Flagler did not just build hotels; he built a winter world. In 1902 he completed Whitehall, a white marble mansion on the Intracoastal that he gave his wife as a wedding present and that now serves as the Flagler Museum, a National Historic Landmark. Each winter the Gilded Age families came south by private railcar for ‘the season,’ the months between the holidays and Easter when Palm Beach filled with the wealthiest names in the country. The Town of Palm Beach was formally incorporated in 1911, a small, exclusive island already certain of what it was.
If Flagler built the resort, Addison Mizner gave it a face. The architect arrived around 1918 and, with his patron Paris Singer, designed the Everglades Club — and with it invented the look that still defines the island: Mediterranean Revival, all red barrel-tile roofs, stucco walls, arched loggias, and shaded courtyards, as if a corner of the Italian and Spanish coast had washed up in Florida. The style spread from the club down the shopping street and across the estate row, and ‘the Palm Beach look’ became a national shorthand for warm-weather glamour. It is the reason the island still feels like a stage set for the 1920s.
Why People Visit Palm Beach
Palm Beach offers refined culture beside an easy ocean shoreline. Visitors pair the Flagler and Mizner heritage with museum galleries, gardens, and a quiet bike path along the water. It is polished, historic, and relaxed in pace, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. The vintage Gilded Age glamour is evergreen, drawing architecture lovers and vintage-resort enthusiasts from well beyond the small island, and history and everyday island life sit side by side here in a welcoming way.
