First lady Melania Trump might be one of the few not overly awed by a marble-bedecked and gold-plated Gilded Age mansion that she and her Japanese counterpart toured Wednesday. While President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe golfed at the president’s nearby country club, their
First lady Melania Trump might be one of the few not overly awed by a marble-bedecked and gold-plated Gilded Age mansion that she and her Japanese counterpart toured Wednesday.
While President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe golfed at the president’s nearby country club, their wives visited Whitehall, the 75-room, 100,000-square-foot (9,290-square meter) waterside retreat that oil and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler built as a wedding present for his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The Flaglers wintered there beginning in 1902, and it is now the centerpiece of the Flagler Museum.
Arriving in a motorcade from Mar-a-Lago, the president’s own gold-plated mansion 3 miles (5 kilometers) away, Melania Trump and Akie Abe were greeted by Flagler’s great grandson William Matthews, and museum Executive Director Erin Manning, who led them through a tour of the home, which historians say cost $4 million ($110 million today) to build.
