WHAT THE LOCALS KNOW: The Flagler Footprint in Florida
April 5, 2016
Posted by Barrett-Jackson
Written by Barbara Toombs
Henry Morrison Flagler
You don’t have to look very hard to find references to Henry Morrison Flagler if you’re in the Sunshine State. Flagler Beach, Flagler County, Flagler Street, Flagler College, Flagler Hospital … the name can even be found on a mural at the South Florida Fairgrounds, the home of Barrett-Jackson’s annual Palm Beach Auction. Not far from the fairgrounds is the Flagler Museum. The list is endless, and with good reason.
Arguably, no individual had a greater or more lasting impact on a state than Henry Flagler has had in Florida.
Flagler moved to Ohio from New York at a young age and worked in a grain store. He transitioned into the salt mining business when he was in his 30s, founding the Flagler and York Salt Company in Saginaw, Michigan. Flagler’s salt business was ill-fated, however, and it wasn’t long before he moved back to Ohio and returned to the grain industry. He became a commission merchant for the Harkness Grain Company, in the process making the acquaintance of John D. Rockefeller, who worked as a commission agent.
When Rockefeller decided to focus on a burgeoning oil industry – of which nearby Cleveland was becoming the epicenter – he approached Flagler for capital. In 1870, the new company of Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler was organized as a joint-stock corporation named Standard Oil. Within two years, Standard Oil was leading the American oil refining industry, and within five years had relocated to New York City. Henry Flagler and his family moved to a new home on Fifth Avenue.
Flagler’s Palm Beach manor, known as Whitehall, is now the Flagler Museum.
By 1878, Flagler’s wife Mary became ill, and on advice from her doctor, the couple visited Florida for the winter. Flagler saw tremendous potential in the then underdeveloped state, although found it lacking in hotel facilities and transportation systems. He set about to rectify that, believing Florida held promise to attract large numbers of tourists.
Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, but gave up his day-to-day involvement in the company to turn his attention to Florida. Starting in St. Augustine and working his way down the eastern coast of the state, Flagler built an empire of railroads and hotels, and with it built an infrastructure that remains to this day. It began with the construction of the 540-room Hotel Ponce de Leon and the purchase of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad in 1885. That railroad was the first in what would grow into the Florida East Coast Railway system.
The pavilion entranceway at Whitehall shows Flagler’s ties to Florida’s railway system.
Flagler’s next purchase was the Hotel Ormond, just north of Daytona. In subsequent years he built the Hotel Royal Poinciana on the shores of Lake Worth in Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Inn (renamed The Breakers in 1901) overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the exclusive Hotel Royal Palm in Miami – a city that was nearly named after him.
Flagler chose Palm Beach as his winter home, where he built his grand manor known as Whitehall. The New York Herald proclaimed the Gilded Age estate to be “more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world.”
Flagler’s success with Standard Oil is a testament to the combustion engines under the hoods of the cars we all love to see on the Barrett-Jackson auction block. At the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction, it seems especially appropriate to reflect on this successful man, who played an early – albeit abstract – part in fueling the collector car hobby in its most basic form.
Flagler’s Palm Beach estate, Whitehall, is now the Flagler Museum and is open for tours. For more information, visit flaglermuseum.us.