Marjorie Merriweather Post and Mar-a-Lago
Some of these facts may surprise you!
Photo Credit: Town and Country
Issue #221 Friday Funday January 13, 2023
Over the past several years, we all have become more familiar with Mar-a-Lago, the estate and resort now owned by Donald J. Trump. But do you know the history of that property and its original owner, the once most wealthy American woman, Marjorie Meriweather Post?
The name “Mar-a-Lago” translates very loosely from Spanish as “sea to lake” because the property extends from the Atlantic Ocean to what was formerly known as Lake Worth. However, true native Spanish speakers remind us that the name should really be “De mar a lago” or “from sea to lake.”
So let’s explore the history of the property and how it is linked to the American cereal and food empire, General Foods.
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C.W. Post
Charles William (“C.W.”) Post was born in the mid-19th century in Springfield, Illinois. In 1874, he married Ella Meriweather, and together they had one child, a daughter they named Marjorie Meriweather Post. At the time, C.W. was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery. The stress he experienced from running large businesses caused him to have two mental breakdowns by 1891. He was particularly interested in finding a cure for his digestive ailments.
He visited the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, which was owned and operated by Dr. John Harvey Kellog, whose brother, Will Keith Kellog, founded the Kellog Cereal Company. C.W. Post had suffered from appendicitis and other digestive ailments for many years.
Dr. Kellog was a strong believer in healthy eating as part of the cure for digestive diseases and also perfected the processing of peanut butter which he gave to his patients who had lost their teeth as a source of protein.
C.W. is accused of stealing some of the recipes of J. H. Kellog and turning them into his own cereal products: Caramel Coffee Cereal (Post’s Postum), Cornflakes (Post Toasties), and Malted Nuts (Post Grape Nuts).
Even with healthier foods and successful surgery at the Rochester, Minnesota, clinic operated by brother doctors William Mayo and Charles Mayo, C.W. still suffered greatly from stomach pain.
On May 9, 1914, he was so despondent about his ongoing medical conditions that he killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot.
He was 59 years old and his only child, his daughter, Marjorie Meriweather Post, was 27 years old when she inherited his company and his vast fortune.
Marjorie Meriweather Post
Marjorie Meriweather Post became the owner of the Postum Cereal Company in 1914 after the death of her father.
Before her father’s death, in 1905, Marjorie married investment banker Edward Bennett Close and they had two daughters before divorcing in 1919. One of their daughters, Eleanor Post Close, also had a daughter, actress Glenn Close, who is Marjorie’s granddaughter.
In 1920, Marjorie married financier Edward Francis (“E.F.”) Hutton, and together they expanded the Post Cereal Company to include Birdseye Frozen Foods, Hellman’s Mayonnaise, Jell-O, Baker’s Chocolate, Maxwell House Coffee, and several others.
E.F. Hutton and M.M. Post had one child in 1923 before they divorced in 1935, a daughter named Nedenia Marjorie Hutton, an actress and model better known by her stage name, Dina Merrill.
In 1929, the network of companies was renamed General Foods.
Mar-a-Lago
Between 1924 and 1927, Marjorie Meriweather Post built an estate in southeast Floria near Palm Beach on land that is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth (now known as the Intracoastal Waterway). The cost to build the estate was about $100 million in today’s money.) She named the property Mar-a Lago (sea to lake), and it was only one of Post’s numerous luxurious homes and properties.
Just before her death in 1973, Marjorie Meriweather Post bequeathed the property to the United States National Park Service, hoping it would be used for state visits or as a Winter White House, but she did not leave enough funds for the upkeep of such a large and multi-use estate. The U.S. government also decided that the property was difficult and expensive to secure because it is located in the flight path of the Palm Beach Airport.
In 1980, the property was declared a National Historic Landmark, and in 1981, the property was returned to the Post Foundation by an act of Congress.
In December 1985, Trump bought the property from the Post Foundation for $5 million. In the early 1990s, Trump faced financial difficulties. Instead of dividing the property into smaller properties (which was denied by the City of Palm Beach) in 1994, Trump instead turned the estate into a private club.
Although the property was built as a resort and a hotel, Trump declared Mar-a-Lago to be his official primary private residence (other than the White House while he was president) in 2019. His previous primary residence was at Trump Tower in New York City. During the 2020 election, while he was registered to vote in the District of Columbia, Trump gave his filled-out absentee ballot to an aide to drive the ballot to Washington, D.C., and deposit the ballot in an outdoor election dropbox.
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