Flagler College: A Spanish Renaissance-Style Masterpiece

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit a palatial luxury college in the oldest U.S. city.

At just eight square miles, the city center of historic St. Augustine, Florida, is dominated by the Flagler College campus. Wangkun Jia/Shutterstock

Once a premier hotel in America’s oldest city, the late 19th-century Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, Florida, became the centerpiece of Flagler College in 1968. Since Florida was originally settled by the Spanish, after explorer Juan Ponce de León claimed the land in 1513, the region’s architectural style primarily included stucco siding, arches, and low-pitched, terracotta tiled roofs. In fact, Spanish architecture still dominates the state’s historic city.

When Henry Flagler (1830–1913), co-founder of Standard Oil and one of the wealthiest U.S. industrialists, decided to build a Spanish Renaissance-style hotel in St. Augustine, he employed the New York City architectural partnership firm of John Carrère and Thomas Hastings. The architectural style is defined not only by traditional Spanish design but also by the incorporation of classical Greek and Roman elements.

The expansive structure was renowned for its size and opulence, as well as for being a “first” in two areas of construction. Builders combined concrete with the local coquina stone, a sedimentary rock formed from fragments of seashells, to build the foundation and the walls. The hotel was also one of the original commercial U.S. projects wired for electricity because of Flagler’s friendship with Thomas Edison.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, head of Tiffany Glass Co. in New York City, oversaw the building’s interior design. Most notably, the windows in the dining hall are distinctly Tiffany.

Almost 100 years after it was built, the hotel underwent a major restoration to preserve its original grandeur. The building that transitioned from a hotel into a four-year liberal arts college was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The structure was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

A bronze statue of Henry Flagler, who the building is named after, sits prominently at an entryway dominated by brick arches and columns. Romanesque lion heads embellish flanking columns, and a cornice over the main arch is elaborately bedecked with motifs of urns, shells, cherubs, and flora. Under the terracotta roof line is egg-and-dart molding— an ornamental pattern first found in ancient Greek architecture. The marrying of Spanish style with classical Greek and Roman design conveys the Spanish Renaissance style architecture Flagler intended for what was originally the Hotel Ponce de Leon, before it became the main building of Flagler College. Wangkun Jia/Shutterstock

Inside the lobby of what is now Flagler College, guests are greeted by an exhibition of coordinating materials: Numidian pink marble and polished oak wainscoting adorn the walls, hand-carved columns featuring caryatids (draped Grecian female figures) flank the entryways, and Italian-style mosaics tile the floors. A staircase, the door frames, and an open, second-floor balcony reveal the carved oak showcased in this space. Anne Richard/Shutterstock

It behooves anyone entering the main lobby of Flagler College to look up. The breathtaking octagonal central dome, 68 feet in height, is surrounded by narrow carved oak columns. The murals painted in gold hues on canvases and attached to the rotunda ceiling were painted by Italian-born Virgilio Tojetti and U.S.-born George Maynard. Highlighted in the murals are detailed images of draped, Grecian figures (caryatids), giant lyres, and other characteristic Greek-inspired elements. Nagel Photography/Shutterstock

The Italian, cloister-like courtyard, with fountains and tropical foliage, is featured centrally within the compilation of buildings at Flagler College. Surrounding the courtyard are arched arcades and loggias, as well as balconies. Red terracotta and brick accent the white concrete blocks. Anna Abramskaya/Shutterstock

The late 19th-century artist George Maynard painted the murals that decorate the 48-foot-high, barrel-vaulted ceiling of the main dining hall. In addition to the images of massive sailing ships that flank the arched orchestra balcony (minstrel's loft), the mural displays paintings of angels and Grecian female figures. The expansive dining hall also sports heavily carved oak columns, doors, and paneling. Public Domain

At an impressive 14,212 square feet, the dining hall's curved side room boasts 40 Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows with geometric patterns in both clear and colored glass. From the painted ceiling, which depicts numerous details of Florida’s history, hang brass chandeliers. The coats of arms painted between the Gothic-style windows represent the Spanish provinces that were historically important to the founding and establishment of Florida. Maksim Sundukov/ CC BY-SA 3.0

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