Churchill & Lacroix, Antiquaire

Churchill and Lacroix, Antiquaire occupies a prime spot within the courtyard of the Lightner Museum, itself one of St. Augustine’s grandest Gilded Age buildings and a fitting setting for a shop dealing in fine estate jewelry, European antiques, and decorative arts. Owner David Geithman brings more than forty five years of experience as an antique and fine art dealer to the business, a depth of expertise that shows in both the quality of the inventory and the knowledge he shares with customers.

The collection spans jewelry from the Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco periods through mid to late twentieth century designs, offering pieces for collectors as well as shoppers hunting for a genuinely one of a kind accessory rather than something mass produced. Beyond jewelry, the shop carries European porcelains, paintings, crystal, bronzes, and sterling silver from recognized makers, including names like Tiffany Studios, Lalique, and Baccarat, the kind of provenance that serious collectors specifically look for when building or refining a collection.

The Lightner Museum courtyard setting adds considerably to the experience of shopping here. Built originally as the Alcazar Hotel during Henry Flagler’s transformation of St. Augustine into a Gilded Age winter resort destination, the building’s Spanish Renaissance architecture and lush courtyard create an atmosphere that feels genuinely suited to browsing fine antiques and estate jewelry, rather than the more casual, tourist oriented feel of shops along St. George Street. Visitors touring the museum itself often discover the shop as a natural extension of their visit, drawn in by display cases visible from the courtyard walkways.

For anyone with a serious interest in period jewelry or European decorative arts, having access to a dealer with this level of experience matters enormously. Authentication, condition assessment, and honest pricing all depend on genuine expertise, and a shop owner with over four decades in the trade has seen enough material to speak with real authority about what he is selling. That knowledge, combined with the caliber of inventory on offer, places Churchill and Lacroix among the more significant independent antique dealers in the historic district, appealing to a different customer than the typical souvenir shopper, one looking to invest in a lasting piece with real history and craftsmanship behind it, purchased from a knowledgeable, independently owned business rather than a chain retailer.

Because the shop sits within a museum rather than along a purely commercial street, browsing tends to happen at an unhurried pace, with visitors already in a reflective, historically minded frame of mind after touring the Lightner’s exhibits. That context suits the merchandise well, since much of it carries the same sense of craftsmanship and permanence that the museum itself celebrates, and it gives Churchill and Lacroix a natural, built in audience of visitors already primed to appreciate fine antiques rather than a general tourist crowd browsing for souvenirs.