- Location
- Main Street near Spring
- Years
- ca. 1796 - 1848 (mansion) and 1915 (warehouse)
- Now
- M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building
In 1783, during the final year of the American Revolution, William Panton and John Forbes formed the Panton, Leslie & Company in St. Augustine. Both Scottish loyalists, they chose Florida because it was not part of the new United States.
In 1785, the business expanded to Spanish West Florida. Panton built a three-story, 102-foot-long mansion on Pensacola Bay that was “the most imposing edifice in the area.” The site included an out-kitchen and warehouse, which Panton’s nephew John Innerarity later converted to his residence.
A fire destroyed the larger Panton building on September 24, 1848. The Innerarity house and kitchen survived, and were the city’s oldest buildings until “fire and storm” claimed them around 1915. Today, a small-scale replica of the warehouse sits near the former site of the business. Built in 1955 to conceal a natural gas regulator, it is visible from Main Street.
