The Flagler Museum is undertaking an elaborate restoration of Whitehall’s formal Dining Room. The Dining Room, designed in the Henri IV style, reflects the tastes of affluent French society during the reign of Louis Napoléon. This revival style, favored for grand banquet rooms in French townhouses and châteaux, was well known to the design firm of Pottier & Stymus, the original interior designers of Whitehall. Their New York factories created many pieces of furniture and employed numerous European artisans. The 1902 photographs of the Dining Room in the Flagler Museum Archives show the furniture and woodwork in a harmonious transparent finish that highlighted the impressive feature of the Satinwood that gives it its name. Additionally, the photos reveal faux-painted gilt friezes and ceiling beams simulating Satinwood, adding to the room’s cohesive aesthetic.

When first installed in 1902, the renowned design firm Pottier and Stymus created the Dining Room using incredibly rare Jamaican Satinwood, a material that is now nearly extinct. There has never been another Satinwood room built that compares to Whitehall’s Dining Room in terms of size, quality, or elaborate decoration, and there never will be. The Dining Room represents a unique moment in history, showcasing the technology, availability of the wood, and wealth that existed in America at that time to make such a magnificent room possible.

The restoration of the Dining Room has been generously underwritten by Thomas S. Kenan, III, and The Stockman Family Foundation. The project is progressing well, with two large crews at work—one focused on the paneling and fire mantel, and the other on the ceiling.T

Flagler Museum invites you to visit the museum to see the meticulous restoration work being done to return this extraordinary room to its original appearance. Your support and interest are invaluable and they look forward to sharing this exciting progress with you.

Jamaican Satinwood, now commercially unavailable, was a highly coveted cabinet wood when it first appeared regularly in Europe, Great Britain, and the American East Coast in the late eighteenth century. Due to its limited geographic distribution and medium size, Satinwood was never as abundantly produced as other tropical hardwoods like mahogany or rosewood. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was often used in small quantities as veneer, marquetry, or a light-colored contrast in darker primary wood pieces. Entire furniture pieces made from Satinwood were rare, making Whitehall’s Dining Room, made of solid Satinwood, the largest and most elaborate Satinwood room ever built in the Western Hemisphere and probably the world.

In 2018, Whitehall’s Dining Room furniture, comprised of a grand banquet table, 24 upholstered chairs, and two double-high sideboards, was returned to the Flagler Museum after an absence of nearly a century. This suite of furniture underwent comprehensive conservation by F. Carey Howlett & Associates in 2019 and was reinstalled in Whitehall’s Dining Room in early 2020. The conservation process revealed numerous modifications made throughout the twentieth century as well as a spectacular feature of the room. Among these alterations was a dark stain that concealed the true nature of the wood. Removing the stain and conducting microscopic analysis revealed the furniture was made of Jamaican Satinwood (Zanthoxylum flavum), a nearly extinct species of hardwood native to the West Indies and the Florida Keys. This revelation was particularly striking when the light-colored furniture was juxtaposed with the dark stained paneling and fireplace in the Dining Room. Historical photos and close examination confirmed that the Dining Room woodwork, like the furniture, was made of Jamaican Satinwood. F. Carey Howlett & Associates are now taking on the monumental task of removing the dark stain from the Satinwood and returning Whitehall’s Dining Room to its original appearance and glory.

For more information, please contact David Carson at the Flagler Museum, (561) 655-2833 ext. 13.

About the Flagler Museum

When it was completed in 1902, Whitehall, Henry Flagler’s Gilded Age estate in Palm Beach, was hailed by the New York Herald as “more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world.” Today, Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as the Flagler Museum, featuring guided tours, changing exhibits, and special programs. The Museum is located at Cocoanut Row and Whitehall Way, Palm Beach.

The Flagler Museum is one of only four sites in the Nation to be awarded all three of the highest honors given to historic sites: designation as a National Historic Landmark, accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, and presentation of the Ross Merrill Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections.

The Museum is open 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, and noon until 5:00 pm on Sunday. Admission is $28 for adults, $14 for ages 6 – 12, and children under six are free.

The Flagler Museum is funded in part by the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council, the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, the state of Florida, Department of State, and the Division of Arts and Culture.

Photos Credit: Flagler Museum

Date Posted: July 23, 2024