The Ponce de Leon Hotel is the focal point of St Augustine and the beginning of Florida's development into the modern age. The hotel was the brain child of one Henry M. Flagler. A co-founder of standard oil, Flagler had made his fortune and decided to use that fortune to build grand hotels. The Ponce de Leon Hotel was meant to be the winter vacation spot for the Gilded Age elite. The hotel was designed by John Carrere and Thomas Hastings and completed in 1888. Though the hotel’s success was episodic, the completion of the hotel marked a change in Florida history as Flagler began to invest, not only, in St Augustine but in the rest of the state as well.



Text by Kayleigh Gades