The story of modern Palm Beach begins with Henry Morrison Flagler. He and John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Company. Flagler developed the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine in 1888, and began expanding his Florida East Coast Railway down Florida's Atlantic Coast.
His railroad reached Palm Beach in 1894 and the first hotel he built was the 1,100 room Royal Poinciana Hotel on the shore of Lake Worth. When completed it was the largest wooden structure in the world.