Franklin Waldo Smith
(1826-1911)

Died aged c. 85

Franklin Waldo Smith was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 9, 1826. A prominent architect, his accomplishments in Boston included renovation of the Tremont Temple. Smith and his wife decided to maintain a winter residence in St. Augustine, and built the Villa Zorayda based on the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. To construct the building he used reinforced concrete mixed with coquina, a mix of shell fragments and quartz sand found in deposits around the city. He encouraged Henry Flagler to use Spanish architecture for his St. Augustine hotels and to use the poured concrete and coquina method of construction. In 1891 he built the Casa Monica Hotel in the Moorish Revival style to complement Flagler’s Ponce de Leon and Alcazar Hotels. Smith’s architectural design influenced William G. Warden of Standard Oil, who built the Castle Warden in the Moorish Revival style. An early preservationist, Smith recommended that future construction in St. Augustine conform to the city’s Spanish architectural heritage. Franklin Waldo Smith died in 1911.

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