Project at home near Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach to restore part of 1935 designs

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A landmarked home near President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club is set to receive an update that will in part restore a portion of the two-story property to its original blueprints.

The home at 1047 S. Ocean Blvd. was completed in 1935 and designed in the Art Moderne style by noted architect John Volk. It is in Palm Beach, Florida's Estate Section, just north of Trump's club and inside the U.S. Secret Service security zone between Southern Boulevard and South County Road that goes into effect when the president is home.

The Town Council at its June 11 Development Review Committee meeting voted unanimously to grant the necessary approvals that will allow the project to move forward.

Charles "Rusty" and Ashley Holzer purchased the nearly 8,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home in 2019 for $12 million through their 1047 South Ocean Boulevard Trust, according to Palm Beach County records. The home was landmarked by Palm Beach in 2013. The lot is about a half-acre and has 100 feet of beachfront.

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Rusty Holzer is the son of longtime Palm Beach resident and businesswoman Jane Holzer, who was known as "Baby Jane," one of Andy Warhol's muses. She is building a new home on her property just to the north at 980 S. Ocean Blvd., on the northeast corner with Via Del Lago.

With the June 11 vote, Charles and Ashley Holzer now can move forward with removing two small balconies from the back of the house to rebuild the original Volk-designed second-floor curvilinear balcony, said attorney Maura Ziska, the agent for the Holzers.

The two smaller balconies were built sometime since 2007, according to the memo from town staff to the council.

Photos of the house soon after it was built show the original curved design of the balcony, which had a metal railing.

Plans also include adding two second-floor additions onto single-story portions of the north and south side of the house facing the Atlantic Ocean. A staircase on the outside of the south wall of the house will be reversed so the entrance is from the east instead of the west, plans show.

The additions, staircase and balcony replacement were designed by Dailey Janssen Architects of West Palm Beach.

The work at 1047 S. Ocean Blvd. was first approved as two separate projects in 2020 and 2021, but those approvals expired, requiring the Holzers to return to the council, town staff told the council in a memo.

The council approved three variances to reduce the north side-yard setback, reduce the south side-yard setback and increase the lot coverage. The home already exceeds those setbacks and the lot coverage, because it was built before the current code went into effect, said James Murphy, assistant director of the town's Planning, Zoning and Building Department. Once completed, the changes will not be visible from South Ocean Boulevard, he said.

Council members lauded the Holzers' decision to replace the pair of smaller balconies with Volk's original design.

"The back of the home really lost its architectural integrity, and the bulk of this request is really bringing back an element that you can see in this historical photography that it originally had, so I'm in," council member Ted Cooney said, referring to a photo shown to the council by Ziska.

Volk designed the house for James Moffett Jr. and his wife Adeline. Moffett was a vice president of Standard Oil of New Jersey and then the first Federal Housing Administrator, serving from 1934 to 1935.

According to the 2013 landmark designation report, Volk was inspired by the National Housing Act and the "Modeltown and Modernization Magic" exhibition at the 1935 Exposition in San Diego.

The Moffetts named the house White Caps.

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the Paste BN Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.