History

In 2008, Flagler College launched a series of events celebrating 40 years of providing a rich liberal arts education in a small, supportive environment. Its heritage, however, extends back more than a century.

The school’s historic campus is located just four miles from the Atlantic Ocean in the heart of St. Augustine, Fla., the “nation’s oldest city.”

The college is named for Henry Morrison Flagler, a Gilded Age industrialist, railroad pioneer and partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil. In 1888, Flagler built the Hotel Ponce de Leon, his first in a series of luxury resorts along Florida’s east coast. A masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture and the first major poured-in-place concrete building in the United States is now known as Ponce de Leon Hall. This National Historic Landmark serves as the centerpiece for the Flagler College.

The grand hotel launched the careers of young architects John Carrere and Thomas Hastings who are noted most for the New York Public Library and the House and Senate Office Buildings adjacent to the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The Edison Electric Company powered the building with steam heat and 4,000 electric lights, making the Ponce one of the nation’s first electrified buildings. Louis Comfort Tiffany is credited with the building’s interior design including the stained glass and mosaics. Murals were completed by George Willoughby Maynard and Virgilio Tojetti.

The hotel was gifted to Flagler College when the institution was founded in 1968. Since then, the college has spent more than $43 million dollars restoring the historic campus and adding new buildings. One of the latest additions to campus is a multimillion-dollar Student Center on Sevilla Street. The college has also developed a 19-acre athletic field just two miles from campus.

Lawrence Lewis, Jr., one of Henry Flagler’s principal heirs, founded Flagler College. The philanthropist envisioned a small, private liberal arts college on the grounds of the magnificent old hotel.

Opened as a women’s college, Flagler was reorganized as coeducational in 1971. Lewis served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Flagler College during these formative years, from 1968 to 1988.

The college has grown with time and has remained true to its mission of providing a high quality education at an affordable cost.

Additional Information: Historical Background on the Hotel Ponce de Leon