TRAV - Flagler

In the guest book comments, I simply wrote "Wow!"

Flagler's Whitehall mansion--open to the public as the Flagler Museum--is not as big as Biltmore or San Simeon. Of course, both of those estates are in fairly remote locations, while Whitehall is in Palm Beach, and both of the other homes were their owners' main residences, while Whitehall was a vacation home. The entrance hall alone is bigger than my house--that makes quite an impression on its own.

One of interesting touches in Whitehall was the drawing room's gilded aluminum. For about a century after aluminum was first discovered in 1825, no one knew how to generate enough electricity to produce large quantities of the metal; the relatively short period between its discovery and the ability to produce it comparatively cheaply makes the period when aluminum was treated like gold or silver into an interesting footnote. The application in Whitehall's drawing room is an interesting bit of evidence from that period.

In any event, Whitehall is a very beautiful mansion. If you happen to be near Palm Beach, it's definitely worth a visit.