Flagler College/Hotel Ponce de Leon

Here is the place to attend college. The main building is the former Ponce de Leon Hotel, built by Henry Flagler in the late 1800's as an exclusive place to winter for the high and mighty--mighty rich, that is--upper class of the Eastern Seaboard. It was only open for three months, Jan. thru March, each year, and you had to pay for the whole season (the equivalent of $100,000) no matter what the length of your stay actually was. Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the interiors of the hotel; the windows in the dining room are valued at over $100 million dollars, not to mention the fabulous crystal chandeliers in the women's parlor. I was quite taken with the understated elegance of the women's washroom with its creamy yellow ("Flagler yellow) walls and its fireplace. Where better to do a self-portrait? The college has restored and maintains this building which is ranked among the top 100 important buildings in the U.S. It reminded me of the elegance and beauty of Versailles. Flagler is a small--2000 students--liberal arts school. Remarkably, it costs about $23,000 a year for tuition, room and board. Wouldn't it be lovely to study amidst this splendor?