Historic Palafox Business District

The current Gothic revival building at 21 North Palafox dates to 1886, but Saint Michael's history in Pensacola goes much further back than 125 years. Saint Michael's traces its history to 1559 when Spanish settlers under don Tristan de Luna dedicated their new church to San Miquel the Archangel. The original site on Santa Rosa Island was soon abandoned, but the Spanish returned and rebuilt the city and the church. The current congregation has been in continuous existence in various buildings in downtown Pensacola since 1781, the year the British were forced from Pensacola after Spanish victory in the Battle of Pensacola.

The most beautiful feature of this building shines in early afternoon, when the sunlight streams in through the stained glass windows, flooding the sanctuary with a multicolored glow. These amazing windows were imported from Germany sometime around 1907, and went through extensive maintenance in 1960. A 1960 edition of The Pensacola News Journal noted that the windows had been badly damaged by the Great Hurricane of 1926 and never fully repaired.

Other changes have occurred, the church's ornate multicolored textured tiled roof has been replaced with a copper roof that has taken on a soft blue-green patina with age. The empty niche over the front door now contains a beautiful white marble statue of Michael, the patron archangel, and the brickwork covered in a brilliant white. The doorway under the bell tower is now closed off, but the basic structure is still beautiful and familiar.

Photographs are courtesy of the West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc. Narrative written by Ken Bailey, History Graduate Student, University of West Florida.