Henry Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Leon, known simply as The Ponce, opened as a luxury winter resort in St. Augustine, Florida. Built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler between 1885 and 1887, the winter resort opened in January 1888. The building was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style as the first major project of the New York firm Carrère & Hastings, a firm that would go on to more than 600 projects, including the House and Senate Office Buildings that flank the U.S. Capitol and the New York Public Library as its final project.
This was the first major building constructed entirely of poured concrete, with local coquina stone used as aggregate. It was also one of the first buildings in the country wired for electricity from the onset, powered by DC generators installed by Flagler’s friend Thomas Edison. In 1968 the hotel became the centerpiece of the newly founded Flagler College, and those original rooms and grounds now serve as part of the campus.
Henry Flagler’s interest began when he spent the winter of 1882–1883 here, imagining a resort for wealthy northerners. Picture Thomas Edison's DC generators humming to life here, powering one of the first buildings wired for electricity from the start.