6. The house did not receive critical acclaim from residents of Palm Beach, nor many guests who visited.
One of the more salacious scandals of the gilded era was the threesome concerning Harry Thaw, his wife, the actress/model/chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit, and her lover, Stanford White. Thaw shot and killed White, an internationally famous architect, in front of hundreds of witnesses in a theater during the performance of a new play in New York. Following two trials, acquittal based on the insanity defense, a stint in an asylum from which he escaped, and eventual court-ordered freedom, Thaw was a celebrity. Well-monied himself, as the heir to a Pittsburgh coal fortune, he epitomized the idle rich. When Thaw first visited Mar a Lago he gasped, “My God, I shot the wrong architect”.
His reaction pithily summarized the opinions of many over the appearance of the estate when first built. The words “garish”, “extravagant”, and “cavernous”, all were used to express the opinions of architectural critics, though there was little commentary on the cost. Marion Syms Wyeth, the primary architect for the building, later seldom referred to his involvement with the project, allowing Joseph Urban to take “credit”, for the work. Favorable comments for its location and the remarkable views afforded by its 75-foot tower were common though. Of note was that each of the guest suites within the estate were in a different style and decorative motif, with no two appearing alike. They were accompanied by a butler uniformed appropriately to the décor.