You can’t stay in Forida for long without hearing about Henry Flagler. We’ve heard of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Getty and others in the Gilded Age but Henry Flagler seemed to have flown under our own particular radar. He was a partner of Rockefeller in Standard Oil, in fact, Rockefeller referred to him as the ‘brains’ behind the company. He was born the poor son of a Presbyterian minister but ended as a partner in Standard Oil. But, it’s his ‘invention’ of snowbirds is where Gary and I come in. (that red in the picture below is the reflection of my shirt.)
After the Civil War Florida became a winter retreat for wealthy northerners. Actually, as far back as 1869 a book titled ‘A Winter Florida’ was published. 2 years later another book was published espousing the many benefits of coming to Florida for anyone but especially for those who were invalids. For tourists it was quaint, romantic, historical. For invalids the weather was warm and it was sunny most days.
Here’s a poster we saw along a sidewalk that we were on. St Augustine takes its history very seriously and you find it all over.
When Flagler was honeymooning in St Augustine with his second wife (he had visited with his first wife but she had died shortly thereafter from a long illness) he not only enjoyed the warmth of the area himself but thought it would be perfect for all of his wealthy friends from the North. He envisioned sleepy little St Augustine as a winter mecca for the rich and started in building a hotel designed for them and then building a railroad for them to come down.
He required that they rent their rooms for the season, not just a week or a month but for the whole season which lasted from December 31 to April 30. You didn’t have to be here the whole time and could return home to New York if you wished but you were expected to be here for most of this 4 months. And, thus, the ‘birth’ of snowbirding.
His hotel, the Ponce de Leon, had 540 rooms and was built of hand cut and laid tile, gorgeous wood,
crystal chandeliers, original stained glass Tiffany windows in the lunch room and all the best.
By the way, Edison did the lighting. The outside was poured concrete, something new. You can still see the layers that were poured when you stand outside the hotel. After spending $250,000 (which today doesn’t seem like much to build a sumptuous hotel) and working for 18 months from the breaking of ground to the screwing in of the last lightbulb, the hotel was open in 1888.
Here’s the front - unfortunately, we arrived in the middle of a massive overhaul of the building. Rather loses the effect of a grand hotel. But, trust me on this, it is beautiful.
Across the street, he built another hotel although the hotel rooms were secondary to the purpose. It was really designed to be the ballroom, swimming pool, meeting place, the exercise facilities and the entertainment complex for those wealthy guests of the Ponce across the street. Meanwhile, Flagler himself was building railroads south for his guests and then eventually extending them as far south as Key West.
But, he was not stopped there, he built churches, established a hospital, build large homes and businesses offices for his enterprises. He also built a new jail since the old one was next door to his grand hotel. Ummm - gotta move that.
When Henry Flagler came to Florida, it was a backwater and the poorest state in the United States. He transformed it and began the growth of what is today modern Florida. He gave people a reason to come down here and then he built the means to get them here. He died in 1913 at the age of 93 having transformed Florida.
Flagler died in 1913 at the age of 93, and is buried alongside his wife, daughter and granddaughter in a mausoleum in Memorial Presbyterian Church, here in the city that drew him to Florida.
We visited the Memorial Presbyterian Church and then took the student led tour of Flagler College which today occupied what was once the Ponce de Leon Hotel.
Here’s the dome on the Church.
We were able to take a self-guided tour of the building. The church took 1 year to build except for the 92 stained glass windows, which took longer.
Of course, for this last shot, picture me, on my back looking up at the inside of the 100’ dome. The docent said many people do that. Originally, Flagler asked that no bells be put into the bell tower while he lived in the town since there were enough bells throughout St Augustine already. And, bells have still not been added.
At night, the fog that had rolled in, gave the dome an ethereal look.
And, there you have it, we’re here in St Augustine because Henry Flagler thought we’d like it.
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