St. Francis Inn
Built in 1791 by Gaspar Garcia, a sergeant in Spain's Cuban infantry regiment, the St. Francis Inn rose during St. Augustine's Second Spanish Colonial Period and was converted to a lodging house in 1845; it survives today as the city's oldest inn, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its enduring legend is Lily, a young servant woman whose forbidden romance with a soldier nephew of the household ended in tragedy and her death by hanging in a third-floor room now known as Lily's Room. Guests over the years have reported a woman in white drifting through the halls and peering from windows, along with disembodied footsteps, doors that unlatch on their own, and small objects that move without explanation. The inn quietly keeps a log of these experiences, the spirits of soldiers from its colonial and Civil War years said to linger alongside Lily.
📍 279 St. George Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084, St. Augustine, FL · Get directions