The Scandalous Story of The Breakers Hotel: Where Flagler's Wives Went to Die

Henry Flagler built The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach as a paradise for the rich, but the luxury resort became a tomb for his own wives—his first wife died of complications after staying in the original hotel, his second wife descended into madness there before he had her institutionalized and divorced her, and his third wife watched him die in a nearby mansion. The hotel burned down completely in 1903, was rebuilt even grander in 1904, then burned again in 1925, as if the building itself was trying to escape the curse of the marriages that funded it. Today's Breakers is the third version, built on the ashes of Flagler's three marriages—a monument to love destroyed by the fortune that built it.