Florida East Coast Railroad Headquarters

Florida East Coast Railroad Headquarters

Florida East Coast Industries

FEC Malaga Towers A, B, and C

FEC Towers

Florida East Coast Railway

Flagler College

1922-1923

1926

2006-2008

The original purpose of these three buildings were to serve as the headquarters for the Florida East Coast Railroad.

These buildings were repurposed as dormitories.

Malaga Street has been the location of at least some Florida East Coast Railroad buildings since c.1885. In c.1905, Flagler built his depot here and so in the 1920s, when new office buildings for the headquarters were needed, this was the logical place to build the buildings. Francis A. Hollingsworth designed the headquarters as three four-story buildings connected by a groundlevel walkway. The were built in 1922, 1923 and 1926 at a time of growth and expansion of the rail system in Florida. The FEC headquarters remained in these buildings until 2006, at which time they moved to Jacksonville.

Flagler College purchased the buildings in late 2006 with a plan to convert them into classrooms and build a parking garage on the dirt parking lot. In 2007 it was decided to convert two of the buildings into dorms with a move-in date for Fall 2008. Originally, the southernmost tower was used for staff offices before being converted into dormatory space in the mid-2010s. When Abare Hall was built in 2016-2017, it was built to match the architecture of the original three towers.

The FEC Headquarters was part of Henry Flagler's Enterprises, specifically, the Florida East Coast Railroad System.

The FEC Towers are dormitories for Flagler College.

The FEC Towers are not open to the public.

The following books, articles, websites, and photographers were used to find the above photographs or illustrations:

Photograph 1 (1926): Courtesy of the Flagler College Archives. https://library.flagler.edu/college-archives/.

Photograph 2 (1930s): Rajtar, Steve, and Kelly Goodman. A Guide to Historic St. Augustine, Florida. 1^st edition. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2007.

Photograph 3 (2024): Augusty, Jean Marc. "FEC Towers." March 18, 2024.

The following books, articles, and/or websites were used to find information about this location:

“FEC Historical Timeline.” Florida East Coast Railway Society. http://www.fecrs.com/timeline.html.

Harris, Richard. “Flagler Buying Railroad Buildings.” Flagler College Gargoyle. August 30, 2006. https://gargoyle.flagler.edu/flagler-buying-railway-buildings/.

Magee, Kelly. “Creating a More Welcoming Campus with Gender-Inclusive Housing.” Flagler College Gargoyle. April 26, 2019. https://gargoyle.flagler.edu/creating-a-more-welcoming-campus-with-gender-inclusive-housing/.

Rajtar, Steve, and Kelly Goodman. A Guide to Historic St. Augustine, Florida. 1^st edition. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2007.

Swift, Jennifer. “FEC Construction on Schedule for Early July Completion.” Flagler College Gargoyle. February 26, 2008. https://gargoyle.flagler.edu/fec-construction-on-schedule-for-early-july-completion/.

Taylor, George Lansing, Jr. “FEC Railway Office Buildings, St. Augustine, FL.” UNF: University of North Florida; Digital Commons: George Lansing Taylor Collection Main Gallery. October 27, 2012. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/6157/.

Flagler College’s Rare Books, Floridiana & Institutional Repository are neither the original nor current copyright owner for the photographs. Please contact the publisher or source cited for each photograph to obtain a copy and/or permission to reproduce these items.

The following St. Augustine Fiction books feature this building as a location:

The First Gentlemen of America

This record was last updated on May 23, 2025.