Jenny Flagler

SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC FLAGLER MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

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A Father's Memorial to His Daughter

The 120-foot copper dome topped by an elegantly fashioned Greek cross is a unique part of St. Augustine’s skyline. Memorial Presbyterian Church was dedicated March 16, 1890, in memory of Jennie Louise Flagler Benedict, the daughter of Standard Oil magnate Henry Morrison Flagler. Flagler’s beloved daughter died March 25, 1889, of complications following childbirth. The infant Margery had lived only hours after delivery on February 9 and Flagler’s joy at the expectation of a grandchild was dashed by the death of both mother and child. Today the church he named in her memory attracts visitors with its stately appearance and unique architectural elements. And it raises questions.

The decision to memorialize his daughter was an immediate reaction to her death. Certainly the construction of a meaningful monument was not a surprising response. When Flagler’s first wife, Mary Harkness Flagler, the mother of their three children, died in 1881, his choice of a memorial to her was an impressive monument in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. His extravagance was praised in her hometown newspaper of Bellevue, Ohio.

      H.M. Flagler, of the Standard Oil Company, has just erected a large and expensive monument over his wife’s grave in Woodlawn Cemetery..  He has expended for his lot and monument some $50,000.  The monument is circular in form, 26 feet in diameter, and rising to a height of about 40 feet.  Artistic carving adorns it from the third base to the top which is dome-shaped, and surmounted by a small cross.

Why, then, did he choose a church as a memorial to his daughter instead of a more traditional monument such as that chosen for Mary? Why build a Presbyterian sanctuary of ornate and exotic architectural style rather than a simpler church in keeping with the typical Protestant structure in America? And why build it in St. Augustine rather than in New York where she, her baby and her mother were buried?

Perhaps it can be seen as a meaningful gesture by this son of a Presbyterian minister to build a church in his daughter’s memory of that religious persuasion. But Flagler’s decision to build a church on such a grand scale for St. Augustine’s Presbyterians came as a shock to the congregation numbering only about 40 in 1889. It still elicits a reaction of disbelief from most Protestants visiting the elaborate building.. Indeed, it is the only church of the Presbyterian denomination like it in the world. It is, for that matter, unique to the United States in its Venetian Renaissance style of architecture and its departure from the American-Gothic tradition of United States churches built in the 1800s.

After the dedication of the building on March 16, 1890, Flagler formally turned the sanctuary and related properties over to the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church of St. Augustine. The Indenture signed April 4, 1890, noted:

whereas said Henry M. Flagler has recently lost by death a beloved daughter and in affectionate remembrance of her has been desirous of erecting some worthy monument to her Memory and believing that nothing should be more accordant with her known wishes and the tenor of her life on earth than that such Memorial should be a temple devoted  to the worship of God and the teaching of that living faith in which she lived and died has erected in the City of St. Augustine a church edifice in loving commemoration of her spotless life, her virtues and her Christian devotion to be known as the ‘Memorial Church which he desires to be dedicated to the service of God, and the inculcation of his truth according to the Presbyterian faith and made of government and Worship.

Even with the understandable motivation to memorialize his daughter in a way befitting of her Christian devotion, Flagler’s decision remains somewhat mysterious. Jennie Louise was married and living in New York with her husband Frederick Hart Benedict while her father ambitiously embarked on his project of building the “Newport of the South.” Her first marriage to John Arthur Hinckley had ended in divorce on the grounds of adultery after eleven years of marriage, but with no children. She married for the second time on October 6, 1887, just a few short months before the January 1888 opening of the spectacular Ponce de Leon Hotel.

During the 1889 season Flagler, along with his second wife, Ida Alice, was enjoying the success of the developing resort town. Flagler was 53 when he married the 35-year-old Ida Alice, a vivacious red-head.

It was on their honeymoon trip to Florida December 1883 to March 1884 that Flagler conceived the notion of turning St. Augustine into a winter paradise for the wealthy. His plan quickly became a reality as he set forth to build luxury hotels. It was in this environment in 1889 with the Ponce de Leon, Alcazar and Cordova hotels attracting attention that tragedy marred his contentment.

Flagler was awaiting news of the birth of Jennie Louise’s first child when he was told the baby had died only a few hours after birth. The death of the infant Margery was heartbreaking and the ensuing illness of his daughter would have brought chills to the heart of the doting father.

As Jennie Louise grew weaker her doctor recommend she be taken to Florida in the hopes she would regain her strength. On board her father-in-law’s yacht, the Oneida for the trip south, she was accompanied by her husband, Frederick Hart Benedict, and her 18-year-old brother, Harry.

Henry Flagler was in Charleston to meet the Oneida and was at the harbor when the Oneida arrived, its flag at half mast. Jennie Louise had died at sea. His reaction was an emotional one for the normally stoic businessman.

Flagler probably attended church services at the small First Presbyterian Church on St. George Street, but no records are available to prove that he did and biographers never mention that he and Ida Alice attended church services, although Ida Alice was the child of an Episcopal minister. The couple was married in a Methodist church and little more is said of any religious affiliation on her part.

           When Flagler began his St. Augustine project he chose two young architects, Thomas Hastings and John Carrère.  Although both showed great potential they lacked professional experience.  Hastings was the son of the Reverend Thomas S. Hastings the pastor of West Presbyterian Church which Flagler attended in Manhattan and his longtime friend. 

John Carrère and Hastings met while both were studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The latter, born and schooled in Manhattan, brought with him the sophistication of exposure to large architectural firms in the city. Carrère added a cosmopolitan flair to the partnership. Born in Rio de Janeiro to a French family from Baltimore his credentials included studies with renowned French architects including Victor Robert, Jean Charles Laisné and Léon Ginain. Each joined the prestigious New York firm of McKim, Mead, and White and found they worked well together. Carrère excelled in organization and management and Hastings in draftsmanship and design. The two young men were working in a small back room of the McKim firm when Flagler offered them the plum job envisioned for St. Augustine. What the architects lacked in experience they replaced with enthusiasm and imagination as they designed first the Ponce de Leon Hotel, and then the Alcazar. After work on the Santa Monica Hotel they turned to Flagler’s next project, a Presbyterian church.
The resulting sanctuary defies simple explanation. The architectural style is called Venetian Renaissance with a dome somewhat similar to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice and two front doors to the south and east façades. The south entry consists of three Venetian arches supported by red terra cotta Ionic pillars. Above this spans a Roman arch with accents of a rose window below and a decorative mandorla above. This appears to be the principal entrance to the church, but it is not. The doorway through which one walks toward the chancel area is on the east side. The Greek cross form of equal transepts (arguably called a Latin cross due to the feeling of additional length provided by a chapel to the north) actually provides manageable entry and seating from either side. All ceremonial processions including weddings and funerals are conducted from the east entrance.
The dome rising almost 100 feet from the center of the transept draws the eye up and is said by some to provide a feeling of awe akin to the sensation of stepping into a great cathedral. The church exhibits elements of many religions: the cherubs on the rood screen in front of the choir; the round Buddha-shaped forms were fashioned by German woodcarvers from Bavaria; the pattern of the Sienna marble floor tiles, occasionally mistaken for the Nazi swastika-style design although its meaning of peace lies in the Hindu religion and is often repeated in Hopi Indian designs. Although added later, Yahweh, the Hebrew word for God, appears in the dome. The church is an architectural and theological hybrid.
There is no doubt Flagler kept in close touch with the architects and builders as was his practice with all his projects. Even after the 1890 dedication he maintained a close watch over the building. When the stained glass windows were installed in 1902 Flagler’s friends corresponded. Dr. Andrew Anderson and the Reverend James Nowry MacGonigle were coordinating the project.
Letters in 1903 show his concern over a wooden screen. He wrote to the contractor, James A. McGuire, “The Rood screen at the south end of the Memorial church destroys the effect of the rose window; I saw Mr. Carrère yesterday morning with regard to a removal of the screen, and the construction of a sort of battlement, say 2’ high, above the gallery floor. And later, “When you take the screen down, I wish you would put it away carefully, as it is a piece of fine work and may come in hand sometime somewhere.”
Author and architectural historian Jean Pierre Isbouts noted:
Flagler was a man to be very much involved with the appearance of the church that would keep the memory of his name, and perhaps it was he, who dictated the strange mixture of elements, possibly observed during travels in Europe. Or is it indeed the youthful elation by the prospect of creating an eclectic ensemble in a major commission, which carried Hastings’ imagination beyond the restraint of a rational mind.
Completed in 1906 the mausoleum containing the remains of Jennie Louise Benedict holding the infant Margery and of Henry and Mary Harkness Flagler is of different design. Designed by Carrère and Hastings, the contrasts with the church are apparent in the lighter stone coloration, a consistency achieved from a mixture of sand and shell and in the circular shape surrounded by ionic columns.. The structure and the church is connected by a hallway with bronze gates separating the tombs from the sanctuary.