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A small island town of palatial homes and gardens,
and streets so clean you could eat your dinner off them, PALM
BEACH has been synonymous for nearly a century with the
kind of lifestyle only limitless loot can buy. The nation's nobs
began wintering here in the 1890s, after Henry Flagler brought
his East Coast railroad south from St Augustine and built two
luxury hotels on this then-secluded, palm-filled island. Since
then, tycoons, sports aces, aristocrats, rock stars and CIA directors
have flocked here, eager to become part of the Palm Beach elite
and enjoy its aloofness from mainland, and mainstream, life. Joe
Kennedy - father of John, Robert and Edward - bought the so-called
Kennedy Compound here in 1933.
Summer in Palm Beach is very quiet, and the least
costly time to stay. The winter months, from November to May,
see a whirl of elegant balls, fundraising dinners and charity
galas, as well as the polo season.
Worth Avenue , close to the southern
tip of the island, is filled with designer stores, high-class
art galleries and ultraformal restaurants, and cruised by Rolls
Royces, Mercedes and Jaguars. Its most appealing aspect is its
architecture : stucco walls, Romanesque facades,
and passageways leading to small courtyards where miniature bridges
cross nonexistent canals and spiral staircases climb to the upper
levels.
Where Cocoanut Row and Whitehall Way meet, the white
Doric columns fronting Whitehall are those of the Flagler
Museum (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $8), the most
overtly ostentatious home on the island - a $4 million wedding
present from Henry Flagler to his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan.
As in many of Florida's first luxury homes, the interior design
was lifted from the great buildings of Europe: among the 55 rooms
are an Italian library, a French salon, a Swiss billiard room,
a hallway modeled on St Peter's, and a Louis XV ballroom. All
are stuffed with ornamentation, but they lack aesthetic cohesion.
Informative 45-minute guided tours depart frequently from the
110ft hallway and provide a background for Flagler's fascinating
rise to success and a glimpse of the Gilded Age in which he flourished.
Built in 1926 in the style of an Italianate palace,
The Breakers hotel, on South County Road off the main
strip (tel 561/655-6611 or 1-888/273-2537; $250+), operates as
the last of Palm Beach's swanky resorts. Its design includes elaborate
painted ceilings and huge tapestries. Take the free guided tour
on Wednesday at 3pm (call 561/655-6611 ext 7560 for information).
