The Breakers Luncheon and Tour (A glimpse at its fascinating origins booklet) 11-17-84The Breakers:
A Glimpse at its
Fascinating Origins
Jereal�ers
Palm Beach, Florida 33480
enry Morrison Flagler,
railroad magnate and
co-founder of the Standard
Oil Company with John D. Rocke-
feller, is credited with stimulating
the development of the east coast
of Florida. In transforming this
area into a vacationland for mil-
lions of people, he built The Palm
Beach Inn at the turn of the cen-
tury. The Inn was destroyed by
fire in 1903 and replaced with a
larger, more elaborate hotel, a
vast wooden structure called The
Breakers.
At that time, guests came
to Palm Beach on the railroad built
by Mr. Flagler, and the private rail-
road cars were parked behind
what is now the Post Office at the
end of Royal Poinciana Way. The
guests of The Breakers were
brought from the end of the rail
line at The Royal Poinciana Hotel
to The Breakers in a donkey -
drawn surrey along Pine Walk,
which is now the entrance to the
Beach Club. ''The Season" ended
February 22nd with a large
Washington's Birthday Ball. While
guests dined and danced, their
luggage was transported to the
train. When the Ball was over, they
went to the train in their evening
finery and retired for the night as
the train made its way north.
The Breakers cottages
along the ocean were reserved by
prominent families as winter
homes. Some of these early
guests were John D. Rockefeller,
John Jacob Astor, J.P. Morgan,
President Warren G. Harding,
William Randolph Hearst, The
Duchess of Marlborough and
Andrew Carnegie.
In 1925, twelve years after
the death of Henry Flagler, The
Breakers was razed by a fire that
burned all day and all night but,
fortunately, resulted in no loss of
life. Immediately, the heirs of
Mary Lily Kenan (Flagler's third
wife) decided to rebuild the hotel
with more durable materials and
make The Breakers the finest re-
sort hotel in the world—a tribute
to the vision of Henry Flagler, who
had made Palm Beach a resort of
international acclaim.
The architect commis-
sioned to design the hotel was
Leonard Schultze, well-known for
his designs of the Waldorf-Astoria
and other notable buildings in
New York and California. Mr.
Schultze declared the site so
magnificent, it was worthy of noth-
ing less than an Italian palace.
Guided by this inspiration, he then
drew up plans for a resort hotel
fashioned after the most outstand-
ing villas throughout Italy. The
Turner Construction Company of
New York, along with some 1, 200
craftsmen, worked around
the clock to meet the open-
ing date. Seventy-five ar-
tisans were imported 49
from all over. Europe to create the
magnificent paintings on the ceil-
ings. On December 29, 1926, a
record-breaking 111/2 months after
construction had begun, the
doors of The Breakers were
opened to its first guests. Over
$6,000,000 was spent to create
this majestic resort hotel on what
many feel is the most command-
ing site on the eastern seacoast.
The architectural design of
the exterior of the hotel, with its
twin belvedere towers and grace-
ful arches, was inspired by the
famous Villa Medici in Rome. The
Florentine fountain in front of the
hotel is patterned after the one in
the Bobli Gardens in Florence.
The massive edifice, nestled amid
lush tropical gardens, holds forth
the promise of excellence which
marks its interior.
Throughout the hotel, the
decor of the public rooms reflects
the artistry of the Italian Renais-
sance. On the walls are several
fine 15th -century Flemish
1ki
pestries. The lobby, with
its many frescoes and
decorated vaulted ceil-
ings, captures the atmosphere of
the Palazzo Carega in Genoa. It
overlooks a central courtyard
similar to the inner gardens of the
Villa Sante in Rome. This tranquil
courtyard is bordered by the north
and south loggias leading east-
ward toward the translucent blue
Atlantic. To the east of the
courtyard is the Mediterranean
Ballroom, inspired by the Palazzo
Deg'1 Imperial at Genoa.
The elaborate ceiling in the
Gold Room was copied from one
in the Ducal Palace in Venice. The
series of portraits surrounding the
Gold Room are of people who,
before and during the Renais-
sance Period, participated in the
discovery of the New World. The
overpanel of the Great Stone Fire-
place depicts the globe turning on
its axis until the Old World meets
the New.
The ceilings in the dining
rooms are perhaps the most im-
pressive of all. In the Florentine
Dining Room, a beamed ceiling is
painted much like the one in the
Florentine Palace Davanzate. And,
in the Circle Dining Room (added
one year after the hotel was built)
scenes of Italian cities and regions
are highlighted by a vast Venetian
chandelier of bronze, mirrors, and
crystals, hanging from the circular
skylight in the center of the room.
During the spring and
summer of 1969, the Flagler Sys-
tem launched a dynamic expan-
sion program, adding two ocean-
front wings, while keeping in
mind that the new additions must
reflect the gracious ambience and
exquisite artistry of the original
building. The project included the
redecoration of the lobby and log-
gias with fabrics and colors to
A
It