Vintage photos of Mar-a-Lago captured the beautiful Florida estate before Donald Trump made it his home base.
Before the former president purchased the historic landmark in 1985, it was owned by America’s richest woman.
Marjorie Merriweather Post gained her wealth through her father’s grain fortune. She inherited the $20 million Post Cereal Company when he died in 1914, Business insider reported.
Post spent years searching for the best location for Mar-a-Lago, which means “Sea to Lake” in Spanish, because she wanted it to be perfectly situated between the ocean and nearby Lake Worth, according to Mara-a-Lago’s website Lago.
The heiress had the Palm Beach estate built between 1924 and 1927. She and her husband, E.F. Hutton, hired architect Marion Sims Wyeth to execute the extensive project.
A well-decorated hallway at Mar-a-Lago in 1967, owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post
The exterior of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate pictured in 2022, 37 years after he bought it
Now the property is located at 1100 South Ocean Boulevard. But when it was first built, it was surrounded by swampland.
Post continued to own Mar-a-Lago after she and her husband divorced in 1935.
She hosted charity balls, dinners and dances at the famous estate, Business Insider reported.
The Mediterranean-style villa had 114 rooms, packed with beautiful details from Italy, Spain, France and Cuba, among others.
It was located on approximately 20 hectares of land.
Although Post only stayed at the property for a few months each year – as she also had estates in Washington, DC and Upstate New York – each room was decorated with unique and expensive elements.
An arch on the estate was made of Doric stone with pieces of shells and fossils from Genoa, Italy
A spiral staircase in the villa. Marion Sims Wyeth was the architect who designed the building
“The architecture, sculpture, planning and craftsmanship that went into this beautiful estate could not be duplicated today,” according to Mar-a-Lago’s website.
Outside Mar-a-Lago, which Post used as a winter home, were Doric stone arches with bits of shells and fossils from Genoa, Italy.
Other external features and some accents in the villa are made of the same material.
As seen in photos from 1967, the side of the house facing Lake Worth had a curved shape with stairs on either side.
Monasteries were filled with well-tended plants and greenery.
It was built to be hurricane-proof, with concrete and steel anchors anchoring it to a coral reef.
The hall leading guests from the main entrance was decorated with star-shaped lighting fixtures and intricate carvings and artwork by Australian sculptor Franz Barwig.
About 36,000 Spanish tiles – some dating back to the 15th century – were on display throughout the interior of Mar-a-Lago.
The exterior of Mar-a-Lago, overlooking the lake, is designed to be curved with two staircases
The Mediterranean-style villa was decorated on the outside with plants, trees and other greenery
The opulent living room had a golden ceiling, a reference to the Thousand-Winged Ceiling of the Accademia in Venice, according to The Palm Beach Post.
Large chandeliers and lamps lit the room, filled with elegant furniture and wall designs.
The black and white tiles of the dining room come from a Cuban castle. The room itself mirrored the dining room in the Palazzo Chigi in Rome.
Thirty people could sit down for a meal at the long, rectangular table made of semi-precious stones.
There was an entire room dedicated to Venetian glasses, mirrors and candlesticks.
Star-shaped lighting fixtures and wall carvings were the distinguishing features of the house’s entrance
Plants and seating areas filled the cloisters in the curved part of the house
As you can imagine, Post’s bedroom and adjacent dressing rooms were nothing short of glamorous, with marble accents, a fireplace, and carved wood furniture.
In 1961, Post added a dance floor to the venue for square dancing parties. Originally from Illinois, she loved square dancing her entire life, Business Insider reports.
Mar-a-Lago was designated a National Historic Site in 1969.
Post died in 1973 with a fortune of $250 million, or $1.8 million today according to Business Insider.
She left Mar-a-Lago to the US government to use as a residence for presidents, but the government returned the property to the Post Foundation after ten years because it was too expensive to maintain.
Some items from the original house, including the dining table and several 18th-century French works of art, are now displayed at Post’s Hillwood Estate in Washington, DC.
Trump was accused of mishandling government documents after Mar-a-Lago was raided in 2022
An aerial view of Mar-a-Lago from 2022. The estate has been converted into a club where members can enjoy amenities or host events
Trump swooped in and bought the property in 1985. Ten years later, he opened it to the public as a members club where people could enjoy the beach, a pool, a salon, a spa and tennis courts.
He also began offering Mar-a-Lago as an event space for weddings and other extravagant events.
He tried to make the property as similar to Post’s version as possible and restored it to how it looked when she lived there, according to Business Insider.
“It is the last remaining estate in Palm Beach, still retaining the buildings and grounds in virtually identical form to the original design,” the website states.
The ballroom was modernized and the golf course was ‘brought back to life’.
The billiard room at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Trump tried to keep the building as similar to Post’s version as possible
The gold ceilings and wall details of Post’s original design could still be seen in the living room of Mar-a-Lago in 2000
In 2022, Mar-a-Lago was raided by the FBI. During the raid, agents obtained hundreds of classified documents, leading to Trump being accused of mishandling government documents.
Trump’s legal team argued that the Mar-a-Lago raid was unconstitutional.
Last month, law enforcement swarmed the area for a very different reason.
A second assassination attempt was made on Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach, just five miles away from the property.