Flagler-ing

College visits continue apace. So far, the oldest has applied to five schools and been accepted to two (both with nice scholarships- yay!). This past week, we visited one of the schools he has applied to and the one closest to home- Flagler College. Flagler is situated in the gorgeous ancient city of St. Augustine, Florida and is only five minutes from where he is currently dual enrolled. A top-ranked regional college, it sits along the edge of Matanzas Bay in the city of Old St. Augustine.It was established in 1968 and is situated on a small campus made up of Henry Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Leon, a luxury hotel from the late 1800s.

The college has gorgeous Spanish architecture and features Louis Comfort Tiffany for the interior designs and the mosaics and stained glass. Even the dining hall chairs are Tiffany!

A small college, Flagler only offers twenty-nine majors and thirty-four minors. It is strictly for undergraduate studies, but by being highly focused it is able to leverage its finances and be an affordable option for private school.

We had previously attended an architectural tour of the school, but it was especially nice to be able to delve a little deeper into the campus and see how it actually operates as a school.

Outside the lobby of the hotel (now college).

 The interior of the old lobby is beautiful. If you walk up the steps you enter the dining room.

The golden dome of the old lobby.

Entering the dining room

The ceiling of the dining room

Another view

Leaving the dining room

I had to capture a photo of the chairs. Like I said, some of them are the original Tiffany chairs, although some have been copied. I'm not certain I remember this correctly, but I seem to recall each original was valued at approximately $16,000.

My Cafe Bag resting on a chair

The college was very kind and gave us all a pass to dine in the hall. They had several options, but I settled on a freshly grilled "burrito bowl," while the boys opted for pizza. And soda. And cookies. They're kids, so it was the perfect sort of lunch!

We spent the morning learning more about the college and touring the small campus. While much of it was housed in gorgeous old buildings, there was a brand new building we toured that had classes and a quick cafeteria, complete with Chicfil-a and Starbucks, plus a game room area. All of the buildings were within a few minutes' walk of each other.

Before we knew it, the morning was gone. Jacob had an afternoon class that he needed to attend, so we headed back home. It was a really neat experience, and I'm glad we took the time to investigate a school closer to home. I don't know if it will be where he ultimately ends up; at this point he has a stronger interest in another school, but he is not ruling it out.

Here are a few more photos taken from our tour... Enjoy!

The student green space

This Tiffany stained glass is almost as tall as I am. It was in a breezeway.

Going up the steps into the dining hall

The library. Love the gorgeous green floors!

A poor photo, but it is a mosaic of the city of St. Augustine. It's outside the Admissions building.

Even though the time was close, I managed to sneak into a new yarn shop just down Cordova Street from the college. Called Agape Yarn and Imports, it's been open only about a month. I love discovering new yarn shops! I picked up a single skein of sock yarn, and when I knit it, I'll remember this special day!