![]() ![]() The state of New York added some of Topridge’s acreage to a forest preserve but sold most of its 68 buildings to a private owner. She arranged to donate all three properties to government entities. ![]() The grand houses they built in the 1920s were seen as “white elephants,” Murray says, and were razed in the ’50s and ’60s.Įxcept that isn’t how Post saw Mar-a-Lago-or Hillwood, her estate in Washington, D.C., or Camp Topridge, her retreat in the Adirondacks. It was one of more than 20 charity events that were relocated from Mar-a-Lago or canceled after the president’s remarks on violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August.Īs the social seasons came and went, however, Palm Beach tastemakers’ tastes changed. In 1957, she opened Mar-a-Lago to the International Red Cross Ball, and the gala event has been held there many times since-but not this year. In 1944, she offered her grounds to World War II veterans who needed occupational therapy. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to perform for a charity fund-raiser, she invited underprivileged children to attend. But there was also noblesse oblige: In 1929, when she hired the Ringling Bros. The hosts wore costumes evoking the reign of Louis XVI. Hutton, had a few score guests over for dinner before the annual Everglades Costume Ball. That March, Post and her second husband, Edward F. All told, Post spent $7 million-somewhere north of $90 million today. Its 110,000 square feet glinted with gold leaf, Spanish tiles, Italian marble and Venetian silks. BuyĮven by Palm Beach standards, Mar-a-Lago was grandiose: 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms with gold-plated fixtures (easier to clean, Post believed), an 1,800-square-foot living room with 42-foot ceilings. This is a beautifully illustrated account of the three main homes of Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973), through the 1950s to 1970s. Living Artfully: At Home with Marjorie Merriweather Post (Mar-a-Lago means “Sea to Lake” in Spanish.) Construction began in 1923 and kept some 600 workers busy, even though, as Murray notes, “Florida entered the Depression earlier than the rest of the country.” The mistress ensured that her workers wouldn’t go hungry. Post herself explored the site of her future home, on 17 acres of scrub between Lake Worth and the Atlantic. ![]() ![]() The mansion dates to the 1920s, when Palm Beach’s wealthiest visitors were forsaking luxury hotels for their own digs, says Debi Murray, chief curator of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. A yellowing file card dated “February/March 1976” is taped to the cover: “Original Proposal for Disposition of Mar-a-Lago.” Her four husbands, her bountiful philanthropy, her megayacht, her grand balls, her jaw-dropping jewels-all are documented in the archives.Īnd then there’s a volume bound in still-handsome red leather. The files offer unusual glimpses of the girl who glued labels onto packages of Postum, the coffee substitute that made her family’s fortune, and of the woman who built the General Foods Corporation. They occupy 57 seldom-seen linear feet at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library and document the life of one of the most famous and consequential women of the 20th century. Marjorie Merriweather Post, shown here in 1942, allowed World War II veterans who needed occupational therapy to use the estate grounds.īut even extreme wealth has its limitations, as my visit to the Post Family Papers suggests. ![]()
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