Today you get one entry because that’s the kind of day. On the batbike 58 miles up to Palm Beach to the Flagler Museum. I have only one word to describe the place: un-friggen-believable. Never have I seen anything like it. And I’ve seen luxury pads before. I hope to tour the mansions in Georgia, but they will have a hard time trying to compete with old Henry Flagler. Here’s what I found, good and bad.
I’ve seen the Bush House (Salem, Oregon) and the Hearst Mansion. Nothing compared to this. It was built in 1902, so it has modern fixtures like plumbing, electricity, and odd for the time, a telephone. With incredible sagacity, the phone was located in the master bathroom. Seems fitting, and since it was the only phone in town, makes you wonder who he called.
You absolutely must tour this house if in Palm Beach. I found it not true there is no parking in that jurisdiction, but it is very limited indeed. Like Marco Island, the locals would seal the place off to outsiders if they could. The museum has parking. The admission is $18 adult and includes the railcar which is in a beautiful pavilion on the south side of the complex.
There is a tea room. Literally, tea is the only thing on the menu, and the menu is per person, not by the item. Tea is $22. Tea for two is $44. The sign says tax and tip is included. That’s nice of them. I declined, but I would have done it if LizJohn was here. She’s worth it. To be fair, the tea comes with seven “tea sandwiches”, which you would recognize as a half-sandwich cut into seven pieces. Please, cut mine in five, I could never eat seven.
Cameras are allowed, Catch-22. Flash pictures and tripods are not allowed. I know what you are thinking, but once you get inside, you will spot two things. There are no ledges anywhere to set your camera [for time exposures] and the interior lights are cleverly set so low that electronic cameras won’t take. Hence, I have no real photos of the interior, though I have a very steady hand and was able to capture a few shots of the ceilings. I’ll need time to enhance them.
Note the flowery wallpaper. This was apparently custom made at the time. It matches the upholstery. I believe I heard it was lost when the house was a hotel for a few years, but somebody discovered a patch of the original behind a mirror in one of the dressing rooms.
The dining room is fit for the movies. Ten chairs and the carpet is sunk into the floor. There is a music room with a built in pipe organ, the literature says 1,624 pipes. And a piano with more glitter than Liberace. Plus one of those windup, oh, what are they called, not a calliope, but like a hand-cranked organ that you can change the cylinder. No bass guitar, which makes sense since it was not invented for another fifty years.
All of the mansion rooms are immense and when they say walk-in closet, they mean it. There is a ballroom, a courtyard, and by far, the most magnificent of entry halls. I overheard a docent say it was the finest of the era. Some of the construction used modern materials but I’d say modern in 1902 beast the particle board you get at your modern Ikea. Ah, here is a photo from the courtyard I got to turn out. A peculiar courtyard as there was no place to sit, so I got this snap out the hall doors, a similar set you can see behind the statue.
Strange it was. After the first few episodes, I would look to make double sure the path was clear before entering, but within seconds, some old lady or fat man was in my way. And you know me, rather than say, “Excuse me”, I’ll back up all the way and find some other route around the obstruction. I know way, way better than to tip off the average penguin that they are a bother for getting in your way.
Before you label that abnormal behavior, ask yourself if you know my family. It was not uncommon to have to ask them to get out of my way sixty to eighty times per day. And when they did, their attitude was you now owed them a favor. Yet, I cannot recall the last time anyone had to ask me to move aside. My guess is at least twenty years ago--and in return, it is actually considerably difficult to get in my way. (And remember the blog rules are that I MUST report any unusual events like this when they happen.)
The tour is of the house itself. The furniture is not that impressive unless you are a collector. There is a pool room, for back when cultured people played the game. I bypassed the library as there was a major tour group in the room. Other than a few displays of silverware and lace, it is not like a regular museum. Most impressive is the height of the ceilings. Bigger than most movie theaters.
There are a number (about 50) paintings and a clock and carvings to see. If you realize that many millionaires of the time saw America as the culmination of all the good in western history and culture, you can see how they bought art that conveyed them as the custodians of same. The art in this collection is meant to show the best of the west. By comparison, the lesser millionaires are trying to show they have class or taste, which gets boring faster than corn flakes. The brochure says a lot of the art is replicas*.
Be advised it is a walking tour and there is almost no place to sit down. All the chairs are roped off as the place is designed to keep people moving. Allow at least 90 minutes for the once-over. I personally intend to go there again and be more inquisitive. In fact, I’ll send the invitation to LizJohn shortly. I want to try the penguin mini-sandwich.
My round trip was 128 miles, I came home down AIA, the scenic route. At least until you get out of the Palm Beach area. Man, I have to get out of this town and move north just 50 miles. What a different life, different people, and things are kept in better check. If you hear a lawnmower in that town, you know what to expect. Always remember, however, that Palm Beach is still in Florida, where they have never learned to pave the streets level with the manhole covers.
All I can say is visit this museum. Others present were not as impressed as I was over the same exhibits, but you get that a lot with the type of people who have trouble figuring out a seed catalog. How impressive is it? Well, the master bedroom was one of the few places on this planet that made me feel out of place. And I’ve walked the Taj Mahal.
*For clarity, that is very expensive and realistic replicas made at the time, around 1900 and earlier, of European art.
ADDENDUM
I read a few hours about the recent banking crisis in Iceland. How the entire sleepy little country was boondoggled by dozen players in a massive credit-based Ponzi scheme. However, Iceland is smarter than the USA. They let the banks go bankrupt. “They lent the money, didn’t they?”
This gave me a chance to compare ratios (not really statistics) between Iceland and the USA. It appears the financial problems very quickly rose to the top (2008 to 2011) because the island does not have the colossal camouflage mechanism in place as does the USA. Huge government debt, Wall Street, militarism, corporate-political corruption, etc. So what ratios dismayed me the most about the USA?
The banks own more houses now than does the private sector. And we bail them out? Or 106 million Americans on some kind of welfare, not counting social security. It’s approaching the ridiculous levels of Canada with their fifth-generation welfare family dynasties. At street level, it’s all food stamps and Superb Owl games. It’s like ancient Rome again; bread and circuses.
I do not believe the present American regime could exist without the threat of jail sentences and violence against anyone who does not comply. There is no law that says you have to pay taxes, but there are plenty of laws to punish you if you don’t. How much longer before there is an additional criminal charge of “resisting arrest” for those who do not willingly turn themselves in for something “just in case”? Want your hospitals and schools bombed and your leader assassinated? Announce you are establishing a gold-backed currency, works every time. And why hasn’t anyone done something about all those damn penguins? They’re everywhere.
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