Living: 115 Rms, Ocn Vu

As white elephants go, it is like Xanadu revisited. Mar-a-Lago, theformer Marjorie Merriweather Post mansion in Palm Beach, lies dormant,its 115 rooms shuttered, its fountains dry, its citrus grove, fourgreenhouses and nine-hole golf course seedy and overgrown. When thecereal heiress died in 1973, she willed the 17-acre oceanfrontestate—built in 1927 at a cost of $8 million—to the U.S. Governmentas a retreat for Presidents and foreign dignitaries. Alas, herposthumous hospitality had virtually no takers. Congress was reluctantto maintain Mar-a-Lago (Spanish for Sea-to-Lake) and equally reluctantto give it up, which thwarted efforts by local politicians to turn itover to the Post Foundation.

Now Congress has allocated $100,000 a year toward its upkeep. But evenwith a further $220,000 from the Post Foundation, the amount falls farshort of the estimated $1 million a year required to keep the place inproper trim. Clearly, this Post serial will be continued.