Here we go again . . . Flagler Mansion 2019

We are on the road again for our annual winter travels.  

Our first visit took us to Palm Beach, Florida where we visited the Flagler Mansion.  

Many of you know that we now call Marathon, Florida our home and since moving to the Florida Keys, we have grown to greatly admire Henry Flagler, who was one of the main people responsible for opening the Florida Keys to everyone by building the Overseas Railroad from Miami to Key West in the early 1900's.

Henry Flagler was the original partner with John Rockefeller and together they founded Standard Oil in 1870, back when oil was just beginning to be recognized as a commodity of great value.  It made Rockefeller and Flagler rich.

When in his 70's, Flagler brought his first wife to St. Augustine, Florida from New York City because he thought the warmer winter climate would be helpful to her failing health.  In 1888, while in St. Augustine, he built the first of many of his large hotels in Florida, the Hotel Ponce De Leon. 

Mr. Flagler eventually had 3 huge hotels in St. Augustine and began to realize that expansion south to still warmer parts of Florida would be a good project for his later years in life.

Web photo of Hotel Ponce De Leon

Web shot of Hotel Alcazar

Web shot of Hotel Cordoba

As you can tell from the web shots of his St. Augustine hotels, Mr. Flagler didn't mess around once he started a project.

Eventually, Mr. Flagler's wife died and he remarried, only to have that wife quickly succumb to mental illness and require institutionalization for the rest of her life.  Their marriage was annulled.

A third wife was acquired and thrived with Henry, also enjoying his love of Florida in the winter. 

As a wedding present, Mr. Flagler took his new wife to Palm Beach where he built her a new home for them to enjoy during the times they fled cold New York City in the winter.

We were able to take a self guided tour of his winter home.  The tour included hand held wands that provided a room by room narration of the sights we were seeing.

The tour starts at the entryway just inside the front door.  Mr. Flagler wanted your first impression of his home to be grand and it is.

To get a feel for the size of the entry room, the red arrow in the picture points to Suzie!

Mr. Flagler felt that since his home was being built in what we now call the "Gilded Age," it should demonstrate all of the finer things that mankind had developed to that point and be presented in a manner that could continue as a museum after he was long gone.

Mr. Flagler brought in many talented craftsmen who were able to create amazing details to the walls, ceilings and doors as well as all of the woodwork.

The preceding picture of a ceiling panel is all hand carved 3D images that are then gilded with thin pieces of gold foil.  The detail was amazing and every ceiling on the first floor of the mansion was covered in beautiful detail like this one.

The library was another huge room that defied proper photography.  It was very dark and cozy and masculine.  This is where the men would come to discuss business or smoke cigars.

Next to the library was the music room.  The women could meet here to discuss the topic of the day, play cards or listen to music.

The room was equipped with a very large pipe organ which was the rage of the day and a supreme status symbol.  

You can't have an organ without someone to play it so the Flagler's had a full time organist that lived year round at the mansion, just so he would be available if someone wanted to hear some organ music.  This is really significant because the Flagler's only spent  6-8 weeks a year at the Mansion. 

This is one of the chandeliers in the music room with the pipe organ on the wall in the background.  Notice all of the intricacies of the ceiling.

The pipe organ has 1, 249 pipes and has been electrified so you don't have to push the pump pedals to play it.

No, Suzie is not on the phone, she is listening to the guided tour wand.

As we continued through the mansion, we were amazed that Mr. Flagler built such a huge structure.  We eventually came to the ballroom.

It is the second largest room in the mansion and is over 3,200 square feet.

It must have been a real exciting time to receive an invitation to one of the gala events.

Elaborate ceiling at the entry to the ballroom.

We continued the tour for over 2 hours and were only allowed to visit a fraction of the 75 rooms in the 100,000 square foot mansion.

Dining room

Breakfast room

Drawing room where Mrs. Flagler could entertain, read, or knit.

Master bedroom

Master bath

Several of the many guest rooms.

The full-time staff of cooks, maids and servants all had quarters on the second floor, away from the guest rooms.  They were much less fancy than the guest rooms but still large, clean and functional for the times.

We didn't get to visit the third floor but there were additional bedrooms there where the servants of the guests to the Flagler Mansion were housed.  They were not as fancy as the Flagler staff quarters.

Outside was a beautiful palm coconut grove that is the only remaining coconut grove from which Palm Beach got its name.

We enjoyed our visit to "Whitehall,"Henry Flagler's winter home in Palm Beach and would recommend a visit there to anyone that travels to the Palm Beach area.

We appreciate everything that Henry Flagler did to help develop Florida and make it our home.

Our travels continue and I will try to find rainy days to complete the next chapter of the blog.

We hope you are having fun out there and please keep us posted on what you are up to,

Tom & Suzie