{"id":2704,"date":"2011-04-12T04:15:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T09:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2704"},"modified":"2011-12-06T16:01:58","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T21:01:58","slug":"respite-in-delray-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2704","title":{"rendered":"Respite in Delray Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, April 12, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

We arrived in Delray Beach, Florida on April 9th and stayed in the area for about two weeks. \u00a0It was fun visiting with my brother and sister-in-law and mother. \u00a0There are many interesting things to do in South Florida, not including the beach and numerous pools. \u00a0During our entire stay, the temperatures were in the mid 80s and it was bright and sunny every day. \u00a0At home in New York, it was still cool and raining.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palm Beach is a couple of towns north of Delray and we bumped into Henry Morrison Flagler again. \u00a0While he was developing St. Augustine, and expanding his railroad, and opening the state of Florida, Flagler also built his winter mansion in Palm Beach and also built another hotel across the road calling it “The Breakers”.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Flagler’s Palm Beach Home<\/span><\/p>\n

Flagler’s house is now a museum, and after seeing Flagler’s influence in St. Augustine, we had to visit it. We easily found the house because The Breakers is visible for miles around Palm Beach. \u00a0We parked in one of the parking lots and walked up the path lined with royal palm trees, to the front of the mansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Left Side of the Entrance Foyer<\/span><\/p>\n

After we paid the rather expensive admission fee, we opted for the self-guided tour and happily discovered that photography was allowed without flash. \u00a0That means that I took lots of unnecessary pictures, and have many visual keepsakes. \u00a0Of course, the house is huge and parts of the interior reminded me of European castles. \u00a0 Other parts of the house look like an old Victorian hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Ball Room<\/span><\/p>\n

On the first floor, there was a billiards room with two pool tables and a large music room complete with a pipe organ. \u00a0The center courtyard provided light and cool breezes to the rooms during a time which preceded air conditioning in the hot climate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Center Courtyard<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a maze of over-sized rooms on the first floor which were designed for entertainment. \u00a0The house was “homey” in an overstated gilded sort of way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ladies’ Lounge<\/span><\/p>\n

We took our time walking through the rooms. \u00a0It wasn’t crowded and there weren’t many visitors. \u00a0We walked up the wide marble stairs to the second floor. \u00a0There were many smallish bedrooms which were attributed to people who had, I imagine, donated money to restore and furnish the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Master Bedroom<\/span><\/p>\n

All the bedrooms were tastefully decorated in a variety of styles and colors and fabrics. \u00a0There were also several turn of the century bathrooms complete with 100 year old state-of-the-art plumbing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Floral Bedroom<\/span><\/p>\n

The colorfully decorated bedrooms contrasted with the monochromatic servants’ rooms which were also available to view. \u00a0Beyond the servants’ rooms were several rooms for exhibit space. \u00a0There was an interesting display of the drawings and furniture designed by the artist, Joseph Urban. \u00a0He was an illustrator, theater set designer, and architect who lived from 1872 – 1933. \u00a0Urban designed productions for Ziegfeld Follies and the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Carriage House<\/span><\/p>\n

Back outside in the brilliant sunshine, we walked across a small courtyard to what would have been Henry Flagler’s carriage house. \u00a0Light streamed in through gigantic windows and soft classical music was playing. \u00a0On one side, tables were set for light lunch or high tea. \u00a0On the other side of the space was the Flagler’s private railroad car.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Railcar Number 91<\/span><\/p>\n

The green railroad car was built in 1886 by the Jackson & Sharp Company for Henry Flagler. \u00a0It was acquired by the museum in 1959 and restored. \u00a0After seeing the rail cars of the Root family in Daytona Beach, it was fun to be able to go inside this car.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Interior of Railcar No. 91<\/span><\/p>\n

The interior wood was amazing! \u00a0Beautiful hand-crafted wooden walls and built-in cabinetry were in every part of the car. \u00a0Special imported wood had been used and was restored to like-new condition. \u00a0You could just imagine the degree of wealth during the Gilded Age.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Palm Beach From The Flagler Museum<\/span><\/p>\n

We stopped at the gift shop before walking back out into the beautiful Florida sunshine. \u00a0We learned more about Henry Flagler than we knew in St. Augustine. \u00a0He must have been an amazing person.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011 We arrived in Delray Beach, Florida on April 9th and stayed in the area for about two weeks. \u00a0It was fun visiting with my brother and sister-in-law and mother. \u00a0There are many interesting things to do in South Florida, not including the beach and numerous pools. \u00a0During our entire stay, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-united-states","category-florida","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2704"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3667,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}