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Writing from 1915 found on walls of Lightner Museum

Century-old writing has been found on the walls of the Lightner Museum.

Experts say it appears to be from hotel workers and some of the writing dates back to 1915.

Lightner Museum Curator Barry Myers said a painter made the recent discovery.

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“He was cleaning the plaster and as he was kind of sanding, he discovered this writing on the wall,” Myers said.

The rooms are used as storage now, but years ago, they were living quarters for the Alcazar Hotel staff.
The writings are mostly in Italian.

Some are in hidden places like closets, ironically, so they wouldn’t be seen.

Some of the workers even used the walls to complain about hotel guests.

“This is the one that says, 'pain in back,' or 'pain in the head,' listing specific people, talking about how annoyed they were at them,” Lightner Museum intern McKenna Nelson said.

There’s also a poem that has been partially translated.

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“'The Italians occupied and they fought like lions, but after a bloody battle ... ' and that's all we have so far,” Nelson said.

“This is amazing,” she added. “It's 100 years old. We've never seen it before. I care because it's something that's so unique to St. Augustine.”