History of the Brazilian Court Hotel

Chapter 1 Palm Beach, The Beginnings

The Town of Palm Beach was incorporated April 17, 1911. Sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway, the tropical island was be- coming one of the premier destinations in the world for the wealthy class. In the 1920s Palm Beach was still a frontier town. A mere 30 years before it was nearly uninhabited until a railroad magnate by the name of Henry Flagler de- cided to bring a railroad southward from St. Augus- tine to expand his east coast hotel empire. After building the 540 - room Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine in 1887 he envisioned a new resort even farther down the dismal Florida shoreline if he could provide easy access for the northern traveler. In the early 1890s Flagler visited the area where the towns of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach would eventually rise. One of the earliest hotels was the Cocoanut Grove House owned by Commodore C. T. Clarke, a Pitts- burgh millionaire. The boarding house, located on the lake front in Palm Beach, was originally built in 1880 by "Cap" E. N. Dimick as his personal home. He converted the home into an inn by adding eight rooms. Later additions enlarged the Cocoanut Grove House to fifty rooms. Guests paid six dollars per person per day for a room, three meals, and all the fruit they could pick from the trees surrounding the inn. They could also take advantage of a row- boat and catboat docked on Lake Worth. In October 1893 fire consumed the Cocoanut Grove House. At the time of the fire the inn was rented to Henry Flag- ler as his construction headquarters. mayor and a state senator. A statue of him still stands at the Royal Park Bridge entrance to Palm Beach. "Cap" Dimick earned his title in an unusual manner. He always wore a white cap and thus was nicknamed "Cap." This later was taken to be short for Captain, a term used widely in the area for any- one who operated a boat. The irony was that Cap Dimick disliked boats. "Cap" Dimick, the first owner of the Cocoanut Grove House, would later become Palm Beach's first

Henry Morrison Flagler

country. By 1894 his Florida East Coast Railroad had been extended to the shores of Lake Worth and his 1,100 room Royal Poinciana Hotel opened. A railroad spur line was built to deliver guests across Lake Worth to their final destination. In 1896 Flagler opened his second hotel on the tropi- cal island. The Palm Beach Inn (renamed The Breakers in 1901), was directly on the beach. Fire struck the Breakers once again on March 18, 1925. It was another total loss. A number of other buildings as far as half - a - mile away also caught fire from the flying embers. The Palm Beach Hotel was totally destroyed. The Breakers was rebuilt the following year with new luxuries that attracted guests away from the ag- ing Royal Poinciana. The severe 1928 hurricane The original Breakers Hotel burned to the ground in a spectacular fire on June 9, 1903.

In 1893 Flagler returned and began buying property for what would be the largest wood hotel in the

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