ST AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- It has been the White's storage shed for the past 40 years. But now they know it is so much more.
"I know there was something strange about it because no one likes to go in it. Nobody in the family ever goes near it," said Walter White.
Historians say this part of Lincolnville used to be a plantation. And the slaves that worked there slept in that building.
Walter White said he even threw away some of the proof when he was 10-years-old.
"Over there is where I found what I know were old shackles that have been hanging there for years," said White. "I threw them out because we needed the room."
The White family is also a big part of St. Augustine history. Walter White's brother, Samual, was one of the orginal "St. Augustine Four."
The group held the first sit-in at a whites-only counter during the Civil Rights Movement. "I guess it's kind of serendipity that we end up with it," said White.
The St. Augustine Historical Society did have an archaelogical dig on the property in the 1990s. They say there wasn't enough evidence to prove slaves were kept there.
"It's an old coquina building. It's probably one of the two oldest buildings in the Lincolnville part of town," said historian and author, David Nolan.
Walter White and his family say they have no doubt about what the building was, and they hope it can be preserved.
"Look where we came from and look at where we're going," said White.
The St. Augustine Historical Society says right now this is the only known building within the city limits that could be a standing slave cabin.
