Spanish colonial inn built in 1791 by Sergeant Gaspar Garcia, operating as a bed-and-breakfast at the south end of historic St. George Street with a long ghost-tour reputation.
279 St. George St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Mid-to-upper-tier bed-and-breakfast room rates; full hot breakfast and afternoon refreshments included.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1791 coquina structure with narrow staircases and multiple floor levels; not all rooms are accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1791 · Second Spanish Period architecture · Spanish royal land grant · Continuously operating inn · St. Augustine historic district
The St. Francis Inn occupies a Spanish colonial structure built in 1791 by Gaspar Garcia, a sergeant in the 3rd Battalion of the Spanish Infantry Regiment of Cuba stationed in St. Augustine during the Second Spanish Period (1784-1821). Garcia received the land lot under a royal Spanish grant. Houses built in this period were constructed, per a standing royal directive, in a defensive style so they could 'serve as a defense of fortress against those who might attempt to occupy the town' — visible today in the inn's blocked street-front entry and interior-facing courtyard.
Through the 19th century the property changed hands among military officers and merchants. During the Civil War period the building hosted Confederate-aligned residents, and ghost-tour literature attaches a Civil War officer's apparition to the parlor — a layer of the lore that cannot be fully corroborated to a specific named officer.
The building has been documented in the St. Augustine architectural survey by the University of North Florida and is recognized by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation as part of the city's haunted heritage corridor. It operates today as a bed-and-breakfast.
The property's ghost-tour narrative also includes the death of a young African woman who is reported as enslaved at the property, and the death by suicide of the owner's nephew, who is said in tour-operator accounts to have taken his own life after her death. These accounts are repeated across multiple ghost-tour sources, but we have not located primary archival documentation naming specific individuals; the editorial framing here treats the slavery context with care and does not romanticize the relationship.
Sources
Per Ghosts & Gravestones and Ghost City Tours, the St. Francis Inn's most-cited paranormal account concerns 'Lily,' a young woman described in tour-operator literature as a house servant whose presence is reported in a third-floor guest room now named 'Lily's Room.' Guests in this room have reported, according to the inn's own promotional materials and the ghost-tour sources cited, awakening to find themselves on the floor under the bed, ghostly hands on the bedposts, and items having moved overnight.
A second layer of the lore is editorially difficult and is presented here with care. Ghost-tour accounts describe a young African woman, reported as enslaved at the property, who is said to have suffered violence after a relationship with the owner's nephew was discovered. The nephew is then said to have died by suicide. Per the same sources, an apparition described as a young woman of color is reported in the kitchen and servant areas, sometimes audibly humming spirituals. We frame this as ghost-tour-derived narrative, decline to render the relationship as a romance, and do not identify the woman by an invented name. Direct primary-source documentation of these specific individuals has not been located by us.
A third figure, identified in ghost-tour accounts as a Civil War officer, is reported in the main parlor 'studying maps that aren't there' and occasionally shouting orders. The historical record of the building's Civil War residents is incomplete and we treat this account as folkloric.
Reported physical phenomena include ice-cold touches, lights and lamps flickering, photographs and personal items being rearranged, and bedposts being grasped by unseen hands.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Book a room in the 1791 Spanish colonial structure built by Sergeant Gaspar Garcia. Featured rooms include 'Lily's Room' on the third floor, the most-cited paranormal locus in the inn's ghost-tour literature.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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