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PONCE DE LEON
A NATIONAL TREASURE
HENRY FLAGLER HIRED RENOWNED ARTISTS AND VISIONARIES.
Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the opulent stained glass.
The New York painter Virgilio Tojetti painted the murals for the grand parlor on giant rolls of canvas that were then shipped to St. Augustine.
George Maynard painted the gilded dome of the Rotunda and murals in the Dining Hall.
American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison installed the electrical system.
THE GRAND OPENING
On January 12, 1888, the Ponce de Leon Hotel opened its doors to guests, but the Ponce wasn’t simply a hotel. It was an opulent experience requiring
guests to pay $4,000 for an entire season’s stay, from January through Easter, in one of its more than 400 rooms. This would lay the groundwork for the tourism industry in the state of Florida.
HOTEL PONCE DE LEON BY THE NUMBERS
Built and owned by Henry Morrison Flagler, Co-founder with John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil Company, Hotel Ponce de Leon was named for Juan Ponce de León, the Explorer seeking the Fountain of Youth. The hotel opened January 10, 1888, for friends of Henry M. Flagler & January 12, 1888, for the general public.
PRESIDENTIAL VISITS
The Ponce has hosted eight U.S. Presidents and many distinguished guests including John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Mark Twain, Babe Ruth, Pat Conroy, and Their Majesties King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain in 2015.
GROVER CLEVELAND
During the first year of his presidency, and the first season of the hotel, Grover Cleveland stayed with his wife Frances at the Ponce. The President’s party was welcomed by Henry Flagler at St. Augustine’s station on the Florida East Coast Railway and escorted to the hotel.
TEDDY ROOSEVELT WARREN G. HARDING
Teddy Roosevelt stopped in St. Augustine on a tour of “the Southland” in 1905, visiting the grand hotel. Roosevelt arrived for his stay with much pomp and circumstance, greeted by a marching band that accompanied his carriage on its route to the Ponce.
Warren G. Harding arrived in St. Augustine by rail in January 1921. From St. Augustine, Harding enjoyed an extended fishing excursion to Miami before returning to the Hotel Ponce de Leon in February, where he worked at filling his cabinet and writing his inauguration speech.
PRESERVING ITS PAST. INVESTING IN ITS FUTURE.
Since its founding in 1968, Flagler College, named in memorial of its visionary, has taken on the stewardship of this magnificent structure. With financial support from the Flagler and Kenan families, foundations, trustees, and friends of the institution, more
than $100 million has been invested in restoring, preserving, rehabilitating, and renovating the former Hotel Ponce de Leon. This work encompasses efforts in the Dining Hall, the Grand Parlor, and the Rotunda.
Fifty-five years later, we are still committed to maintaining and preserving the beauty of Henry Flagler’s grandest hotel.
The Hotel Ponce de Leon is experienced by an estimated one million visitors annually.
INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL GEM
