HarryTruman
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 WhiteHouse.
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 forU.S. presidents and visitingworld 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 declaredMarhis winter WhiteHouse.
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 fromother buyers fell through. In 1985, Trump offered $5 million in cash plus $3 million for furnishings, he said.
A month later, was done.
In 1995, after a decade of using the estate as a private residence, Trump turned the deal 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 LakeWorth.
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 HistoryMiamiMuseum, comparing the property with other presidential retreats.
Trumpisn’t the firstpresident drawn to the warmth and water in the Sunshine State. Here’s a look at others who’ve retreated to Florida:
After a difficult 18 months on the job, Truman came downwith a cough he couldn’t kick.
His doctor suggested he travel somewhere warm to recover.
Truman ended up at a residence for naval officers in KeyWest and fell in love with Florida.
During his presidency, he spent 175 days— most in the fall and spring — in what’s now known as the Little WhiteHouse.
During that first trip in