Playa Riente

"Laughing Beach"

947 North Ocean Boulevard

Despite the Dodge's millions, towards the end of WWI Detroit's upper crust had still not given the Dodges an entry into society and so Anna persuaded her husband to buy them an estate in Palm Beach where she was determined to be with the less stuffy though bonafide east coast aristocracy.  Anna was overjoyed in 1920 when her strategic social-climbing paid off and her only daughter, Delphine married James H. R. Cromwell, son of the "Queen of Palm Beach, Eva Stotesbury.  That joy quickly turned sour after her husband died.  Just six years later in 1926 Anna found herself to be three times wealthier than her husband had ever been and she disposed of their old home in favor of the largest mansion in Palm Beach which came with the added perk of a new husband.

Playa Riente in Palm Beach was completed in 1923 for Joshua Seney Cosden (1881-1940) and his second wife, Eleanor "Nell" Neves (1887-1963).  Sitting on 27-oceanfront acres their 73-room mansion set them back $1.8 million was the largest in Palm Beach and arguably the most opulent of those designed by the famous Addison Mizner.  It was noted not only for the scale and detail of its magnificent Moorish architecture, but also for a series of stunning murals by Jose M. Sert.  After just three shorts years, the oil millionaire's newly minted fortune ran dry and he sold to auto heiress, Anna Dodge (1871-1970). 

 She didn't just take the house, she took the realtor, too, marrying "Hugh Dillman" McGaughy, 14-years her junior that same year.  Anna had met Dillman three years before while touring Venice in Italy.  Dillman had only appeared in one film, "An Amateur Widow" (1919), but a cynical mind might say that it set in motion something along the lines of a career plan.  In the film, his character ends up marrying a very wealthy widow.  In real life on May 8, 1926 he married Mrs. Dodge, whose investments gave her an income of $1.5 million a year.  On the marriage certificate, the blushing bride gave her age as 49, but in fact she was 55.  He was 41.

The handsome and charming civic leader, Dillman was The Everglades Club's president whose wealthy wife owned an iconic island manse where the couple's soirees were the talk of the town though not everyone understood what gave Dillman deep satisfaction being a farmer or perhaps "gentleman farmer" is a more apropos description. 

Hugh Dillman McCaughy

(1885-1956)

Circa 1921

Hugh and Anna eventually divorced though for just over twenty years, Hugh enjoyed an annual allowance in excess of $100,000 and a trust fund worth $6 million.  Despite separating in 1940 and divorcing in 1947, Anna always gave him credit as being the one who "taught me how to have fun with my money".  After their divorce, Hugh continued to run his real estate business in Palm Beach and eventually retired to the former Samuel Prescott Bush mansion "Marble Cliff" in Columbus, Ohio. After Dillman's death, the house became the Sisters' Residence at St. Raphael's, as it remains today. 

Anna and Hugh were separated in 1940 and divorced in 1947 though Anna never failed to credit Hugh for her metamorphosis from a tight-fisted mechanic's wife to someone whose staff and family alike would dub "The Queen" and the owner of one of the most important collections of French 18th Century art and antique.

At Playa Riente, Hugh and Anna presided over countless parties that saw Anna start what would become her trademark piece d resistance for all her parties both in Palm Beach and at her magnificent home in Detroit:  a swan carved from ice filled to overflowing with the finest Beluga Caviar.  It was at this home that she celebrated her most important social triumph, when she and Hugh hosted the newly married Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  Anna's yacht, SS Delphine, glittered at the end of the pier.  The gardens glowed with a soft light from hundreds of Chinese lanterns and two full orchestras played until the last guest left the party. 

And the fountains literally flowed with champagne! 

By 1952, Anna conceded that it was impossible to run Playa Riente without "a suitable staff of servants".  The last happy event to take place was in 1953, the fifth and final marriage of Anna's 52-year old son, Horace Jr.  

 In 1954, Anna held a 3-day auction of the contents of the house which drew a record crowd of 2,500.  In 1957, after losing a five-year legal battle to have the town's zoning laws changed to allow Playa Riente to be used as a club or a school, Anna razed what had been the crown jewel of Palm Beach and sold off the land in lots for development. 

With Playa Riente meaning "Laughing Beach", one wonders who got the last laugh?