The Backstory: The Glamorous Ghost of Mar-a-Lago

Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s long-time property in Palm Beach, gets a lot of press these days. But it’s an architectural marvel. The thing is, its past is way more glittering than its present. It was built in the roaring 1920s by a young woman who was, for most of her life, the richest woman in America. This is about where her money came from and how she spent it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As you well know, we constantly hear about mar A Lago,
President Trump's home in Palm Beach, Florida. It's filled with
big names and big money, but its history was even
more opulent than it is now. Mar A Lago was
built in the boom Boom roaring nineteen twenties by Marjorie
Merriweather Post, known for most of her life as the

(00:21):
richest woman in America. I'm Patty Steele. Where did she
get all that money and what did she do with it?
That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory.
So imagine your father dies when you're just twenty seven
years old. You're his only child, and you inherit a

(00:43):
fortune that makes you the richest woman in America. Where
did Marjorie Merriweather Post's money come from? Her father was CW. Post.
He started a number of businesses as a young guy
in the eighteen seventies, but he also had anxiety issues
as well as stomach prompt After two mental breakdowns in
the late eighteen eighties and early nineties, he started to

(01:05):
search for a cure, especially looking at nutrition. CW checked
himself into the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan,
which was run by one of the Kellogg brothers of
Kellogg's cereal fame. Suddenly CW had a new business idea,
but he seems to have pulled a few shady stunts

(01:26):
to get it underway. Word is CW. Post may have
stolen some of the Kellogg's cereal formulations to get his
business going, including cornflakes which he called Post toasties, and
malted nuts which he called grape nuts, better known now
than malted nuts. It was the beginning of general foods.

(01:46):
He was making a fortune, but his health still wasn't good,
and after having just one baby, Marjorie in eighteen eighty
seven with his much neglected wife, he left her. Eventually,
in nineteen oh four he met married his twenty seven
year old secretary. Ten years later, still mentally and physically ill, CW.

(02:07):
Post committed suicide. Marjorie, at twenty seven, inherited most of
his fortune. She also inherited his business acumen. Marjorie continued
to grow the business and the fortune exponentially for the
rest of her life, as did her daughter, the actress
Deina Merrill, who died in twenty seventeen with a net
worth of five billion dollars. But let's go back to

(02:30):
nineteen twenty three. There was a tremendous land boom in
Florida and Marjorie Meriwether Post, thirty six years old at
the time and married to her second husband E. F.
Hutton of Wall Street Investment fame, decided she wanted to
build a house there. She traveled to the site with
her architect. It was in the early days of Palm
Beach development, and Marjorie literally crawled with him through thick

(02:54):
tropical underbrush to pick the perfect seventeen acre site for
her house. It took four years to build this massive
Spanish Revival style villa with red tile roofed stucco walls,
over one hundred rooms, and a seventy five foot tower.
She called it mar A Lago, which means sea to

(03:15):
lake in Spanish, since it fronted the ocean on one
side and Lake Worth on the other. Mar A Lago
cost Marjorie a crazy seven million dollars to build, which
today would equal a little over one hundred and thirty
million dollars. She didn't mind. She had the money to spare.
The landscaping on the seventeen acre estate was filled with

(03:37):
incredibly lush, semi tropical gardens, a nine hole golf course,
and a massive patio for the lavish parties she hosted.
Guests included European royalty as well as American tycoons from
families like the Vanderbilts and Hearsts. Inside the house there
was five hundred year old imported Spanish tile, also intricate

(03:59):
wood carvings and elaborate ironwork. And much like President Trump,
Marjorie had a taste for gold, so doors, ceilings, and
woodwork were heavily gilded. But the thing is a house
in Palm Beach wasn't a year round residence. Marjorie had
mansions on Long Island and Washington d C. An Adirondeck

(04:20):
summer home was sixty eight separate buildings on over two
hundred acres. Who was huge. The great room alone in
the main lodge was four thousand square feet one room.
She also had a fifty four room apartment in New
York City that was actually the city's first penthouse. And
oh yeah, she built what was the largest private sailing

(04:42):
yacht in the world, the four masted Sea Cloud, three
hundred and sixty feet long and filled with antiques, and artwork.
The Sea Cloud needed a crew of seventy two to
sail it, and now, almost ninety five years after she
was built, it's actually operating still as a luxury cruise ship.
But back to mar A Lago. Marjorie and husband Number

(05:06):
two If Hutton spent winters there to enjoy the nice weather.
She threw huge parties that even included circus performances, but
as frequently happens, the couple divorced just eight years after
the estate was finished. She immediately remarried, but for ten
years hardly visited mar A Lago, loaning it to the
government during World War II. Finally, in nineteen forty eight,

(05:30):
she reclaimed it and entertained lavishly there in season until
her death in nineteen seventy three at the age of
eighty six. What a life. Marjorie left mar A Lago
to the National Park Service, but even they couldn't afford
to maintain it. Finally, in nineteen eighty five, it was
sold to Donald Trump. In nineteen ninety four, due to

(05:53):
financial problems, Trump turned much of the sixty three thousand
square foot mansion and the grounds into a private club.
He and his family still have a private residence there,
but the days of Marjorie Merriweather posts are long gone.

(06:15):
Hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele. I would
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I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

(06:38):
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
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at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the

(06:59):
pieces of his history you didn't know you needed to know.