Henry Flagler was born in 1830 and helped found Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller. After his first wife died, he traveled to St. Augustine, Florida and was inspired to develop the region. He built the Florida East Coast Railway to connect cities along the Atlantic coast and constructed grand hotels like the Ponce de Leon to attract tourists. Flagler is credited with founding both Palm Beach and Miami, bringing development and prosperity to Florida through his railroad and real estate investments. He continued expanding south but his project to build a rail line to Key West was halted by hurricanes in 1906. Flagler died in 1913 after helping transform Florida into a tourist destination.

1. HENRY FLAGLER
The Builder of Florida

2. Birth of a
legend
■ Henry Flagler was born
in Howell, New York,
on January 2, 1830.
■ At the age of just 14
Henry moved to
Bellevue, Ohio to work
at his cousin’s grain
store L.G. Harkness and
Company.
■ 12 years later Flagler
became a partner in
the business
Flagler’s Bellevue home. Credit: flagler.edu and Flagler College Archives

3. Flagler’s marriage
■ In 1852 Flagler and his half-brother Dan Harkness
would start their own business called D.M.
Harkness and Company.
■ Flagler married his first wife Mary Harkness a
year after (1853).

4. Flagler and Rockefeller
■ While working at D.M. Harkness, Henry Flagler met John D Rockefeller
■ By the mid-1860s Cleveland, Ohio became the center of the oil refining
industry in the world.
■ In oil refining crude oil (petroleum) is turned into fuels like gasoline and
diesel.
■ Flagler gave Rockefeller the money needed to start his oil refinery Standard
Oil which became the largest oil refinery in the U.S.
■ Later Rockefeller would be considered the richest person in the country and
probably the richest person in American history.

5. Standard Oil’s Co.’s No. 1 Refinery in Cleveland when the city was the center of the world petroleum industry, 1889

6. Flagler and Florida
■ Because Henry Flagler’s wife became sick Flagler was encouraged to spend the
winter in Jacksonville, Florida because of its warm climate.
■ After his first wife died Flagler went to Saint Augustine with his second wife
Ida Alice Shourds.
■ When he went to Saint Augustine he enjoyed the warm weather but there
were no hotels or transportation.
■ It was very hard to get to Saint Augustine and there was not much to do when
you got there.

7. Florida East
Coast
Railway
Flagler decided to do
two things: One was to
construct a railroad that
went to Saint Augustine.
Its name was the Florida
East Coast Railway. It
went from Saint
Augustine to Daytona.
Later it would go from
Daytona to Fort Pierce
and then Palm Beach
and all the way to Key
West

8. Florida East Coast Railway
The Florida East Coast Railway depot in Sebastian. The structure was built in 1893.
source: wiki

9. Ponce De Leon
Hotel
(Saint Augustine)
■ The second thing
Flagler decided to do:
Create a hotel for
people visiting Saint
Augustine. The
luxurious Ponce de
Leon hotel was
completed in 1888.

10. PONCE DE LEON HOTEL
Click here for tour

11. ROYAL POINCIANA
HOTEL (PALM
BEACH)
■ The Royal Poinciana
hotel was opened on
February 1894. The
hotel was built as a
resort of the wealthy
travelers. On the first
day there were 17
guests but immediately
after it would host up to
1000 guests a day.
■ The hotel was huge with
over 3 miles of hallways.
Hotel employees would
use bikes to send
messages to guests in
the hotel.

12. ROYAL POINCIANA
HOTEL (PALM BEACH)

13. Whitehall

14. Flagler in Miami
■ Henry Flagler was also responsible for building up Miami.
■ Julia Tuttle a widow living in Miami convinced Flagler to help develop Miami.
She was able to show him that the weather there was much better for
Florida’s citrus industry.
■ Flagler was able to buy land from Julia Tuttle and other important landowners
in Miami and by 1896 his Florida East Coast Railway would reach Miami.
■ IN that same year Miami was became an incorporated city in Florida.

15. Flagler and Key West
■ Flagler also planned to expand his railway to Key
West starting in 1905.
■ Because his plans to have a railway in Key West
failed it was called “Flagler’s Folly”
■ While trying to install the railway, hurricanes
and heavy rain stopped the construction several
times.
■ Hundreds of men even died in storm in 1906.
■ Even though the bridge was completed in 1906,
it fell to a brutal hurricane on Labor Day 1935.

16. Flagler’s Folly

17. End of life
■ Flagler would die at age 83, on May 20, 1913
because of a fall he had in his Palm Beach
Whitehall estate.
■ “As a funeral train carried his body to St.
Augustine, "'every wheel of the Florida East
Coast Railway remained motionless for a period
of ten minutes in silent tribute to its great
builder.’””
■ Flagler will forever be known as the key figure in
developing Florida’s Atlantic coast and founding
the Florida East Coast Railway. He is also the
founder of both the city of Palm Beach and
Miami, FL.

18. Credit
■ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/miami-henry-
flagler/
■ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-M-Flagler
■ https://www.flagler.edu/about-flagler/history/who-was-henry-flagler/
■ https://case.edu/ech/articles/b/bp-america
■ https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/295227