The bronze sculpture of Henry Morrison Flagler stands on a black marble base at the entrance of the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, now Flagler College. The realistic figure strikes a relaxed pose. He wears a vested suit and knee-length overcoat. The tip of his right shoe extends just beyond the sculpture base. Sporting a bushy mustache and short slick hair, the distinguished gentleman tucks his right hand into his pants pocket, almost as if reaching for his wallet! The bronze was likely cast in Rome in 1902 and was erected by the National Railways Historical Society. The sculpture faces the old Hotel Alcazar across the street, where it once stood before being moved to its present location in 1972. It’s no surprise the Spanish-inspired architectural treasures along this corridor complement each other. Henry Flagler built them all.

HISTORY

Born on January 2nd, 1830 in Hopewell, New York, Henry Flagler achieved success at an early age in the grain business in Ohio.  With his partners John D. Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews, Flagler built an oil refinery that emerged in 1870 as the Standard Oil Corporation. Within five years, it was the largest and richest industrial company in the world.

Flagler first visited Florida in the winter of 1878 when he traveled to Jacksonville with his frail wife on doctor’s orders. Two years after her untimely death, Flagler returned with his second wife. He was instantly charmed by St. Augustine and imagined building a Renaissance-inspired winter playground for the rich and famous.

In 1885, Flagler broke ground on his 240-room Hotel Ponce de Leon. He spared no expense, hiring New York architects Hastings and Carrere, famed stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany and an array of skilled craftsmen to decorate the extravagant resort. The doors opened with fanfare in January 1888, welcoming esteemed guests such as the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers.

Flagler expanded his reach throughout Florida buying and building luxury hotels (in Ormond, Palm Beach, and Miami). He acquired railroads and formed the Florida East Coast Railway Company. He developed agriculture and installed infrastructure to transport his guests and goods. At the height of Flagler’s business success, his wife was institutionalized. Within six years, he married for the third time and built his new bride a Palm Beach winter estate fit for royalty.

For years, Flagler dreamed of linking his railroad to the southernmost point in the US to tap into foreign trade. In 1912, he completed the extension of his train tracks one hundred fifty-six (156) miles over rock islands and open water. This ambitious engineering feat had been dubbed “Flagler’s Folly.” But on the maiden train voyage from Miami to Key West, the Overseas Railroad was hailed as the 8th Wonder of the World. A year later, Henry Flagler died at age 83. He was laid to rest beside his first wife, daughter, and granddaughter in Memorial Presbyterian Church, the nearby Venetian-domed church he had built in their memory.

Although Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad was wiped out in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, the powerful winds of change brought about by Flagler at the turn of the century reverberate today. This great benefactor and visionary almost singlehandedly transformed what was once a southern backwater into the booming tourist destination we know as modern Florida.