La Querida (mansion)



La Querida is a residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Completed in 1923, it was built in the Mediterranean Revival-style by well-known architect Addison Mizner.

Originally constructed for department store fortune heir Rodman Wanamaker, the home was most notably owned by the prominent Kennedy family for over 60 years. During the presidency of John F. Kennedy, the family retreat was used as a "Winter White House".

La Querida has been owned by several notable other individuals since the Kennedy family sold the property in 1995, including businessman John K. Castle and real estate investor Jane Goldman. La Querida is located at 1095 N. Ocean Boulevard.

Early history
Prominent South Florida architect Addison Mizner built La Querida in 1923 at a cost reported to be $50,000 for Rodman Wanamaker of Philadelphia, heir to the Wanamaker's Department Store fortune. Following his death in 1928, all of Wanamaker's estate, which was valued at around $75 million, except for annuities was transferred to a trust. That September, the home suffered major damage during the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, with The Palm Beach Post noting that "No chance remains of again utilizing the home of Rodman Wanamaker III, unless it is almost entirely rebuilt". Charlker and Lund, Inc. began restoring La Querida in early October under a $60,000 contract with the expectation that work would be complete on January 1, 1929. The renovation also included the addition of a stronger seawall and a sunroom, as well as the enlargement of the living room and servants' quarters.

The house remained mostly vacant in the winter seasons of 1931-1932 and 1932-1933, except for a few visits by the late Rodman Wanamaker's niece, Mary Brown Warburton, who was the daughter of Barclay Harding Warburton I and Mary Brown Wanamaker.

Kennedy ownership


The Wanamaker family sold La Querida to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. for $120,000 on June 30, 1933. At the time, a description in The Palm Beach Post noted that the property included 176 ft of oceanfront, six master bedrooms, five bathrooms, and "spacious living quarters."

Following their purchase, the home acted as a winter retreat for the family. The Kennedys usually only lived at La Querida around the Christmas and Easter holidays. One notable guest at the home during this period was James Roosevelt (eldest son of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt) and his then-wife Betsey, who stayed at La Querida a few times, including in 1934 and 1935. Kennedy Sr. also hired Maurice Fatio, an architect with several notable works, to design a two-floor car garage, pool pavilion, and tennis court. He also enlarged the estate by purchasing adjacent land.

In 1955, then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy (D–Massachusetts) spent several months at the home in Palm Beach while recovering from a surgery necessitated by a spinal injury he suffered in World War II. It is said that during his recovery at La Querida, Senator Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Senator Kennedy also handwrote the first draft of his announcement speech for his candidacy for president of the United States in the upcoming 1960 election while at La Querida on April 1, 1959. The handwritten draft sold for $160,000 at an auction in September 2015.

One week after being elected president of the United States in 1960, John F. Kennedy hosted an informal press luncheon at La Querida on November 15. When president-elect Kennedy visited Palm Beach in December 1960, Richard Paul Pavlick nearly carried out an assassination attempt. Pavlick drove from New Hampshire to Palm Beach with a car full of dynamite. While Kennedy was at La Querida preparing to leave for Sunday Mass at St. Edward's Catholic Church on December 11, Pavlick waited outside the home and intended to crash his car into Kennedy's limousine. Pavlick decided to forgo his plan after noticing that Kennedy was accompanied by his wife and young children and decided to pick another day for the assassination attempt. However, on December 15, the Palm Beach Police Department arrested him at the intersection of North County Road and Royal Poinciana Way after receiving information from the Secret Service. Pavlick was charged with threatening to assassinate Kennedy, but after he was declared legally insane by federal judge Emett Clay Choate on December 2, 1963, charges were reduced to unlawful transportation of dynamite across state lines.

In January 1961, Senator Kennedy, with the assistance of speechwriter Ted Sorensen, drafted much of his inaugural address at La Querida. During his presidency, local and federal law enforcement uncovered an alleged plot by four pro-Castro Cubans to assassinate Kennedy and abduct his daughter Caroline, then three years old, around Easter 1961 while they stayed in Palm Beach. Thereafter, Kennedy sometimes temporarily stayed at the home of Josephine Perfect Bay and Paul Michael Iogolevitch, such as in the 1961-62 and 1962-63 winter seasons.



President Kennedy's final trip to Palm Beach occurred in mid-November 1963, during which he stayed at La Querida. There, Kennedy, special assistant to the president Ralph A. Dungan, and Peace Corps official Richard N. Goodwin discussed Latin American policy due to waning enthusiasm for his Alliance for Progress program among several officials in the region. Kennedy's trip to La Querida turned out to be his last weekend alive, as he was assassinated days later in Texas.

Following Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.'s death in November 1969, several newspapers reported that the family intended to sell La Querida. In January 1970, however, the Kennedys stated that they did not plan to sell the estate and instead considered renting it out after significant renovations, before ultimately scrapping that idea as well. During the next few decades, the house occasionally became associated with some drinking incidents involving Senator Ted Kennedy and later with William Kennedy Smith's 1991 rape trial.

In the early morning hours of March 30, 1991, Smith rode with a woman he met at Au Bar in Palm Beach, later identified as Patricia Bowman, back to La Querida. Bowman then alleged that Smith raped her by the pool. However, Smith argued that the encounter was consensual, with the trial resulted in his acquittal on December 11.



Subsequent ownership
The Kennedys placed La Querida on the real estate market in late 1993, although a sale did not occur until May 1995, about four months after Rose Kennedy's death. John K. Castle, the CEO of Castle Harlan, purchased the house for approximately $5 million, below the asking price of $7 million. An architect hired by Castle described the house as not having any significant renovations since 1928, other than electricity and plumbing. Castle stated his intentions to renovate La Querida but in a manner consistent with town guidelines for designation as a historic landmark. Although Castle retained furnishings from the Kennedys in several rooms, he added fireplaces and replaced some windows and doors. About 20 years later, however, many of these changes were reversed after Castle sold the home to real estate investor Jane Goldman in 2015 for $31 million. The Florida Times-Union noted that according to the 2015 listing by Lawrence A. Moens Associates, the house contained "15,347 square feet [1,425.8 square meters] of living space, 11 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and three half-baths."

In June 2020, Goldman sold La Querida to its current owners, Carl and Mary Jane Panattoni for $70 million. Carl Panattoni is the owner and founder of Panattoni, an international real estate and warehouse developer. The Panattonis gained approval from town commissioners in October of that year for a few landscape changes and the removal of the tennis court, to enlarge the driveway.