Tony Palm Beach boasts quite a few distinguished building and palatial estates, but none is currently more famous (or notorious?) than this 17-acre spread on a barrier island built  between 1924 and 1927 as the winter residence of successful businesswoman and leading society figure Marjorie Merriweather Post. A Mediterranean-Revival-style National Historic Landmark nestled on a barrier island in Palm Beach, Florida, it was acquired in 1985 by a businessman and real estate investor named Donald Trump, who used it as one of his residences. Ten years later it was converted it into the Mar-a-Lago Club, an exclusive members-only institution with 126 guestrooms, a spa and other hotel-style amenities, and also available for events rental. And when they are there, members of the president´s family stay in private quarters nestled in a closed-off area of the grounds. 

During his first term, the president visited Mar-a-Lago frequently and held meetings there with international leaders like Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese president Xi Jinping, and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. During the current presidency, it has similarly been a hive of Republican Party power players for fundraising, lobbying, and strategizing. 

The name Mar-a-Lago means "sea-to-lake" in Spanish, referring to the fact that the estate extends from one side of Palm Beach Island to the other, touching the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Lake Worth Lagoon on the west. 

Post, who died in 1973, willed the estate to the United States government to serve as a Winter White House for presidents and visiting foreign dignitaries, but most of them preferred other residences, and the property was returned to the Post Foundation because its upkeep proved too expensive. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980 because it exemplified "the baronial way of life of the wealthy who built mansions in Florida during the Florida land boom of the 1920s" and provides "an excellent picture of winter resort life in Palm Beach prior to the Depression.”

Read more in Tripatini contributor Victor Block´s post Palm Beach, Florida and Mar-a-Lago, the USA´s Current "Presidential Palace."

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