Henry Flagler, a billionaire partner of John D. Rockefeller, visited St. Augustine, Florida in 1883 and was at once captivated by its beauty and discouraged by the poor quality of its hotels and transportation facilities. So he decided to build a railway on the east coast of Florida, essentially completing it by 1912.

Click image to download a 29.3-MB PDF of this 48-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library, Tampa Bay History Center.

As the railway progressed south, he built a series of grand hotels, from the Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine to the Royal Palm in Miami. Together, the hotels and Florida East Coast Railway were known as the Flagler System.

This booklet describes the hotels, scenery, recreation opportunities, and other features of Florida’s east coast, from St. Augustine to Key West. With a main line of just 522 miles, the Florida East Coast Railway didn’t go much north of Jacksonville. But other major railroads, including the Atlantic Coast Line, Louisville & Nashville, Seaboard Air Line, and Southern, all brought passengers to Jacksonville eager to visit Miami and other east coast cities developed by Flagler.