JAMES PONCE

A  LIVING LANDMARK

James Augustine Ponce, born in St. Augustine, comes from America’s oldest documented family, Spanish settlers named Salano, and claims a family link to the brother of explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. 

His lifelong link to Henry Morrison Flagler dates back to his childhood days in St. Augustine, when he would play on the horse-drawn funeral carriage that, in 1913, had carried Flagler to his grave.  And that’s because Ponce’s father was Henry Flagler’s undertaker.   

The cottage behind Ponce’s West Palm Beach home features lumber and windows from Palm Beach’s old Royal Poinciana Hotel, which was the largest wooden building in the world in 1900.  It was torn down in the mid-1930’s.

James Ponce loves Palm Beach and Palm Beach loves James Ponce.  As a matter of fact, in 1996, the town council named him Palm Beach’s only Two-Legged Historical Monument.  I hope you will attend and enjoy this wonderful storyteller September 19 at the Boca Country Club.