Architectural Treasures of Amelia Island

Architectural Treasures of Amelia Island

Amelia Island offers a unique opportunity to experience history. Fernandina Beach's Historic District is a living museum. Like sleeping beauties, the island's Victorian-era homes have been frozen in time. Each offers a story about the people and events that shaped the history of Florida's northernmost barrier island.

Historic Treasure Phelan-Verot House

A cheerful, yellow cottage on North Fourth Street has an amazing history. Built in the final year of the Civil War, the charming little cottage is a one-and-a-half-story house best described as Folk Victorian. It is not as grand as many of its neighbors built during the island's Golden Age, but it has an important and impressive history.

At one time it was the home of the Sisters of St. Joseph, an order of Catholic nuns from Le Puy, France. The first eight sisters arrived in St. Augustine in September 1866. During this turbulent period after the Civil War, there were thousands of freed slaves without education and religion. The sisters were challenged to educate and evangelize. They sold French lace to visitors and gave music lessons and French lessons to several Northerners who resided in St. Augustine during the winter months.

Initially, two sisters came to Amelia Island to teach, and their ranks soon grew to six. The sisters prepared children for their first communion. The school they established thrived, and an academy and convent school were started in 1882. The small house on Fourth Street was purchased for the nuns in 1875 by Jean Pierre Augustin Verot, Bishop of St. Augustine. The purchase price is said to have been $900. The Sisters grew famous for their beautiful lace, jams, and jellies and used the funds they generated to help fund the school originally called St. Joseph's Academy and Convent, which now operates as St. Michael's Academy.

The Sisters of St. Joseph were heroines in Fernandina even before their academy was built. In 1877, during one of the island’s worst yellow fever epidemics, the sisters nursed the sick and dying. It is estimated that 1,600 people lived on the island at that time and over a thousand contracted the disease. The nuns were called the Angels of Mercy. A quote from the archives described their heroism: “They nursed the sick, bathed fever-wracked bodies, fed the hungry and abandoned, sewed lifeless bodies into shrouds and even buried the dead with quick prayers of faith and consolation.'' Two of the sisters lost their lives in the epidemic. Long after the epidemic, when their bodies were moved to Bosque Bello Cemetery, it is said that when the bodies were unearthed, they were unchanged and a fragrance of roses came from the grave site.

By 1993, the house was in great disrepair and became the center of controversy. A tree grew through its porch. The church that owned the house and the land wanted to expand its parking lot. The house had long been abandoned and was literally falling down. The church chose not to repair it or try to save it. A group of passionate preservationists, the Amelia Island Restoration Foundation, fought to save and restore it. It was renovated and is now a beautifully preserved private home. There is a historic marker in front of the historic house with its interesting history.

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