Back in August of 1997 my mother Mary, sister Susan, and I drove down to Palm Beach from my mother's condo in Stuart, Florida, and toured the Henry Flagler Museum. I took the photograph on the left of my mother and Susan posing in front of the grand entrance. Flagler was a founder of Standard Oil, and when he stepped back from being actively involved in that company, he turned his attention to Florida, where he founded the Florida East Coast Railway, the cities of Palm Beach and Miami, and a number of hotels, including The Breakers in Palm Beach. After his first wife died, he remarried, and after divorcing that wife, married a third time and built Whitehall, which is now the Flagler Museum, as a wedding present to his new bride.
Whitehall, a 55 room beaux arts home, is located on Lake Worth in Palm Beach, and was built in 1901, the same year The Breakers Hotel was built nearby on the ocean. Both are well worth visiting, if you happen to be in Palm Beach and find you cannot wangle an invitation to Mar-a-Lago, the dark lair of former president Donald Trump. The photograph on the right is of me in front of Flagler's private railroad car, which is located next door to the museum, and also open to the public. All these places were built during the Gilded Age, when great wealth was concentrated in just a few hands, and these industrial titans traveled in style in these private railroad cars. Amazingly enough, these days, very wealthy people are once again buying private railroad cars to travel the country, piggybacking onto Amtak passenger trains. And what does this say about the concentration of wealth today? In any case, I am once again amazed at how little I have changed since that photo was taken back in 1997. It's truly a miracle.
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