Folks Want to Know Who Owned Mar-a-Lago Before Donald Trump

People are curious about who used to own the luxurious Palm Beach, Fla., estate Mar-a-Lago before President Donald Trump owned the property. The curiosity comes as the city issues a permit to allow construction for a helicopter landing area on the property, per the Palm Beach Daily News.

Trump has already begun construction on the White House to build a $300 million ballroom, and he's also had the Rose Garden paved over with cement and made changes to the Oval Office. Now, his Mar-a-Lago home will also go through some renovations with the helipad construction. Folks weren't too happy with the renovations, and it has people wondering who owned Mar-a-Lago before Trump.

Before Mar-a-Lago was owned by the president, the luxurious estate was owned by the heiress of the Postum Cereal Company, Marjorie Merriweather Post. The company later became the General Foods Corporation, and Marjorie took the company over when she was just 27, per NPR. She became the richest woman in the world, and she also gave the estate its name.

"Mar-a-Lago" is Spanish, and it translates to "Sea to Lake" in Spanish. The sprawling estate features the Atlantic Ocean on one side of the property and Lake Worth on the other side. Construction of the state took four years and $7 million. The property has 20 acres, and the house is more than 37,000 square feet with 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms. The heiress once said that she'd built the home because her previous one "became too small for her parties."

Journalist Michael Luongo noted that Marjorie often entertained at Mar-a-Lago, and she included people from underprivileged communities and had a "social purpose."

"She also was very keen on ensuring that the underprivileged were invited to events so that they could experience, for example, musical concerts," he said. "Post was a woman of means, very wealthy, very keen, very understanding of the importance of her role in society."

In 1929, the cereal heiress hired the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey to perform for a charity fundraiser for underprivileged kids.

"She found ways to ensure that costs were reduced for a smaller organization," said Michael. "She made sure that if she opened up her doors, that it would serve a social purpose in the sense of society, but also serve a social purpose in uplifting society for those who were from poorer backgrounds or for charities."

Marjorie died in 1973, several years after Mar-a-Lago was made a national historic site by the Department of the Interior and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Trump bought the property for just $5 million in 1985, and he spent millions more to buy Mar-a-Lago's antiques.

"He did get a beautiful property at a very, very low amount of money," noted Michael while also crediting Trump for maintaining the costly estate.

"Without Donald Trump, would that house have been preserved or not? So that's another thing to think about," he said. "But, you know, it's a beautiful piece of history and was always a piece of history."

Trump's helipad will be used by the helicopter that carries the commander-in-chief, Marine One.