The Origin of Florida’s Finest Homes
‘The concept and belief that has motivated us to identify and to present the very finest Properties, People and Resources that are available to the Florida market, has arisen from the 135 years of history that have surrounded the development of Florida as a destination for the wealthiest to build or to purchase their own luxury homes and to furnish them with only the highest quality merchandise’
The History
The Oil tycoon, Railroad Developer and multi millionaire Henry Flagler first came to Florida in 1876 and literally invented modern Florida. Henry Flagler devoted a significant amount of his wealth and energy in building the very finest of hotels that would inspire and encourage the wealthiest of Americans to visit Florida. From St. Augustine to Miami, Henry Flagler built a series of luxury hotels that quickly established tourism as a mainstay of Florida’s economy. His Florida East Coast Railway not only connected his hotels but opened the state to growth of all kinds.
Henry Flagler decided he would build the 1,100 room Hotel Royal Poinciana on the eastern shore of Lake Worth which opened in 1894. On the western shore of the lake, he established a city named West Palm Beach, which he hoped would one day become a thriving metropolis larger than Jacksonville. The Hotel Royal Poinciana became the world’s largest resort, and Greater West Palm Beach indeed grew into a thriving city. Two years later, Flagler built the Palm Beach Inn (renamed the Breakers Hotel in 1901) overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach. The high end luxury Breakers Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1903 and rebuilt in 1906, it still exists today.
Florida’s Finest Home
Around 1900, Flagler decided to build a winter home on the eastern shore of Lake Worth. The home that he built was as a gift to his wife and he named it Whitehall, it was to become one of America’s finest homes. Whitehall was a 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) winter retreat that established the Palm Beach “season” for the wealthy of America’s Gilded Age. Today, Whitehall is known around the world as one of America’s great historic house museums. More important to Henry Flagler, without a doubt, would be the fact that so many have come to share his love of the place he thought of as “Paradise.”
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‘Florida’s Finest Homes’ has been designed and built to allow individuals or companies to easily seek, review and to make contact with only the very highest quality Real Estate, People and Source Providers that can assist them in purchasing, selling, modeling or equipping their spectacular homes. Thus, through the work of the best people and resources to create and to maintain the finest homes in Florida, we can be confident that the legacy of Henry Flagler continues.