Flagler College — the Ponce de León Hotel

Now this — this stops people in their tracks. Look up at these soaring towers, red-tiled roofs, and arched loggias in warm Spanish-Renaissance stone. It looks like a palace lifted out of old Spain and set down on a Florida street. It's called Flagler College today, and it's a fine small college — but it was born as something else entirely: the Hotel Ponce de León, opened in eighteen eighty-eight, the most luxurious resort hotel in America.

Here's how it came to be. A man named Henry Flagler, one of the founders of Standard Oil and one of the richest men in the country, came down to St. Augustine in the eighteen eighties and fell in love with the place. And when Henry Flagler loved something, he built. He raised this enormous hotel out of poured coquina concrete, hired the finest architects and artists of the age, and spared nothing. He had Thomas Edison himself help wire the place for electric light, when electric light was a brand-new marvel. He filled it with the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass in the world — walk into the courtyard and dining hall if a tour is running, and the colored light pouring through that glass will take your breath away.

Stay out front while Boone tells you about Flagler. Then continue west along King Street — the small, exotic Moorish palace coming up on your left is the Villa Zorayda.