Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, part 3
Heliotrope Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, part 3

Click here for all posts on the Flagler Museum. This week we’re looking at the upstairs of the mansion.

Master Bedroom

Master Suite, Flagler Museum, Palm Beach. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

The Flaglers shared a bedroom (rare among the wealthy at the time) and a bath, although they had his and hers dressing rooms. The bedroom is decorated in Louis XV style with silk damask walls. The furniture is all original.

Master Suite, Flagler Museum, Palm Beach. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

The master bath has all the modern conveniences, including a telephone on Mrs. F’s dressing table. In New York City, a room this size would long ago have been converted into a studio apartment.

Master Suite, Flagler Museum, Palm Beach. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Green Room

One of many guest bedrooms. The wallpaper pattern seems rather large and garish, but in 1902, it was obviously considered classy. Lovely detail on the woodwork, here and in all the guest rooms.

Green Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Colonial Room

Colonial Chamber, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

The largest guest room. Love the color of the silk damask on the walls, and that ornament on the ceiling. Similar ceiling ornaments in nineteenth-century New York brownstones were put around gas fixtures: the owner could paint just the ornament when the smoke stained that part of the ceiling. Since the Flagler mansion was wired for electricity when it was built, the medallion is purely decorative – an elegant touch, in line with the elaborate ceilings on the ground floor.

Heliotrope Room

Heliotrope Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Such a pretty bed frame! I wonder if the border at the ceiling was from a roll, or was hand-stenciled on? I can’t see a paper edge on the close-up (below).

Heliotrope Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Each guest room has its own thermostat, with Flagler’s monogram.

Thermostat in one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Silver Maple Room

Silver Maple Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Yellow Roses Room

Yellow Roses Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Whooooooooaaaaa, that’s a lot of yellow roses! Matching wallpaper and fabric were an innovation ca. 1902. Both were reproduced from a square of the original wallpaper found tucked behind a mirror.

As I recall, the floors here and elsewhere at the Flagler were designed with indented areas for the rugs, and parquet around the edges. The rugs couldn’t slide around.

Yellow Roses Room, one of the guest bedrooms at the Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

Morning Room

Morning Room, Flagler Museum. Photo copyright © 2021 Dianne L. Durante

A corner room on the second floor was Mrs. Flagler’s domain for playing music or writing letters.

Next week: Henry Flagler’s private railroad car.

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