Mar-a-Lago
Mar-a-Lago (/ˌmɑːrəˈlɑːɡoʊ/; Spanish for 'Sea-to-Lake') is a resort and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida. Since 1985, it has been owned by former U.S. president Donald Trump, who resides on the premises.
This article is about the house and resort. For the Swiss village, see Miralago.Location
1100 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, Florida, United States
1924–1927
- Marion Sims Wyeth (exterior)
- Joseph Urban (interior)
December 23, 1980[3]
December 23, 1980[4]
Mar-a-Lago was built for the businesswoman and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post between 1924 and 1927, during the 1920s Florida land boom. At the time of her death in 1973, Post bequeathed the property to the National Park Service,[5] hoping it could be used for state visits or as a Winter White House, but because the costs of maintaining the property exceeded the funds provided by Post, and because it was difficult to secure the facility,[a] the property was returned to the Post Foundation by an act of Congress in 1981.[6]
In 1985, Donald J. Trump (primarily a businessman and real estate investor at the time) acquired Mar-a-Lago and used the 126-room, 62,500 sq ft (5,810 m2)[1] mansion (on 17 acres of land[2]) as a residence before 1994, when he converted it into the Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only club with guest rooms, a spa and other hotel-style amenities. The Trump family maintains private quarters in a separate, closed-off area of the house and grounds, marked by decorative dolphins.[7] During his tenure as President of the United States, President Trump frequently visited Mar-a-Lago[8] and hosted meetings with international leaders there, including Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese president Xi Jinping. Since 2019, Trump has designated the estate as his primary residence.
Origin of the name[edit]
Mar-a-Lago means "sea-to-lake" in Spanish,[9] referring to the fact that the resort extends the entire width of Palm Beach, from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Worth Lagoon, which forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
Architectural style, layout, and materials[edit]
Architecturally, the resort follows the style of Spanish Revival. The house is a sprawling Mediterranean-style villa that is an adaptation of the Hispano-Moresque style which was popular in Palm Beach at the time. It has a two-story central block with family quarters and service areas in lower 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. 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.[12]
Among the imported materials were the three boatloads of Doria stone from Genoa used for the exterior wall facing, some of the interiors, the arches, and the Barwig sculptures. This fossil-bearing limestone was chosen for its quality of rapid aging and its suitability for intricate carving. The roofing tiles, approximately 20,000 of them, and the 2,200 black and white marble floor blocks used came from a Cuban castle. Of particular interest is the vast number of antique Spanish tiles which are used lavishly in the entrance hall, patio, cloisters, and in some of the rooms. Mrs. Post acquired a collection of nearly 36,000 tiles that had been assembled in the 1880s by Mrs. Horace Havermeyer. These tiles date back to the 15th century. The collection of Spanish tiles at Mar-a-Lago is probably one of the largest in the world.[12]
The house has 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, a 29-foot-long (8.8 m) pietra dura marble-top dining table, 12 fireplaces, and three bomb shelters.
On April 18, 2012, members of the American Institute of Architects' Florida chapter ranked Mar-a-Lago fifth on the Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places list.[40]
Legal issues[edit]
Hurricane insurance claim[edit]
Trump received a $17 million insurance payment for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago after the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, for damage to the "landscaping, roofing, walls, painting, leaks, artwork in the tapestries, tiles, Spanish tiles, the beach, the erosion", as he described. Anthony Senecal, a former mayor and[87] Trump's former butler at the resort and later its "in-house historian" said some trees behind the resort had been flattened and some roof tiles were lost, but "That house has never been seriously damaged. I was there for all [the hurricanes]."[88]
American flag litigation[edit]
On October 3, 2006, Trump raised a 20-by-30-foot (6.1 by 9.1 m) American flag on an 80-foot (24 m) flagpole at Mar-a-Lago. Town zoning officials asked Trump to adhere to town zoning codes that limit flagpoles to a height of 42 feet (13 m).[89] This dispute led the town council of Palm Beach to charge Trump $1,250 for every day the flag stayed up. Trump filed a lawsuit against the Town of Palm Beach. He eventually dropped his lawsuit over the flag, and in exchange the town waived its fines.[90] As part of a court-ordered mediation, Trump was allowed to file for a permit and keep a pole that was both 10 feet (3.0 m) shorter than the original pole and located on a different spot on his lawn. The agreement also required him to donate $100,000 to veterans' charities, and resulted in a change to town ordinances allowing out-of-town club members.[91]
Discrimination lawsuit[edit]
In 1993, Trump and the city of Palm Beach signed an agreement that allowed Trump to turn the residence into a private club.[92] In November 1996, Trump asked the Palm Beach council to lift the restrictions contained in the agreement that limited media photography, filmmaking, land sales, membership, and traffic at the club, and prevented him from applying for tax exemptions on the property for three years. The council denied the request. According to Vanity Fair, before the meeting "Trump and his attorney had already implied that he and his club had been discriminated against because many of its members were Jewish, and, worse, that the council members who had placed the conditions on him had not placed those restrictions on their own clubs."[18] In December 1997, Trump filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleging that the town discriminated against him and his club because the club accepted Jewish and African-American members[93] and because town officials had financial stakes in competing clubs.[94]
Aviation litigation[edit]
Trump has repeatedly filed lawsuits against Palm Beach County over aircraft going to and from Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) allegedly affecting Mar-a-Lago.[95]
Trump first filed such a lawsuit in 1995; that action was settled in 1996, with the county agreeing to collaborate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and to change flight patterns so the noisiest jet aircraft flew over a wider area.[95] As part of the settlement, Trump leased 215 acres from the county, on which he built the 18-hole Trump International Golf Club.[18] In July 2010, Trump filed another lawsuit aiming to stop the airport from constructing a second commercial runway.[96] That suit was dismissed.[95]
Trump filed a third suit against the county in January 2015, seeking $100 million in damages for "creating an unreasonable amount of noise, emissions and pollutants at Mar-a-Lago".[95] Trump claims that officials pressured the FAA to direct air traffic to PBI over Mar-a-Lago in a "deliberate and malicious" act.[97]
In November 2015, a Florida Circuit Court judge ruled against most of Trump's arguments, dismissing four of the six claims and allowing the others to proceed.[95] Trump dropped the lawsuit after winning the presidency, as the estate would likely have a no-fly zone imposed by the FAA.[98][18] In January 2017, Palm Beach exempted Mar-a-Lago from a ban on landing helicopters on residential properties while Trump was president, including his own fleet and Marine One.[99]