with exposed rafters and horizontal weatherboard siding. This house features a full-facade width entrance porch with square Tuscan columns supporting an independent shed roof. Fenestration consists of 2/2 double-hung sash windows on both the first and second stories. A brick chimney with a corbelled cap is located along the main roof ridge.
The McDowell Baptist Church, located at 16 Bay View Drive, is one of only two public buildings in the district. The building features a one-story covered entry porch, double-hung sash 1/1 windows, and v-crimp metal roofing. The building plan is complex, with a smaller south section joined on the east side to a longer parallel section on the north side of the building by the main block of the church. The south section has a crossgable roof, extending slightly past the main block, while the north section has an intersecting gable roof. The main entrance of the building features glazed double doors inset within the entry porch, which has an independent gable roof. Wheelchair ramps have been installed on both the main entrance and to a rear portion of the building to make the building handicapped accessible. The church has simple but decorative gablework on the cross-gable roof and the front facing gable is adorned with a wooden steeple. There are gable vents on the north and south section gable ends as well as the north-facing gable end of the main block of the church. However, the building has recently undergone some changes. A modest, 1922 Frame Vernacular building, it originally featured wood drop siding, a decorative vergeboard in the gable end and exposed eaves, which has since been changed. The wood drop siding was covered with vinyl siding, the vergeboard was removed, and the eaves have been enclosed. The basic configuration of the building and its steeple, the most prominent architectural feature, have all been retained.
The house at 41 Fullerwood Drive is an L-shaped building, with a brick exterior chimney and weatherboard siding. The sharply sloping roof over the front gable, casement windows, and a round arched entranceway show influences of the Tudor style. The porch is inset, with access provided from both the side and front, leading to a screen door. Fenestration consists of a set of three 15-light fixed ribbon windows flanked by decorative shutters on both the gable end and within the porch. The gable end also features a vent. There is a brick chimney located along the east ridge of the building.
Masonry Vernacular
The one-story house located at 65 Douglas Street is an example of the Masonry Vernacular style in the Fullerwood Park subdivision. Constructed in 1945, it features an irregular floor plan and stylistic elements of a Mediterranean Revival in the form of a stucco finish and exposed gutter spouts in decorative clay canales. Fenestration consists of single and paired 6/6 double hung sash windows with brick sills. The main entrance, a glazed wooden door, is adjacent to the front facing gable end, covered by a small entry porch with a secondary roof supported by two paired rounded wood posts. This building also features a covered stucco chimney on the north end of the building with brickwork along the top of the chimney. These few details on this post-World War II structure mimic the popularity of the Mediterranean Revival style in the neighborhood. The house at 54 Bay View Drive is a boxy concrete block structure with a concrete slab foundation and an open front porch. Its hipped roof, eyebrow dormers with attic louvers, and independent eyebrow porch roof display a Dutch Colonial Style influence on an otherwise style-less exterior. This building also features a high rising covered chimney on the west ridge. Fenestration consists of paired 3/1 double hung sash windows flanking the main entrance, a Palladian-like window to the west of the main entrance, and two sets of three fixed 10-light ribbon windows on the west side of the building. The Palladian window consists of a central 16-light fixed window flanked by two 8-light fixed windows and topped by a 6-light elliptical fanlight. The porch roof is supported by two composite columns flanked by the paired 3/1 double hung sash windows.
The Fullerwood School located at 10 Hildreth Drive, representing the Mediterranean Revival style, has rough textured stucco exterior and arched window openings with flat-headed multi-light windows. The windows are framed in stylized Spanish columns. The building has a shed roof with parapet, surfaced with barrel-tile coping. Other architectural details include spiraled pilasters, horizontal banding, and cornerstones typical of the Mediterranean Revival style. Additions to the building in 1954, and 1957, were designed by a local architect, F.A. Hollingsworth, who designed several other Mediterranean Revival houses in the Fullerwood Park neighborhood. Fullerwood School is the largest building in the district, encompassing over 24,000 square feet.
A residential example of the Mediterranean Revival style in Fullerwood Park includes 32 Fullerwood Drive. The c. 1930 wood-frame stucco building features a castellated parapet roofline with a clay tile roof extension aligned in the center just below the roofline. This roof extension also displays decorative brackets, located at the bottom. Another prominent feature of this building is its enclosed porch and inset main entrance. The porch has an independent flat roof with a stepped parapet roofline, which is architecturally consistent with the rest of the building. It also displays a double arch opening that is enclosed by a stucco fence that extends across the entire elevation. The inset main entrance features a single wood door flanked by 4-light sidelights and topped by a 3-light transom. Fenestration includes two sets of three paired 8-light casement windows. There is also a stucco chimney located on the west side of the building.
The circa 1930 residence at 52 Bay View Drive is one of the best examples of the Mediterranean Revival Style in Fullerwood Park. Built towards the end of the Florida Boom, 52 Bay View Drive has a rough textured stucco exterior and arched window openings and 1-light fixed arched windows with fanlights. The building has a low-pitched gable and flat roofs, surfaced with barrel roof tile and tile coping on the roof ridge, parapets, and chimney. Round-headed niches are found on the main elevation and a front-facing chimney. Recessed panels with decorative tile further adorn the main elevation. The main entrance is inset between the three sections of the building, covered by a clay tiled shed roof porch extension with decorative brackets. Another example of the Mediterranean Revival Style in Fullerwood Park is 44 Fullerwood Drive. It is similar to 52 Bay View Drive and was likely designed by the same architect, F.A. Hollingsworth. The circa 1930 house at 44 Fullerwood Drive has a rough textured stucco exterior. It has both arched window openings and individual and paired 9-light fixed arched windows with 5-light fanlights. A decorative metal balcony extends across the windows. The building displays a side-facing, low-pitched, gable roof surfaced with barrel roof tile and tile coping on the roof ridge. The entrance is covered by a projecting pavilion with large arched openings, a flat roof with a decorative parapet, and a niche below the parapet.
The circa 1956 concrete block house at 49 Sylvan Drive is an example of a post-World War II Ranch style building in Fullerwood Park. A one-story structure with a low-pitched hipped roof, it features a long, rectangular fa9ade faced in brick with three-light fixed and two-light awning windows. The windows are flanked by decorative wood shutters. This house has an attached garage, unlike any buildings built prior to the World War II era, and features a one-bay entrance stoop and a regular fenestration pattern of aluminum windows. It also features a brick chimney, which rises above the center of the building. The structure found at 19 Park Avenue North embodies the post-World War II development of the Ranch Style. Constructed in 1953, this house exhibits an early version of this form with a concrete slab-on-grade foundation, concrete block structural system and concrete exterior finish. It also features an entry porch with a side entrance protected by a half-length brick wall and covered by the primary roof, which extends outwards and is supported by two trellises. Adjacent to the main entrance is a large fixed window flanked by two three-light fixed sidelights. This building also features a thick exterior brick chimney along the west elevation.
The house at 63 Bay View Drive, built circa 1930, is a nationally recognized example of the Colonial Revival style. It appears to be based on the Richards House in Litchfield, Connecticut, constructed in 1730. The Richards House was marketed as "The New Castle" in several Sears Roebuck and Category Catalogues; it features a side-facing gable roof with an exterior end chimney on the east elevation. This particular building has an extension on the east side of unknown vintage. The brick chimney is located between the main portion of the house and the east extension. The exterior is sheathed with horizontal weatherboard siding. The main entrance features a panel door accentuated with a classical surround, including 3-light sidelights and a wood panel fanlight. A door knocker and lanterns are in the colonial idiom. Fenestration consists of 6/6 single hung sash windows flanked by decorative wood shutters and topped by molded wood lintels. An example of the Dutch Colonial Revival style is located at 40 Macaris Street. This circa 1930 two story frame building displays a symmetrically ranked facade topped by a gambrel roof with large shed dormers on the front and rear and vents on the gambrel ends. A one-story pedimented entry porch with an independent gable roof supported by two Tuscan columns covers the main entrance. On the first story, flanking the main entrance, are two sets of three 4/1 single hung sash ribbon windows. There are two sets of paired 4/1 single hung sash windows flanked by decorative wood shutters located in the shed dormer on the second story. The building also features a brick chimney, which is located on the center ridge.
The circa 1930 residences built at 45 and 49 Bay View Drive are nearly identical examples of the Bungalow Style. Both have rectangular ground plans with the narrow side facing the street. They are one-story with low-pitched, front-facing gable roofs with wide, open eaves. Both buildings also feature vents and decorative brackets on the gable ends. Roof rafters are exposed, with false brackets under the gable porch roof. Both have gable-over-gable profiles on the main (north) elevations. The house at 45 Bay View Drive has a third front facing gable over an entrance porch. Both houses also have tapered, exterior chimneys on their west elevations. The chimney on 45 Bay View Drive has a prominent metal chimney pot that gives its chimney a much different appearance from that of the chimney on 49 Bay View Drive. Fenestration on 45 Bay View Drive consists of 9/6 single hung sash windows. The fenestration on 49 Bay View Drive differs, with four sets of paired 12-light casement and 6/6 single hung sash windows. To the rear of 49 Bay View Drive is an architecturally consistent detached shed.
The Hildreth House at 65 Fullerwood Drive, a two-and-one-half story residence that was constructed about 1870, is a late example of the Greek Revival Style. It features a braced frame structural system. It has first and second story full width porches supported by a full-height colonnade with four square wood Tuscan columns. The entrance is centrally placed. A jig-sawn balustrade on the upper-porch floor is original. The fenestration pattern is regular and symmetrical with 6/6 double-hung sash windows. The original waterfront view has been greatly altered by the expansion of the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind on wetlands filled to the south. A rooftop observation deck has been installed on the center ridge of the roof. There are two gable dormers located on the third story flanking the main entrance. Surrounding the property is a coquina fence decorated with lion fence posts. A non-historic outdoor swimming pool is located adjacent to the building. Although the Hildreth House predates the rest of the district, it helped attract further development to the area and was a significant part of the built environment throughout the neighborhood's history.
Garage Apartment
The circa 1945 garage apartment at 9 l/2 Sylvan Drive consists of a two-story masonry vernacular structure that incorporates a garage on the first floor. Irregular in plan, this building features a slab foundation, a gable roof, and asbestos shingle exterior siding. Fenestration consists of paired 2/2 louvered windows flanked by decorative wood shutters. A masonry fence encloses sliding glass double doors located adjacent to the garage door opening.
Mission
The stuccoed building at 24 Fullerwood Drive illustrates a simple example of the Mission Style. A one-story house with a single chimney, this circa 1930 Mission Style building features mission parapets, decorative ironwork, and red tile roofing. A hollow clay tile roof extension covers the main entrance. Stucco latticework and a wooden trellis cover the east elevation of the building. Extending from the east elevation of the building is a covered stucco chimney. Fenestration consists of paired 12-light wood casement windows located on the west side of the building. Also located on the west side of the building, above the windows, is a vent.
The circa 1930 house at 22 East Park Avenue is fine example of the Tudor Style. It features steeply pitched, side-gabled roofs with intersecting extensions; decorative half-timbering and stucco siding. This building also features a large, prominent gable dormer with a gable vent, 2/1 single hung sash windows and a canvas awning. This building has two prominent elongated covered stucco chimneys. On the first story, there are several 8-light casement windows.
† Adapted from: Melissa Dezendorf, City of St. Augustine: Paul Weaver: Andrew Waber. Historic Sites Specialistq, Bureau of Historic Preservation, Fullerwood Park Residential Historic District, nomination doument, 2010, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Street Names
Bay View Drive • Douglas Avenue • East Park Avenue • Fullerwood Drive • Hildreth Drive • Macaris Drive • North Park Avenue • Rainey Street • Sylvan Drive