Mar-a-Lago Estate, Palm Beach FL

Mar-a-Lago is one of America’s most elaborate 20th century mansions. The site, the style, and a large amount of the decor was personally chosen by Marjorie Merriweather Post (then Mrs. Edward F. Hutton), who had the house built. After searching the area south of Worth Avenue for many months with her agent, Lytle Hull, Mrs. Post found a property which was suitable for the construction of the kind of residence she wanted. The property, overgrown with lush vegetation, consisted of approximately seventeen acres on a coral reef located between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth, The reef provided a firm base for the house which was anchored to it with concrete and steel, and has withstood hurricanes and heavy tropical storms over the years. The name Mar-a-Lago means between sea and lake.

Construction began in 1923, at a time when Addison Mizner was the rage in Palm Beach, creating tile-roofed palaces for wealthy patrons in a style inspired by the architecture of Spain. Mrs. Post, however, retained Marion Sims Wyeth, a graduate of Princeton and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, as her architect. Many of the ideas that went into the house were Mrs. Post’s. She had traveled extensively in Europe, visiting the palaces, estates, and great museums of the continent. She had seen many decorative motifs which she wished to adapt for her own residence and had acquired a collection of architectural remnants and fine furnishings which were incorporated in the house. It was her idea to bring together the Spanish, Venetian, and Portuguese styles into one harmonious and striking effect. Joseph Urban, noted among his many accomplishments as an interior designer, was chosen to oversee the interior decoration and carved ornamental stone work at the Mar-a-Lago estate. He was responsible for bringing his fellow Viennese, Franz Barwig and Barwig’s son Walter, to Palm Beach to execute the interior and exterior sculpture. Father and son worked nearly three years developing the various motifs, including the parrot, monkey, ram’s head, eagle, and griffin figures which adorn the outside and cloister walls and for which the residence is so famous. Their modeling shop, where much of the carving and casting was done, stood near the present entrance to the beach tunnel. The original plaster models are still stored on the premises.((Mar-a-Lago, 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, FL ))

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Mar-A-Lago is a sprawling Mediterranean-style villa adapted from the Hispano-Moresque style, which was so popular in Palm Beach at the time. It has a two-story central block with family quarters and service areas in one story subsidiary wings and buildings. This arrangement was chosen by Mrs. Post to keep the main house from appearing too massive and to separate the family and service areas from those used for entertaining.

General Description

The ocean facade of the house is rectangular, while on the west side a crescent-shaped arc lined with double cloisters faces Lake Worth. Sheltered in the crescent is a round patio paved with surf-polished stones discovered by Mrs. Post along the beaches of her Long Island hunting preserve at Great South Bay. Carloads of these black, white, yellow, and multicolored stones were shipped to Mar-a-Lago and laid in the pattern of a couryard Mrs. Post had seen at the Alhambra in Spain. The house is topped by a seventy-five foot, tile-roofed tower containing bedrooms and baths and an observation deck commanding a view of Palm Beach for miles around.

Stretching from the house down to Lake Worth are the landscaped grounds including a nine-hole golf course. At one time Mrs. Post brought the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus to the estate to give a benefit show, and the tents were pitched on this spacious lawn.

The main entrance to the house is through a large gate and coconut palm-lined drive on the Atlantic Ocean side. A stone path and tunnel pass under South Ocean Boulevard to the ocean beach where a private pool and cabanas once served Mrs. Post and her guests. Joseph Urban’s Bath and Tennis Club is also accessible through this tunnel.

The grounds are beautifully landscaped with tropical vegetation and flowers. Potted plants and flowers also profusely adorn the patio and loggias. A citrus grove, greenhouses, a cutting garden, guest houses, and staff quarters are also on the estate. Colored lights in the trees and lanterns in the cloisters accentuate the architecture and foliage at night.

Mar-a-Lago Club

The estate has been completely restored and modernized into the Mar-a-Lago Club with 126 rooms, owned by Donald Trump who acquired the property in 1985 for $10 million. He lived there with his family for ten years and still maintains a private residence there. New facilities have been added for dining and wedding receptions. Outbuildings have been converted into guest suites and bungalows.

The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and the mansion declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980. The landscape is also preserved with an easement granted to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

NEXT: Mar-a-Lago Structure and Materials

Completed

1927

Mar-a-Lago	Spanish Revival Style
1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach FL
National Historic Landmark & National Register of Historic Places (1980)	Private Club