Henry Morrison Flagler

1830-1913

Flagler was a co-founder with John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil Company.  By 1890, Henry Flagler was one of the wealthiest men in the world with a personal fortune of over $900 million. Flagler grew up in Upstate New York where he only earned an eighth-grade education.  At age 14, his step-brother, Daniel Harkness, encouraged him to work at a family business in Ohio.  By 1852, he was in the grain business where he became friends with John D. Rockefeller, another grain dealer.  Rockefeller wanted to enter the oil business which then was centered in Cleveland, Ohio.  He approached Flagler to seek backing for this new venture.  Flagler secured a loan from a family member with the provision he become a partner in the venture.  Through this arrangement, Standard Oil of Ohio would eventually be formed.  It soon became the dominant company in the oil industry.  In the 1870s, Standard Oil was the dominant leader in the oil industry producing over 10,000 barrels of oil a day!  As profits increased, Rockefeller and Flagler continued to buy out the competition becoming larger and more dominant, thus creating a monopoly in the oil industry.  

In the 1880s, the headquarters had moved from Ohio to New York.  During this time, Flagler's wife began to have health issues.  Their doctor advised they retreat to Jacksonville, Florida.  After his wife passed in Florida, Flagler remained when he saw the potential as a place for the wealthy to retreat from northern winters.  Giving up his daily responsiblities at Standard Oil, he began the pursuit of developing Florida as "An American Riviera".  He first purchased the Jacksonville, Halifax and St. Augustine Railroad.  He, then, developed the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College) in St. Augustine. Flagler commissioned the same architects responsible for his Hotel Ponce de Leon .. John Carrere and Thomas Hastings to design Whitehall.  These architects also collaborated on the design for other Gilded Age landmarks such as the New York Public Library and the Fifth Avenue mansion of Henry Clay Frick.  

Carrere and Hastings designed the exterior of Whitehall, the interior layout and completely controlled the design of the marble entrance hall and its grand double staircase.  The facade of Whitehall is marked by massive marble columns and topped with a red barrel tiled roof.  Built around a central courtyard, the house consists of two floors, an attic and a basement.  Besides the grand public rooms on the first floor there are twelve guestrooms, house servants rooms on the west side of the second floor and guests servants rooms in the attic along the east side.  Also included were a pantry and kitchen as well as private offices for Mr. Flagler and his secretary. 

Whitehall was constructed on Brelsford Point, situated on the eastern bank of Lake Worth with Flagler's Hotel Royal Poinciana Hotel to the east.  

Whitehall is surrounded by a highly decorated wrought iron fence, one of the most impressive fences of its period.  The New York firm of Pottier & Stymus designed and executed the interior look of the home.  Pottier & Stymus decorated the interior of the home with period rooms in styles such as Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, the Italian Renaissance and Francis I. 

During the winters the Flaglers spent at Whitehall, the couple entertained constantly.  When Henry Flagler died in 1913, the home remained closed until the season of 1916.  Mary Lily visited the home only once more in 1917 as the recent bride of Robert Worth Bingham.  When Mary Lily died later that year, Whitehall was left to her niece, Louise Clisby Wise Lewis.  Ms. Lewis sold Whitehall to a group of investors who converted the entire structure into a hotel.  The hotel operated from 1925-1959 during which the original portion of the home was used for lobbies, card rooms, lounges, a bar and guest suites.   In 1959, the building was in danger of being demolished.  Jean Flagler Matthews, Henry's granddaughter formed a non-profit to purchase the property.  

Eventually, Flagler would build the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach which is still one of the most exclusive hotels in the world.  In 1901, he would marry Mary Lily Kenan of North Carolina.  As a wedding gift, he presented to her a magnificent home which they called "Whitehall".  During "The Season", January through March, Mary Kenan Flagler would host many different charity functions, raising funds for a number of causes.  

At the turn of the century, Key West was the largest city in Florida and had become a major port between the Gulf of Mexico, South and Central America, the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States.  However, it lacked a land route to the rest of Florida and the United States.  Henry Flagler took on the mammoth project of building an overseas railroad connecting Key West to the mainland.  It was considered Flagler's Folly.  However, he persisted in the endeavor and by 1912 he was joined by the President of the United States in the first train car to arrive in Key West.  In 30 years, he spent over $50 million of his own wealth to develop the East Coast of Florida.  

Throughout the State of Florida, Henry Flagler is known as an oil entrepreneur, hotelier and railroad magnate.  His pioneering vision and development of opulent hotels helped create the grand reputation of Palm Beach as an elite oasis for the wealthy and powerful.  When Flagler arrived in Florida in the late 1880s, he realized the area's potential for tourism and trade.  He knew just what was needed to make it successful.  Soon after, he founded Florida's East Coast Railway and with that, amazing developments began to occur.  The railway was extended to reach Miami and Biscayne Bay though Flagler did not want ot stop there!  He soon began planning an over-seas railway that would extend 128 miles out to sea to connect Key West with the rest of Florida.

What others thought was impossible, Flagler knew was attainable.  After 7 years of arduous labor and major obstacles including hurricanes and mosquito infestations, the Flagler Over-Seas Railway was completed and on January 22, 1912 Henry Flagler arrived, triumphantly, on the first train into Key West!

The Sails to Rails Museum at Flagler Station in Key West serves as an everlasting tribute to his tenacity and ingenuity.  While touring the musuem, visitors can go inside an actual railroad car, view memorabilia from the Flagler era and see a variety of photographs/artifacts about the railroad industry.  

Whitehall

at 

One Whitehall Way 

in

Palm Beach, Florida 33480

When the Flagler home was completed in 1902, the New York Herald proclaimed that Whitehall, Henry Flagler's Gilded Age estate in Palm Beach was "more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world".  The 75-room, 100,000 square feet home was equipped with a system to get rid of the humidity and a full basement which is unheard of in any residence in South Florida or throughout the State. 

Today, Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as the Flagler Museum offering self-guided tours, changing exhibitions and special programs. Whitehall was added to the National Registry of Historic Places December 5, 1972. The site of the home was purchased for $50,000 in 1893 (as of 2010 that would be $1,197, 562.39) by Flagler.  The site was later surveyed for construction in July 1900 and the home was completed in time for Flagler and his wife to move in on February 6, 1902.  

The 8,100 square foot Pavilion, which houses Henry Morrison Flagler's private railcar, Railcar No. 91 is designed in the style of a 19th Century railway palace and is the first public Beaux Arts-style building built in the United States in six decades.  Designed by Jeffery W. Smith of the Smith Architecture Group in Palm Beach and built by Hedrick Brothers Construction, the architectural style of the Pavilion is consistent with that of Whitehall.  Flagler's private railcar was built in 1886 by the Jackson and Sharp Company of Wilmington, Delaware.  A newspaper article written at the time of its delivery to Flagler heralded the railcar as "A Palace on Wheels" and went on to praise the car's fine appointments such as its oak paneling and desk.  The railcar was one of two private railcars Flagler used to survey his railroad empire.

In 1935, the FEC sold Flagler's private railcar to the Georgia Northern Railroad and it was renamed the Moultrie.  By 1949, the railcar had been sold again and was being used as housing for migrant farm workers in Virginia.  The Flagler Museum acquired it in 1959.  It has now been restored to its original appearance using documentation from the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian, the Delaware State Archives and the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware.  Visitors to the Flagler Kenan Pavilion are  able to tour Railcar No. 91's salon, master bedroom, master bathroom, guest quarters and kitchen restored to their original splendor. Officially opened February 4, 2005, the $4.5 million the pavilion is the first addition to the property since 1925.  It took almost four years to build and also houses the seasonal Pavilion Cafe and tea service.  

Flagler debarking his private Railcar #91.

Circa Early 1900s

https://flaglermuseum.us/history/over-sea-railroad

For as long as Henry Flagler could remember, there had been talk of one day building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.  Believing thtone day the canal would be built, he workd through the Florida legislature as early as 1891 to keep his options open for building a railroad to Key West.  Key West, the United States' closest deep-water port to the Canal would not only take advantage of Cuban and Latin American trade, but would also allow significant trade possibilities with California.  The opportunity finally came in 1905 when the United States announced its intention to build the Panama Canal.

Building the Over-Sea Railroad was, and remains, the most ambitious engineering feat ever undertaken by a private citizen.  Seemingly insurmountable obstacles confronted the construction of the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway.  The construction required many engineering innovations as well as vast amounts of labor and monetary resources.

I regard the Over-Sea Railroad as second only to the Panama Canal in its political and commercial importance to the United States.

Elihu Root, Secretary of State

At one time during construction, four thousand men were employed on the 156 mile stretch of railroad.  For nearly half the distance the railroad had to be raised over the water or marshland on steel and concrete bridges.  During the seven-year construction, five hurricanes threatened to half the project, three ofthem resulted in significant damage and loss of life.  Despitethe hardships, the final link of the Over-Sea Railroad was completed in 1912 and the first official train to reach Key West pulled Henry Flagler's private Railcar No. 91.  On January 22, 1912, Henry Flagler was greeted by thousands of well-wishers.  The citizens of Key West presented Flagler with mounted silver medallions made by TIffany & Co. to commemorate the occasion and the employees presented him with an 18kt gold telegram of congratulations housed in an amazing highly decorated vermeil box also made by Tiffany & Co.  

The gold telegram read, "January 22, 1912.  Mr. Henry M. Flagler, Key West, Fla. Congratulating you on the completion of the crowning work of your life, we trust you may long enjoy the pleasures of achievement and lead us in our loyal service to you.  Employees Florida East Coast Railway. "

Virtually every important artifact and document associated with the Over-Sea Railroad is now part of the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum's extensive collections including Railcar No. 91, itself.