Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Presidents in Sunshine State of mind
Trump is not first chief executive to retreat to Florida
Before breakfast-cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post died in 1973, she willed her sprawling Palm Beach villa to the federal government for use as a winter White House.
She thought the lavish castle on the sand — built in the 1920s for $8 million and named Mar-a-Lago — would be a perfect escape for U.S. presidents and visiting world leaders.
But for years, no president showed any real interest. The estate stood vacant, its somewhat reluctant owner left to foot an annual maintenance bill estimated at $1 million. Efforts to return Mar-a-Lago to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation were unsuccessful until 1980.
Donald Trump snagged the 100-plus-room resort five years later after some shrewd negotiating. And now, Post’s vision has become a reality.
Days before his inauguration, Trump officially declared Mar-a-Lago his winter White House.
Trump first laid eyes on the property while vacationing in Palm Beach in 1982. The estate featured a 75-foot-tall bell tower, a nine-hole golf course and a tunnel to the beach.
Almost immediately, Trump put in an offer for $15 million, which was promptly rejected, according to his book “The Art of the Deal.”
Over the next few years, offers from other buyers fell through. In 1985, Trump offered $5 million in cash plus $3 million for furnishings, he said.
A month later, the deal was done.
In 1995, after a decade of using the estate as a private residence, Trump turned the estate into a private club — with an initiation fee of $100,000.
After Trump’s election, the initiation fee doubled to $200,000. Annual membership dues are $14,000, CNBC reported.
Mar-a-Lago, which means “sea to lake” in Spanish, covers roughly 20 acres between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth.
It opened in 1927 after four years of construction that involved three boatloads of stone imported from Italy, 36,000 Spanish tiles dating to the 15th century and 2,200 square feet of marble from an old castle in Cuba.
“It must be driving the Secret Service crazy because it’s got enormous grounds,” said Paul George, resident historian at HistoryMiami Museum, comparing the property with other presidential retreats.
Trump isn’t the first president drawn to the warmth and water in the Sunshine State. Here’s a look at others who’ve retreated to Florida: 1946, Truman’s press secretary took reporters aboard a submarine for the first-ever underwater news conference, 20 miles south of Key West, 300 feet submerged.
Five other sitting and former presidents have sought respite in the building, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.