A blog post from yesterday and more from the boxes labeled “Mar-a-Lago”.

Yesterday’s blog post was titled, “The Mar-a-Lago Club, 1994–1998: From the ‘King of Clubs’ to the legendary crooner Tony Bennett.”

Yes, it’s true. Yours Truly, Wes Blackman, worked at Mar-a-Lago for a man named Donald J. Trump, the man I used to call “Mr. Trump”. Mr. Trump is now properly referred to as “President of the United States”. Please take a deep breath. The blog post that follows is not about national politics. This blog post is about boxes of memorabilia I’ve collected from my ten years working at Mar-a-Lago beginning in 1993 and until recently boxes that have remained unopened in storage. The boxes are filled with promotional material and newspapers and magazines about the people and events that created so much interest and wonder about that very unique historic place.

Mar-a-Lago is a very special place in American history. A structure that first broke ground in 1924, rising from the “underbrush of jungle-like growth” in the Town of Palm Beach along a strip of land between the sea (in Spanish, “mar”; “to” in Spanish is ‘a’) and what used to be the freshwater Lake Worth (the word for lake in Spanish is “lago”), ergo “Mar-a-Lago” as it was christened by Marjorie Merriweather Post.

In what could only be called one of the most amazing twists from history, from an earlier blog post about the 1995 Christie’s auction held in New York City of items from Mar-a-Lago was this historical background:


“On her death in 1972, she [Marjorie Merriweather Post] left the estate to the Federal Government, hoping that it would make Mar-A-Lago into a place for Presidents and visiting dignitaries to use away from Washington, D.C. [emphasis added] However the government returned the property to the Post Foundation, and, after many years of remaining shuttered, the estate was sold to Donald J. Trump in 1985.”

Photograph circa 1995 taken at Mar-a-Lago
(information on the back of photo has faded away).

Click on image to enlarge:

From left to right: Paul Rampell, Esq., Attorney at Law; Mr. Donald Trump, now President of the United States; cannot recall who the man in the center is; Yours Truly, C. Wesley Blackman, Dir. of Projects at Mar-a-Lago; Howard C. Willson, Operations Manager at Mar-a-Lago.

The year 1993 marked a turning point in my life, advocating and speaking in favor of the Mar-a-Lago estate becoming a private club and thereby avoiding subdivision of the estate, or worse. Once the Town of Palm Beach approved a private club began the ten-year adventure working for then-“Mr. Donald Trump” directing restoration efforts and the intricate work necessary to convert the property from a private residence to a private club working closely with the Town of Palm Beach, the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in gaining the approvals for amenities and projects necessary to move forward. In 1998 the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation recognized, “Mr. Blackman for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Historic Preservation/Rehabilitation”.

Now to the Mar-a-Lago Club, 1994–1998.

From the “King of Clubs” to the legendary crooner Tony Bennett.

Keep in mind, this blog post is not a political statement. What follows are snapshots in time about a very special place in American history. The snapshots that follow are from a popular magazine, a newspaper, and from promotional material and “Club” brochures. Hope you enjoy this look back in time starting in late 1994 which includes other information you may find interesting as well.

December 1994. Published in “The Magazine South Florida Lives By”:

The front cover title and subtitle in South Florida magazine:

King of Clubs

Will Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Shake
Up Palm Beach?

Opening page of article, p. 28.

Click on magazine page to enlarge:

Find out what former journalist Glenn Albin is up to now: “[L]ives a life today that’s the polar opposite of the one he lived just years ago”.

Page 31.

[Click on images to enlarge if necessary.]

In caption “$25 million” is a typo. The final cost to construct Mar-a-Lago in the 1920s was $2.5M, well above the $1M estimate given to Marjorie Merriweather Post.

December 1995. Front page, above the fold news story in the Palm Beach Daily News (aka, The
Shiny Sheet):

[FYI: Franz Barwig “the Elder” (1868–1931) is cited in the newspaper clipping below. Barwig the Elder was one of Austria’s most important sculptors of his time.]

“. . . erty while they sculpted monkeys with eye glasses reading books for the library, parrots for the swimming pool, and pages to hold lanterns at the estate’s front gates.”

Fall 1996. “Volume 1 Issue 1”

Front page from “The Official Club Newsletter”:

December 7th, 1996: “Opening Gala,
Diana Ross performing”.

On page 2 from the Mar-a-Lago Club Newsletter.

“Growing the Membership”

“A few firm guest rules apply.”

1997. Letter published in “The Jewel of Palm Beach” magazine, Vol. II:

On page 70 a letter from Marjorie Post Dye, the
“First Grandchild and Namesake of
Marjorie Merriweather Post”.


“A Love Letter to The Mar-a-Lago Club”,
written in 1995.

“I took my first steps as a baby at Mar-a-Lago almost 70 years ago.” Those first steps would be circa 1925. Marjorie Post Dye passed away
on April 14th, 2015.

“In 1924, legend has it, Marjorie Post ‘crawled through the underbrush of jungle-like growth’ until she uncovered a site that was large enough for her grandiose plans. . . . The land was an 18-acre parcel that ran the width of the island, from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Worth. Hence the name Mar-a-Lago (Spanish for ‘sea-to-lake’).”


[FYI: “Lake Worth” in no longer a freshwater lake as it was in the 1920s. “The lake” as it was once called is now the Lake Worth Lagoon, also appropriately referred to as the Intracoastal waterway.]

On page 71:

“Mrs. Post”

“ ‘Mrs. Post could seat 50 guests for dinner 30 days in a row without ever having to repeat a China pattern.’ Simpson recalls.”

That would be Robert Simpson, assistant to the operations manager at Mar-a-Lago in 1988.

Now for a change of pace!

March/April 1998. “Special Events” at Mar-a-Lago Club, L.C.:

Sunday, March 14th, 1998, “THE BEACH BOYS”!

Also at Mar-a-Lago in March 1998: Wayne Newton,
Tom Jones, and Don Rickles.

Delta Burke:

“Eve Wasn’t a Size 6 and Neither Am I”

Saturday, April 4th, 1998: “Tony Bennett”.

Hope you enjoyed this “look back in time” and stay tuned for more interesting stuff from those boxes of archive material.