Chapel
Annie Pfeiffer Chapel
The first building Frank Lloyd Wright completed at Florida Southern College, this 1941 chapel anchors his "Child of the Sun" campus, with stained glass blocks and a wire structure on top nicknamed "God's Bicycle Rack."
The story
Ground was broken in May 1938, and the chapel was dedicated on March 9, 1941, with philanthropist Annie Merner Pfeiffer in attendance. Wright designed it as both the physical and spiritual center of the campus, and students built much of it in exchange for tuition and board. The floors are cantilevered Cherokee Red cement, while windows, skylights and multicolor stained glass blocks set into the walls fill the interior with natural light. A 1944 hurricane damaged the building, but it was repaired, and restorations in 1998 and 2016 have helped preserve it. A Chapel Garden was added on the south side in 2009. The chapel belongs to the largest single-site collection of Wright architecture in the world, designated a National Historic Landmark district in 2012.
Good to know
TAGGG AI- ✦The 90-minute campus tour goes inside this chapel, alongside other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on the grounds.
- ✦The chapel is one stop on a guided tour of the whole Wright-designed campus, which is worth taking in full.
- ✦Entry involves many steps or a steep incline, and the interior stairways are narrow, so plan ahead if mobility is limited.