became West Palm Beach. He then hired the firm McGuire and McDonald to construct the Royal Poinciana Hotel, while it is believed that the latter (Joseph McDonald of St. Augustine) designed the building. Ground was broken on May 1, 1893. According to the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, the construction of the Royal Poinciana Hotel required approximately 1,000 workers and "1,400 kegs of nails, 360,000 shingles, 500,000 bricks, of lumber, 2,400 gallons [9,085 litres] of paint, 4,000 barrels of lime, 1,200 windows, and 1,800 doors, among other materials". Also on that day, Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick, Uriah D. Hendrickson, and Edmund M. and John H. Brelsford founded the Dade County State Bank, the area's first bank, located near the Lake Worth Lagoon and just south of the modern-day Royal Poinciana Way. Flagler used this bank to monetarily compensate the workforce constructing the Royal Poinciana Hotel. Additionally, Flagler initially leased the entirety of the Cocoanut Grove House as a means of providing residential quarters for the construction workers. However, a fire destroyed the Cocoanut Grove House in October 1893. Consequently, two camps then sprang up, one for white workers at the present-day site of Seaview Avenue and another for black workers, called "the Styx", where Sunset and Sunrise avenues intersect North County Road today. Early years The hotel opened on February 11, 1894, initially with 540 rooms, ranging in price from $6 to $100 per night. Although the grand opening saw the arrival of only 17 guests, the FEC began serving West Palm Beach on April 2 of that year. Also during its first year, the houseboat St. Augustine served as a ferry which transported guests from a wharf in West Palm Beach to Palm Beach, as no bridge existed across Lake Worth. However, by 1895, Flagler constructed a railroad bridge, just south of where he later built Whitehall, allowing guests to arrive directly at the hotel's entrance. During the second season – defined in early years as January through April and later as mid-December to late February (after Flagler's annual George Washington Ball held at Whitehall, his 1902 mansion) – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in March 1895 that the Royal Poinciana Hotel records logged between 900 and 1,000 guests, which contributed to Flagler's decision to open another hotel nearby in 1896. This oceanfront hotel was originally called The Palm Beach Inn and later renamed The Breakers in 1901 because