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Marjorie Merriweather Post built Mar-a-Lago in 1927 as her winter home in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Donald Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago in 1985. It served as his “Winter White House” during his presidency.
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The Mediterranean-style villa has 114 rooms and grounds of almost 8 hectares.
Before former President Donald Trump became the owner of Mar-a-Lago, it was owned by the richest woman in the United States.
Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to her father’s Post cereal fortune, built the Palm Beach, Florida, estate as her winter home. Construction began in 1924 and was completed in 1927, making Mar-a-Lago nearly 100 years old.
The rest of the year, she split her time between Hillwood Estate, a 25,000-square-foot mansion in Washington, D.C., and Camp Topridge in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York.
These vintage photos show what Mar-a-Lago looked like when Post lived there.
Mar-a-Lago was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was known as the richest woman in the US.
Post inherited her father’s estate $20 million Postum Cereal Company after his death in 1914. She helped expand the company into the General Foods Corporation and served on its board of directors—one of the first women in the U.S. to hold such a position.
When she died in 1973, Post’s fortune was approximately $250 million, or Adjusted for inflation, this now amounts to about $1.8 billion.
Post and her then-husband E.F. Hutton hired architect Marion Sims Wyeth to design the 114-room Mediterranean-style villa.
According to Mar-a-Lago’s official website, Post and Hutton spent years searching for the perfect building site. When they purchased what is now 1100 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, the lot consisted of nothing more than swampland and thick brush.
The nearly 50-acre estate is located between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth and they named it “Mar-a-Lago,” which means “from sea to lake” in Spanish.
Post and Hutton divorced in 1935, but Mar-a-Lago remained Post’s winter getaway, hosting charity parties, dignitary dinners and her famous square dances.
Doric stone from Genoa, Italy, was imported to build the arches, exterior, and parts of the interior of the house.
According to the Mar-a-Lago website, the stones contain small shells and fossils.
Guests entered the main building through a wrought iron door with glass grille, which opened into a richly decorated hall.
The hall contained sculptures by the Austrian sculptor Franz Barwig.
Post incorporated 36,000 old Spanish tiles throughout the house, including some dating back to the 15th century.
The carved doors in the hall gave access to the living room.
In the living room, Venetian silk panels and carved arches added to the room’s splendor.
The gold ceiling in the living room was inspired by the Thousand-Wing Ceiling of the Accademia in Venice, reports The Palm Beach Post.
The black and white marble floor in the dining room comes from a Cuban castle.
The dining room’s design is based on the dining room in Rome’s Palazzo Chigi, The Palm Beach Post reports.
The dining table, filled with 11 semi-precious stones, could seat 30 people.
The table is now on display at Post’s Hillwood Estate in Washington, DC. Unlike Mar-a-Lago, which functions as Trump’s private residence and club, Hillwood is a museum open to the public.
In the Venetian Hall, Post exhibited pieces of Venetian glass, including mirrors and a chandelier.
Post’s Hillwood Estate also featured spaces showcasing her art collections from 18th-century France and Imperial Russia.
Post slept in a bedroom decorated with decorative wall panels and carved wood furniture.
Despite the beautiful decor, Post spent only a few months each year at Mar-a-Lago.
The adjoining dressing room had a fireplace and a sunken sink.
Post used her dressing room in the morning to do paperwork.
The side of the house facing Lake Worth was shaped like a half moon.
The front facade consisted of two monastery floors.
The cloisters were provided with plants and seating to take full advantage of Florida’s warm winter weather.
Mar-a-Lago is built to withstand hurricanes with concrete and steel anchors that secure it to a coral reef.
In 1961, Post again commissioned Wyeth to add a pavilion with a dance floor for her square dancing parties.
Post grew up in Illinois and maintained a lifelong love for this Midwestern hobby.
Post bequeathed Mar-a-Lago to the U.S. government for use as a presidential retreat, but it proved too expensive to maintain.
After 10 years, the government transferred ownership of the property to the Post Foundation.
Post’s wish eventually came true when Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for about $10 million and spent time there during his presidency.
Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump, restored Mar-a-Lago to how it looked when Post lived there. Trump also founded the Mar-a-Lago Club in 1995, which offered beach and pool facilities as well as event space for weddings and galas.
Mar-a-Lago remains in the news as the site of a 2022 FBI raid into classified documents that federal prosecutors allege Trump illegally stored at his residence after leaving the White House. Trump was indicted by the Justice Department on 37 criminal charges, including 31 alleged violations of the Espionage Act. A Trump-appointed judge dismissed the charges in July, and Trump plans to sue the Justice Department for $100 million.
The valuation of Mar-a-Lago has also been a point of contention in Trump’s civil fraud case. In February, a judge ruled that Trump committed fraud by falsely inflating the valuations of his properties, including Mar-a-Lago, to defraud banks and insurers and ordered him to pay a $355 million fine. Trump has appealed the ruling.
Read the original article on Business Insider
