When you talk about Mar-Lago, when you mention it now, Trump's name may pop up in your mind, after all, this place has become a hot topic in the news because of him. But in fact, the real builder and original owner of this manor was Marjorie Merriwether Post, a legendary figure who firmly sat on the throne of the richest woman in America for most of the 20th century.
She is not the type who just relies on inheriting her family property to make life bigger and stronger, and has created a bunch of jealous collections and charity projects.
Her story sounds like an American version of an inspirational drama, but it is also mixed with many realistic ups and downs, such as marriage failure and business pressure.
Marjori was born on March 15, 1887 in Springfield, Illinois. She is the only daughter of Charles William Post and Ella Letticia Merriwether. My father C.W. Post was a farm tool salesman in his early years. He was in poor health and often got exhausted due to work.
He looked for treatment everywhere, but later became obsessed with dietary health and believed that coffee was harmful to the body, so he invented a non-caffeinated beverage made of roasted wheat bran and molasses, called Postum.
In 1895, he founded the Postum Cereal Company and launched a cereal breakfast with a little fruity flavor and a crispy texture, which soon opened. The family has settled in Bartel Creek, Michigan since 1890, and it has become the company's base. Marjorie has never lacked money since she was a child, and her father gave her company stocks as gifts. By the time she was 16 years old, the stocks were worth $3 million.
My father's education on Marjorie was not casual. At that time, the woman had no voting rights, let alone managing the company, but he insisted on letting her understand business. Since childhood, she has taken her on a business trip across the country, taught her to make budgets and calculate accounts, and asked her to attend board meetings. In 1904, his parents divorced and his father soon married his secretary, Laila Young, which made Marjorie's relationship with his stepmother very terrible.
The father wanted to hide it from it and said that Laila was her travel partner, but the truth was revealed and the contradiction became even greater. After her mother Ella divorced, her health declined and died in 1912. Marjorie attended Mount Vernon Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., a top school for girls and is now part of George Washington University. She learned a lot of management skills there, laying the foundation for her later successor.
At the end of 1913, my father had health problems and had abdominal pain. The doctor said it was appendicitis and it still hurt after the operation. On May 9, 1914, when he was 59 years old, he shot himself at home. This hit Marjorie very much. She inherited the company and $20 million in inheritance at the age of 27, and the money is worth hundreds of millions of dollars now.
She became the boss of Postum Cereals Company, working from 1914 to becoming an honorary director in 1958. When she first took over, she had to ask the man to help sign the documents because the law did not allow women to manage the company alone. But she was not idle. During World War I, the United States joined the war in 1917. She donated a lot of military supplies, and the company continued to make money with the help of assistants.
Marjori's business acumen is really not a big deal. She worked with her second husband, Edward Francis Hutton, to expand the company. Hutton is a stockbroker, handsome and sweet-mouthed, but a little short. They got married in 1920 and Hutton became the company's president. In the 1920s, they acquired a bunch of brands, such as Hellmann's mayonnaise, Jell-O jelly, Baker's chocolate and Maxwell House coffee.
In 1929, the company was renamed General Food Company. Marjorie also took a fancy to Clarence Birdsey's quick-freezing technology. After trying it on her own yacht, she thought that this thing could liberate the housewife, so she bought the company and asked Birdsey to be the vice president, and promoted commercial freezers nationwide. This move is accurate, and the frozen food market will soon become popular. Her wealth has also risen. She has been the richest woman in the United States for most of her life. Her net worth had to be $200 million at its peak, but now it has more than $1.5 billion.
When it comes to wealth, we have to mention her jewelry collection. This guy is so many that it is shocking. Some people say it is richer than Queen Elizabeth's. Although she has not compared it accurately, her collection is indeed top-notch. She loves historical jewelry, from Napoleon diamond necklaces to Mary Louise crowns, as well as Marie Antoinette diamond earrings and an emerald set by Mexican Emperor Maximilian.
Most of these things were donated to the Smithsonian Institution and are now on display at the National Museum of Natural History. Her collection not only shows off her wealth, but also reflects her passion for art, especially things from the Russian Empire. When her third husband, Joseph Davis, was the US ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1936, they bought a lot of Faberge eggs and porcelain in Moscow, and bought them at low prices from the Soviet government. Although there was a controversy, it was said that it was confiscated after the revolution, she did not participate in the confiscation process.
Malago Manor is a landmark product of Marjorie's wealth. In 1924, she and Hutton picked up a 17-acre plot of land in Palm Beach, Florida, sandwiched between Lake Worth and the Atlantic Ocean. Architect Marion Sims Wise designed the Spanish Moore style, and the interior is handed by Joseph Urban. It was built for three years and completed in 1927, with a total cost of US$7 million and is now worth 127 million.
The manor has 126 rooms, 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, and a 75-foot tower that allows you to see the lake from the sea, so it is called Mar-a-Lago, Spanish "from the sea to the lake". The materials are made of Italian Dorian limestone, black and white marble from Cuban castles and 15th-century Spanish ceramic tiles. Marjorie spent the winter there, holding parties, charity parties, concerts and circus performances.
After she divorced Hutton in 1935, the manor was imprisoned for five years, and in 1944, she briefly worked as a military training center. In 1948, she reopened and continued to hold the International Red Cross Gala. In 1961, a 30x50-foot dance floor pavilion was added to specialize in square dance.
When the Great Depression came in the 1930s, Marjorie did not stand by. She sponsors the New York Salvation Army feeding station, provides food to the unemployed, and leads fundraising for the Women’s Emergency Assistance Commission. Her charity was not a whim. She funded the French military hospital during the war and received the French Legion of Honor.
Later, he supported the Boy Scouts and donated money to build the Washington headquarters. He won the Silver Deer Award in 1971. There is a Lake Merriwether in Goshen Scouts Camp in Virginia named her. She also donated $100,000 to the National Cultural Center, which later became the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Merriwether Post Pavilion in Maryland is an outdoor concert hall named after her long-term funding of the National Symphony Orchestra. Her money not only spent on herself, but also helped a lot of people.
Marjori has been married four times, and she is very troublesome every time. The first was Edward Bennett Close, an investment banker in Connecticut in 1905. The two had two daughters, Adelaide was born in 1908 and Eleanor was born in 1909. But the Close family is old money and thinks Marjorie is too extravagant. She also thinks he is drunk, so the two have a big difference.
Divorce in 1919. The second man married Hutton in 1920 and gave birth to his daughter Nednia, who later named Dina Merrill, and became an actor. Hutton helped her expand her company, but during the Great Depression, he criticized Roosevelt's policy, saying that imposing a wealthy tax was incitement and had an affair with Marjorie's French maid. Marjorie collected evidence and divorced in 1935 without reducing her property. The third person married Joseph Edward Davis, the lawyer in the same year. He did not touch the company, but signed it and she sponsored him to go into politics.
In 1936, Davis became the ambassador to the Soviet Union, and the two went to Moscow, where Marjorie collected Russian art. Divorced in 1955 because Davis had a bad temper after retirement. The fourth married Pittsburgh businessman Herbert A. May in 1958 and maintained his divorce for six years. In 1964, because Herbert had an improper relationship with a young man. After her divorce, she returned to her maiden name.
Marjori's collection is more than jewelry. She bought Hillwood Manor in Washington, DC, and converted it into a museum in 1955 to showcase Russian and French art, including treasures from the Romanov family. The things she bought from the Soviet Union are now on display in Hillwood, and although the source is controversial, they have become public education resources.
She also received American Indian art and donated it to Smithson. Her lifestyle is luxurious, with a private yacht, Sea Cloud, 316 feet long and can entertain 400 people. Later, she sold it and bought a Viscount Viscount turboprop, called Merriweather. She has a Five Avenue apartment in New York, and a Topridge camp in Adirondack. There are 30 buildings, no roads, so she has to go there.
On September 12, 1973, Marjorie died at the age of 86 at the age of 86. She left most of her property to her three daughters and donated a lot to museums and charity. Mar-a-Lago was given to the federal government as a presidential resort and diplomatic place. But the maintenance fee is too high, 1 million yuan a year, and Congress passed a bill to return it to the Post Foundation in 1980.
In 1981, it was listed for 20 million yuan, and in 1985, Trump bought it for 7 million yuan, plus a total of 10 million yuan in furniture. He added a 20,000 square foot ballroom and changed it to a private club in 1995. The estate is now worth 350 million, but it is controversial, saying that Trump overestimates to 739 million, which is actually worth 75 million.
Marjori's life is quite down-to-earth. Although she is so rich, she has never forgotten her roots. My father taught her to help people with money, so she did it. From a small owner of a grain company to a general food tycoon, she proves that women can play business. At that time, society had many restrictions on women, and she had to rely on her husband to sign, but she did not get tripped up, but instead made her business bigger.
She has failed many marriages, but she protects her property every time she divorces, and does not allow outsiders to take advantage of it. Collections and charity left her name in history, and now to Hillwood or Smithson, you can still see her baby.
