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The Queen of Palm Beach
Florida's "Whitehall" Mansion Serves as a Museum, and as a Monument to Money and One Last Romance.

By Stephen D. Engle


	The house called "the Taj Mahal of North America" was a wedding gift from Henry Flagler to his third wife.

On March 30, 1902, the New York Herald published a double-page rotogravure picture of Henry Flagler's new Palm Beach mansion, proclaiming it "the Taj Mahal of North America." It cost $2.5 million to build and $1.5 million to furnish, and after its remarkably short 18 months of construction, Flagler gave it to his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, as a wedding gift. Situated on six acres of lakefront property next to his Palm Beach hotels, the Royal Poinciana and the Breakers, Whitehall helped establish the town as the winter mecca for America's wealthy.

Not only had Henry Flagler built a magnificent present for his bride, he had also shown America's newly rich he could match their pretentious creations. Such elaborate structures prompted Henry James to characterize Florida as a "fearful fraud" and the "epitome of the hotel-spirit" in his 1907 novel, American Scene. Nevertheless, few wives, then or now, could boast of owning the "Taj Mahal" in a town that soon became Florida's "Queen of Winter Resorts."

Henry Morrison Flagler was the man most responsible for the successful development of the state. He not only built several prominent architectural landmarks, he built the railroad linking the far reaches of the Northeast to the tip of the Florida Keys, opening the state to travelers and investment.

These hotels attracted the wealthiest families in America, and Florida began to reflect Flagler's determination to make it an American Riviera.

Born January 2, 1830, in Hopewell, New York, Henry was the son of Isaac Flagler, a Presbyterian minister. Young Henry, unwilling to face a future as a struggling farmer in the small rural community, left home at the age of 14 with more ambition and energy than money. He traveled to Republic, Ohio, where he landed a job clerking in a store owned by some relatives from his mother's earlier marriage to David Harkness. He was quickly promoted and soon moved to Bellevue, Ohio, to manage the Harknesses' new grain and distillery business. By 1852 he had become a business partner and the following year married Mary Harkness, daughter of his first employer. They had three children, of whom two survived to adulthood.

Buoyed by his success in Bellevue, Flagler sold his interest in the Harkness Company and, with brother-in-law Barney York, founded the Flagler and York Salt Company in Saginaw, Michigan. The end of the Civil War brought the collapse of the salt market and forced the company into bankruptcy. Flagler paid his debts, moved to Cleveland and re-entered the grain business where he again succeeded.

In Cleveland, Flagler met John D. Rockefeller, who was seeking new partners to expand his then-small Standard Oil Company. Henry joined him, recruited investors, and was made secretary and treasurer of the company. Within ten years the minister's son had attained a prestigious position in the nation's loftiest industrial and financial circles.

The Flaglers moved to New York in 1877, but Mary was suffering from consumption and Henry took her to Florida, hoping the warmer climate and sea air would provide a cure. Although Mary temporarily grew stronger, she wanted to return to New York where she died in 1881.

After Mary's death, Flagler gradually withdrew from his corporate responsibilities, and his thoughts returned to Florida. In 1883 he married Ida Alice Shourds, who had served as Mary's nurse, and the two traveled to St. Augustine where he began developing the resources of the Sunshine State, his focus for the remainder of his life. Within a few years he had constructed St. Augustine's fabulous Ponce de Leon Hotel, which opened in 1888, and shortly after purchased and remodeled the Cordova and built the Alcazar. These hotels attracted the wealthiest families in America, and Florida began to reflect Flagler's determination to make it an American Riviera.

Henry's personal life took another turn when Ida became infatuated with the Ouija board and slowly lost her grasp on reality until there came a time when she believed she was engaged to the Tsar of Russia. Henry pressed the Florida legislature to pass a law making it legal to divorce on the grounds of insanity. As soon as it was enacted, he ended his seven-year marriage to Ida and ten days later married Mary Lily, who had been a friend of Ida's and a frequent guest of the Flaglers. ("Flagler's Law," as it became known, was overturned shortly thereafter.)

Though his private life had its ups and downs, Henry's businesses flourished. He assured the success of his resort hotels by buying and overhauling the Florida railway system. While much of the Eastern United States was linked by railroads, Florida remained under-developed. Flagler bought and expanded the state's smaller lines, and in 1895 his railways were consolidated as the Florida East Coast Railway. The following year he extended the line to Miami and 16 years later to Key West. With each rail link, Flagler enhanced his reputation as an architect of successful business ventures, and the construction of numerous resort hotels along the way made him a genius in developing resources.

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Stephen D. Engle is an assistant professor of history at Florida Atlantic University, where he specializes in 19th-century America, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the American South.