The Gilded Age in Palm Beach: Flagler's Whitehall was a temple to the era

As season 3 of HBO's hit series "The Gilded Age" concludes Aug. 10, fans can look forward to the just-announced season 4 with a visit to Palm Beach's own Gilded Age mansion, Whitehall.

Industrialist Henry Morrison Flagler completed the estate in 1902 as a gift for his wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The 75-room, 100,000-square-foot mansion operates today as a museum.

While the action in creator Julian Fellowes' "The Gilded Age" is set at the turn of the 19th century in New York and Newport, Rhode Island , there was plenty to see and do during that era in Palm Beach, as the island became a seasonal hub for the wealthy and famous thanks in large part to Flagler's influence.

The Standard Oil co-founder saw the potential for growth and tourism along Florida's east coast, and he is credited with setting the stage for much of the development that led to the Sunshine State we know today.

In Palm Beach, Flagler built two hotels: The Breakers and the Royal Poinciana.

For himself and his third bride, he built Whitehall, which became a center of high-society activity during the winter season.

Here's what to know about Flagler's masterpiece, the era in which it was created, and the TV show that captures the Gilded Age's excesses, intrigues, and social upheaval.

When was the Gilded Age?

Definitions of the exact length of the Gilded Age vary, but it's generally from the 1870s, the end of the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, until about 1910.

What is 'The Gilded Age' about?

HBO frames it this way in its promotional material: "The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic and social change, when empires were built, but no victory came without sacrifice."

The series involves "old money" New York elites and their escalating feud with nouveau-riche neighbors who threaten the established social order, told through two core families: Industrialist George Russell (Morgan Spector), his social-climbing wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon), and their children; and two sisters, snobbish widow Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and kind spinster Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon), as well as their naive niece Marion (Louisa Jacobson).

Other actors in "The Gilded Age" are Taissa Farmiga, Matt Walker, Denée Benton, Harry Richardson, Ben Ahlers, Donna Murphy, Audra McDonald, Nathan Lane, Amy Forsyth, Robert Sean Leonard, Merritt Wever, Phylicia Rashad and Leslie Uggams.

As for Flagler himself, though his character does not appear in "The Gilded Age," he is mentioned and was said to have attended a ball hosted by Bertha Russell. The first two seasons also included a character named Cissie Bingham Raikes, who is said to be either Flagler's niece or his illegitimate daughter.

The building of Whitehall

Whitehall was completed in 1902, and construction started about two years before that.

A North Carolina newspaper dispatch from January 1902 said Whitehall's construction "required the services of a large number of masons, carpenters, plumbers, plasterers, painters, frescoers and artists for months and months." The artisans who labored in Palm Beach were in addition to those who worked in Italy and France, the New York Herald reported in 1902.

Whitehall's designer

Whitehall was designed by architects John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, both of whom studied at the renowned École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and who designed Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, according to the Flagler Museum's website.

Carrere and Hastings drew on Greek mythology and architecture in seeking to create a mansion that was reminiscent of temple to the god Apollo, the museum's website said.

Whitehall: a temple to Apollo

Newspaper headlines declared it Flagler's "Palace in Florida." The New York Herald in 1902 called it "more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world," with 16 guest chambers in addition to a grand suite belonging to the lady of the house.

The New York Herald lauded Whitehall as "a palace of white," with marble steps leading to the colonnade and coconut palms and orange trees out front. Visitors stepped through bronze doors to enter a Grand Hall with 20-foot ceilings and a dome that displays the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi.

Whitehall was packed with art and architectural details that honored the property's Apollonian inspiration. The museum now features seasonal exhibitions that honor that heritage, often including art or popular culture from the Gilded Age.

As a temple to Apollo, Whitehall was built with music in mind. The Music Room is home to a 1,249-pipe J.H. & C.S. Odell Co. organ. Each season, Flagler hired a musician-in-residence. Perhaps the first to perform a concert on the organ was Clarence Eddy, who according to multiple 1902 news reports, gave a recital during a housewarming for Whitehall.

Mary Lily Kenan Flagler's original custom Steinway Model B grand piano is in the Drawing Room, where the Flagler Museum occasionally brings in musicians to perform on the antique instrument that features on its lid a painting of Erato, the muse of love poetry, according to the museum's website.

Whitehall from manse to museum

Henry Flagler died in 1913 at age 83. After Mary Lily died in 1917, she left the mansion to a niece who sold the property to a group of investors. In 1925, Whitehall reopened with a new, 11-story hotel on its west side, between the mansion and the Lake Worth Lagoon. The mansion was used for card games, a bar, guest suites and lounges, the museum said.

The hotel operated until the mid-1950s, when it fell into disrepair and was in threat of being bulldozed. According to the Flagler Museum, Henry Flagler's granddaughter Jean Flagler Matthews caught wind of the impending demolition and in 1959 formed a nonprofit to purchase Whitehall. It reopened as a museum in 1960.

If you go

What:The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum

Where:1 Whitehall Way in Palm Beach

Hours:10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday

Admission:Free for members; $28 ages 13 and older; $14 ages 6-12; free for ages 5 and younger. Visitors under age 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Info: flaglermuseum.us .

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: The Gilded Age in Florida: Henry Flagler's Whitehall in Palm Beach