Rollins College is Florida's oldest post-secondary institution,[5][6] and has been independent, nonsectarian, and coeducational from conception.[7] Lucy Cross, founder of the Daytona Institute in 1880, first placed the matter of establishing a college in Florida before the Congregational Churches in 1884.[8] In 1885, the church put her on the committee in charge of determining the location of the first college in Florida.[8] Cross is known as the "Mother of Rollins College."[8] Rollins was incorporated, organized, and named in the Lyman Park building in nearby Sanford, Florida on 28 April 1885, opening for classes in Winter Park on November 4 of that year.[1] It was established by New England Congregationalists who sought to bring their style of liberal arts education to the frontier St. John's basin.