The Breakers Palm Beach is a historic,

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style

luxury hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

with 538 rooms. It is located at 1 South County Road in

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

Early history

First known as The Palm Beach Inn, the original hotel was opened on January 16, 1896, by business tycoon

Henry Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founde ...

to accommodate travelers on his

Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...

. It occupied the beachfront portion of the grounds of the

Royal Poinciana Hotel The Royal Poinciana Hotel was a Gilded Age hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, Florida, United States. Developed by Standard Oil founder Henry Flagler and approximately 1,000 workers, the hotel opened on February 11, 1894. As Flagle ...

, which Flagler had opened in 1894 beside

Lake Worth Lagoon The Lake Worth Lagoon is a lagoon located in Palm Beach County, Florida. It runs parallel to the coast, and is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier beaches, including Palm Beach Island. The lagoon is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by tw ...

, facing the inland waterway. Guests began requesting rooms "over by the breakers", so Flagler renamed it The Breakers Hotel in 1901. The original wooden hotel burned on June 9, 1903, after which it was rebuilt, opening on February 1, 1904. Rooms started at $4 per night, including three meals a day (in 2018, rooms started at $1,050 per night). Since Flagler forbade motorized vehicles on the property, patrons were delivered between the two hotels in wheeled chairs powered by employees. The grounds featured a nine-hole

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

Pre-Negro leagues, Winter League baseball team

In the winter of 1915–1916, the Breakers Hotel hired the services of

Cyclone Joe Williams Joseph Williams (April 6, 1886 – February 25, 1951), nicknamed "Cyclone Joe" and "Smokey Joe", was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. He is considered one of the greatest pitchers of all-time and was elected to the Nat ...

and many fellow team members of the

Lincoln Giants The Lincoln Giants were a Negro league baseball team based in New York City from 1911 through 1930. Founding The Lincoln Giants can trace their origins back to the Nebraska Indians, of Lincoln, Nebraska, from the 1890s. According to Sol White ...

pre-Negro leagues baseball team to take on another pre-Negro leagues baseball team made up of

Indianapolis ABCs The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro league baseball team that played both as an independent club and as a charter member of the first Negro National League (NNL). They claimed the western championship of black baseball in 1915 and 1916, and fini ...

players hosted by the Royal Poinciana Hotel. The games hosted

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

stars of the day, including Ben Taylor,

C.I. Taylor Charles Isham Taylor (January 20, 1875 – February 23, 1922) was an Americans, American second baseman, manager (baseball), manager and executive in Negro league baseball. Born in Anderson, South Carolina, he was the oldest among four sons of a M ...

Candy Jim Taylor James Allen "Candy Jim" Taylor (February 1, 1884April 3, 1948) was an American third baseman and manager in Negro league baseball. In a career that spanned forty years, he played as an infielder in the early years of the 20th century for over a ...

, John Donaldson, Ashby Dunbar, Jim Jeffries,

Jimmie Lyons James Henry Lyons (October 9, 1889 – February 8, 1961) was a baseball player in the Negro leagues. He pitched and played outfield between 1910 and 1925. He played for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Chicago Giants, Lincoln Giants, St. Louis Giants, ...

, Bill Francis,

Blainey Hall James Blaine "Blainey" Hall (born January 17, 1889, and died March 1975) was a Negro leagues outfielder and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first few seasons. Hall managed the Baltimor ...

Dick Wallace Richard Felix Wallace (July 22, 1882 – July 19, 1925) was an American baseball shortstop and manager in the Negro leagues. He played from 1903 to 1924 with several teams, including the Lincoln Giants and the St. Louis Giants. He was Captain of ...

Louis Santop Louis Santop Loftin (January 17, 1889 – January 22, 1942) was an American baseball catcher in the Negro leagues. He became "one of the earliest superstars" and "black baseball's first legitimate home-run slugger" (Riley), and was elected to the B ...

, and

Spot Poles Spottswood Poles (December 27, 1887 – September 12, 1962) was an American outfielder in baseball's Negro leagues. One of the fastest players of his era, Poles was sometimes referred to as "the black Ty Cobb." Career According to Negro leagues h ...

. One newspaper column claimed that "Astors, Vanderbilts, Morgans, and hundreds of others, who never see a ball game outside of Palm Beach... (are) rooting hard for their favorite team.

1925 fire and subsequent years

The Breakers Hotel on fire- Palm Beach, Florida (8383811926)

Twelve years after Flagler's death, The Breakers Hotel burned down again, on March 18, 1925; the fire was started by an electric

curling iron A hair iron or hair tong is a tool used to change the arrangement of the hair using heat. There are three general kinds: ''curling irons'', used to make the hair curly, ''straightening irons'', commonly called ''straighteners'' or ''flat irons'', ...

that had been left on. The architectural firm hired by the Flagler heirs,

Schultze and Weaver Schultze & Weaver was an architecture firm established in New York City in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver. History Leonard B. Schultze was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1877. He was educated at the Cit ...

, modeled the 550-room replacement building after the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy. The firm worked with New York-based

Turner Construction Company Turner Construction is an American construction company with presence in 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of the German company Hochtief. It is the largest domestic contractor in the United States as of 2020, with a revenue of $14.41 billion in ...

and a well-known local Palm Beach contractor, Eugene Hammond, who built the first theater in West Palm Beach and worked on the Palm Beach estate built for

Rodman Wanamaker Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (February 13, 1863 – March 9, 1928) was an American businessman and heir to the Wanamaker's department store fortune. In addition to operating stores in Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris, he was a patron of the arts ...

Addison Mizner Addison Cairns Mizner (December 12, 1872 – February 5, 1933) was an American architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire archit ...

(which would become a

Kennedy Kennedy may refer to: People * John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States * John Kennedy (Louisiana politician), (born 1951), US Senator from Louisiana * Kennedy (surname), a family name (including a list of persons with t ...

winter retreat in 1933). The contractors decided to abandon the wooden construction for

fireproof Fireproofing is rendering something (structures, materials, etc.) resistant to fire, or incombustible; or material for use in making anything fire-proof. It is a passive fire protection measure. "Fireproof" or "fireproofing" can be used as a n ...

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

. Built by 1,200 construction workers, the hotel reopened on December 29, 1926, to considerable acclaim. The lobby ceiling was painted by Alexander Bonanno, a classically trained New York City artist who taught at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

. This hotel influenced the

Hotel Nacional "Hotel Nacional" ("National Hotel") is a song by Cuban-American recording artist Gloria Estefan. It was released as the second single from her studio album '' Miss Little Havana'' (2011). Written by Estefan, the song portrays the need to dance, g ...

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The Breakers Hotel was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1973. The listed area included 15

contributing building In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

s and one other contributing object. On April 18, 2012, the

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

's Florida Chapter ranked the hotel seventh on its list of ''Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places''. Today, the hotel and grounds occupy 140 acres (57 hectares) beside the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Awards

The Breakers is currently a

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

five diamond rated resort and has maintained this rating since 1996. U.S. News & World Report: Best Hotels in the USA & Florida Forbes Travel Guide: The Breakers Palm Beach, Four-Stars & The Spa at The Breakers, Five-Stars

References

The Breakers: More Than a Century of History
* ''Florida'', DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, 2004, pg. 119

External links

*
Palm Beach County listings
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs

Forbes article by Finn-Olaf Jones on The Breakers' architects Schultze & Weaver, April 24, 2006
The Breakers Historical Timeline
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Breakers, The Florida East Coast Railway Historic American Buildings Survey in Florida Hotel buildings completed in 1925 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Hotels in Palm Beach, Florida Mediterranean Revival architecture in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Palm Beach County, Florida Railway hotels in the United States Seaside resorts in Florida Shingle Style architecture in Florida Hotels established in 1925 1925 establishments in Florida Burned hotels in the United States zh:博瑞克斯酒店