1 South County Road - The Breakers, 1926, Landmark Designation
Scope and Contents
The Property File Collection houses over 3,000 property files that document vital information about the built environment of Palm Beach. The collection is arranged by address and contains brochures, photographs, newspaper articles, historic designaton reports, and other relevant property information. All files can be scanned upon request, although a majority are already digitized.
Dates
- 1926
- Event: Landmark Designation
Creator
- Flagler, Henry Morrison, 1830-1913 (Former owner, Person)
Biographical / Historical
Built ca. 1896, the Breakers hotel was initially known as the Palm Beach Inn. This grand Italianate Revival building, modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome, was later renamed the Breakers due to the repeated request of guests to stay in the hotel “by the breakers.” The hotel opened for the 1901 season, but burned down in a fire in 1903. Following the 1903 fire, the building was reconstructed and reopened in February of 1904, but caught fire and burned down again in 1925. The final and current iteration of the Breakers was designed by the architectural firm Schultze & Weaver, and completed and reopened in December 1926. During WWII, the hotel was temporarily transformed into a field hospital and renamed the Ream General Hospital through 1944. The Breakers Hotel serves as a part of the Flagler Hotel Complex, created by Henry Morrison Flagler through his Florida East Coast Hotel Company, which once included the now demolished Royal Poinciana Hotel and the Hotel Ponce De Leon in St. Augustine, FL. Th Breakers also included a Casino and Beach Club, as well as 13 cottages, many of which are now demolished.
The Breakers Hotel was entered on the National Register of Historic Places September 14, 1973.
Extent
2 File(s)
1 Box(es)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Creator
- Flagler, Henry Morrison, 1830-1913 (Former owner, Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach Repository