The estate has been his primary residence since Mar-a-Lago was built for the businesswoman and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post between and , during the Florida land boom. At the time of her death in , Post bequeathed the property to the National Park Service , [ 6 ] hoping it could be used for state visits or as a Winter White House. However, 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 act of Congress on 23 December In , Donald Trump, primarily a businessman and real estate investor at the time, acquired Mar-a-Lago and used it as a residence.
In , 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 closed-off area on the grounds. Since , Trump has designated the estate as his primary residence. The name Mar-a-Lago means "sea to lake" in Spanish, [ 11 ] reflecting the fact that the estate extends from one end of Palm Beach Island to the other, touching the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Lake Worth Lagoon on the west.
During the s Florida land boom , Marjorie Merriweather Post , heiress to the Post Cereals business and later the wealthiest woman in the United States, [ 13 ] [ 14 ] paid for the house to be built with her husband Edward F.
She hired Marion Sims Wyeth as designer and Joseph Urban for interior design and exterior decorations. It was finished in Hutton and Post regularly used Mar-a-Lago as their winter residence, typically staying from mid January to late March.
Post hosted dinner parties, charity events, concerts, costume balls , and a circus. In , Hutton and Post divorced. Post married the Washington lawyer Joseph E. Davies , who was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union. Mar-a-Lago was closed for five seasons.
