Flagler Museum

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Henry Morrison Flagler House; Whitehall
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Henry M. Flagler Mansion
Henry M. Flagler Mansion
Location: Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Coordinates: 26°42′51″N 80°2′30″W / 26.71417, -80.04167Coordinates: 26°42′51″N 80°2′30″W / 26.71417, -80.04167
Built/Founded: 1900-1901[1][2]
Architect: Pottier & Stymus, Carrère and Hastings[1][3]
Architectural style(s): Beaux Arts[1]
Designated as NHL: February 16, 2000[2]
Added to NRHP: December 5, 1972
NRHP Reference#: 72000345[3]
Governing body: non-profit

Flagler Museum, also known as Whitehall, is a 55-room mansion open to the public in Palm Beach, Florida in the United States. The building is listed[4] on the National Register of Historic Places.

Henry Flagler, one of the founders of Standard Oil, built Whitehall for his wife, Mary Lily Kenan, in 1902. The architects were Carrère and Hastings. It wa a winter residence, and Henry gave it to Mary Lily as a wedding present. They would travel to Palm Beach each year in one of their own private railcars, one of which (#91), was restored to its original condition and is sitting in the Flagler Museum's new Beaux Arts style pavilion.[5]

Whitehall was used as a hotel after 1925 and was saved from demolition by one of Henry Flagler's granddaughters Jean Flagler Matthews. Her father, Harry Harkness Flagler, had died in 1952. She established the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum non-profit corporation which purchased the building in 1959, opening it as a museum in 1960.

When it was completed in 1902, Whitehall, hailed by the New York Herald as "more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world." Today, Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as the Flagler Museum, featuring guided tours, changing exhibits, and special programs. The Museum is located at Cocoanut Row and Whitehall Way, Palm Beach.

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