*From:* "Swisher, Skyler" <xxx@sunsentinel.com>
*Date:* April 18, 2018 at 10:30:53 AM EDT
*Subject:* *FLOTUS Pool report #1/ Flagler Museum April 18, 2018*

Pool is awaiting the arrival of first lady Melania Trump and Akie Abe, the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum in Palm Beach.

No remarks are expected from the first lady, a spokeswoman said.

In February 2017, Melania Trump and Akie Abe toured Palm Beach Countys Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens during the Japanese delegations first visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Here is some background on the museum, according to its website and an application submitted to the National Park Service.

The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum is a Palm Beach landmark on the Intracoastal Waterway a few miles from Mar-a-Lago.

The industrialist Henry Flagler built the 75-room, 100,000-square-foot mansion, Whitehall, for his much younger and third wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The couple used the home as a winter retreat from 1902 until Flagler's death in 1913, establishing Palm Beach as a Gilded Age destination for the wealthy.

Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the faade is marked by massive marble columns and topped with a red barrel tiled roof. The entryway was intended to be the grandest and largest of the Gilded Age with a 20-foot ceiling and seven varieties of marble.

Most of the first floors large rooms follow French decorative traditions of the 16th through the 18th centuries. The rest of the interior, primarily the second-floor bed chambers and guest rooms, were originally period rooms ranging in style from Louis XIV to Modern American.

A 1902 story that appeared in the New York Herald described Whitehall as, "More wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world..."

It cost about $4 million to build and furnish Whitehall at the beginning of the 20th century, which would equate to more than $100 million in today's dollars.

After building a fortune as one of the founders of Standard Oil, Flagler played an integral role in the development of Florida, building a railroad that spanned from Jacksonville to Key West as well as several hotels.

One of the highlights of the museum is Flagler's private railcar No. 91, which was restored and is exhibited in the museum's pavilion.

About 100,000 people visit the museum annually.

Skyler Swisher
Palm Beach County reporter
South Florida Sun Sentinel
(C) 954-xxx-xxxx
(O) 954-xxx-xxxx
Twitter: @SkylerSwisher

Sent from my iPhone


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