Statement of Significance (as of designation - February 16, 2000):
Constructed in 1900-1901, Whitehall is nationally significant as the home of Henry Morrison Flagler, one of the captains of industry and commerce of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He made his fortune during the period immediately after the Civil War, as one of John D. Rockefeller’s two original partners and a founder, in 1870, of Standard Oil Company, the world's first oil monopoly. By the mid-1880s, Flagler’s attention turned to a new challenge, the development of Florida. He developed resorts and towns and extended the railroad which greatly increased tourism and settlement in the state. He endowed the state with schools, churches and hospitals. This monumental private residence clearly illustrated Flagler’s unique position as the foremost citizen of Florida. The property is also nationally significant as an exceptional Neoclassical Revival marble palace of the Gilded Age.