The Ponce de Leon Hotel, also known as The Ponce, St. Augustine, Florida, luxury hotel, Spanish Renaissance style, firm Carrère & Hastings, New York architecture, world renown, DC generators, Thomas Edison,

The Ponce de Leon Hotel, also known as The Ponce, was an exclusive luxury hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and completed in 1888. The hotel was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style as the first major project of the New York architecture firm Carrère & Hastings, which would go on to gain world renown.

The hotel was the first of its kind constructed entirely of poured concrete, using the local coquina stone as aggregate. The hotel was also one of the first buildings in the country wired for electricity from the onset, with the power being supplied by DC generators installed by Flagler's friend, Thomas Edison.

Upon entering the the dining hall, one might assume Flagler first years come here to be assigned a house by the sorting hat a la Harry Potter. The first and most obvious feature of the room are the windows, which comprise the single largest private, currently in-use collection of Tiffany stained glass works in the world. More subtle, but no less fascinating, are the chairs hand carved with disapproving cherubic faces.