Royal Poinciana Hotel

Two months later, Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway reached West Palm Beach, while a railroad bridge built across the Lake Worth Lagoon in 1895 allowed guests direct access to the hotel.

[1] After staying at the home of Frederick and Marsena Nelson Robert near the Lake Worth Lagoon, Flagler described the area as a "veritable paradise" and envisioned a resort hotel for elite and wealthy guests.

[2] Next, Flagler announced his intentions to extend the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) to the area, build a hotel on the eastern side of Lake Worth,[1] and develop a commercial and residential community on the other shore, which became West Palm Beach.

[2] According to the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, the construction of the Royal Poinciana Hotel required approximately 1,000 workers and "1,400 kegs of nails, 360,000 shingles, 500,000 bricks, 500,000 feet [150,000 meters] of lumber, 2,400 gallons [9,085 litres] of paint, 4,000 barrels of lime, 1,200 windows, and 1,800 doors, among other materials".

[4] These expansions lengthened the hotel's corridors to more than 3 mi (4.8 km), requiring bellhops to deliver messages from guests to the front desk or vice versa via bicycle, as telephones were still a rare luxury.

[14] The New York Times noted that by 1904, 10 years after the Royal Poinciana Hotel opened, Palm Beach was a popular tourist destination for parties, golf, tennis, boating, bathing, and fishing.

[15] The Royal Poinciana Hotel hosted a celebration for the establishment of Palm Beach County in 1909, alongside Independence Day festivities, which drew hundreds of people from Fort Pierce to Miami and included two amateur baseball games, musical performances by a local band, and a fireworks display.

Because "sparks flying like cinders from a volcano were showering down over all of Palm Beach", according to the Associated Press, emergency responders brought dynamite to the Royal Poinciana Hotel to prevent the blaze from spreading farther and ordered guests to evacuate the building, but hesitated to use the explosives due to the risk of injuring thousands of people.

[22]: 1 Although set to remain closed during the 1928-29 tourism season, repair work allowed the Royal Poinciana Hotel partially re-open on January 12, 1929, with 600 rooms usable.

[24] The building underwent additional repairs and modifications during the off-season, including the razing of much of the north wing and replacing part of that section with two pergolas and a conservatory.

[12] After the end of the Royal Poinciana Hotel's season in March 1930, its closure appeared to bear little relevance to activity at other businesses and resorts in Palm Beach, a stark contrast to previous years.

[34] Beginning in September 1934, Maxwell Co. of Miami conducted a sale of every item remaining at the Royal Poinciana Hotel,[35] including furniture, fixtures, and pieces of the structure itself, attracting approximately 4,000 buyers.

[37] The initially planned demolition work was completed by November 1935,[38] although the Scott and Whittaker firm, under contract from the Florida East Coast Hotel Company, demolished the north wing in 1937.

[40] The soon-to-be-accomplished passing of the [Royal] Poinciana [Hotel] will be regretted by thousands who dislike to see the old landmark go, but it will remain a monument in memory, inseparably linked with Florida's growth.

While demonstrating efforts to develop local tourism and hospitality industries pre-dating the Royal Poinciana Hotel, the aforementioned lodgings were not "as grand and magnificent as their larger counterparts built by Flagler", according to the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.

[44] In addition to attracting many tourists throughout its existence, the Royal Poinciana Hotel played a significant role in the development of the region that eventually became Palm Beach County.

During the construction of the hotel, Flagler envisioned a town on the west shore of Lake Worth as a commercial and residential community to support his projects in Palm Beach.

Porter and Louis Hillhouse $45,000 for their properties,[45] Flagler instructed county surveyor George Potter to plat 48 blocks on the west shore of Lake Worth.