Today in history in 1883, Franklin Mars was born in Minnesota. He may not be a household name but his Mars candy bars are. And when you grow up with a father who is an investor like I did, you have the large corporations' structures memorized- Mars is one of "the seven companies that own everything" and the Mars family has recently been estimated to be the third richest in America. For a long time they were the richest in the country because we love candy. So I am assuming we can find some interesting real estate associated with the family to look at today...the best selling Mars Bar and my personal favorite is the Milky Way. To begin, we will look at the Milky Way Farm Manor House in Tennessee. Mr. Mars bought up several farms to construct the Tudor Revival house in the '20s. The house has horse racing tracks and even the 1940 Kentucky Derby winning horse. It is now an event venue and the following pictures are from their website.
In true Tudor Revival style, the inside of the house has a castle-like look.
The use of stucco is abundant as is dark wood.
And medievalesque furniture abounds...
Son, Forrest Mars Sr., who actually created the Milky Way was known as a secretive recluse and we are unable to track down his house but his son Forrest Mars Jr. bought a large ranch in Montana called Diamond Cross Ranch. Today it also serves as an event venue. The ranch last sold for $65 million so we are assuming it is impressive but can only find the following picture of one of the rooms:
Brother, John Mars, similarly lives in Wyoming though we cannot find his house. Their sister, Jacqueline Badger, lives at the below house in Virginia though we can find few details on the residence.
Her daughter, Alexandra, lives in a beautiful Newport Beach house on the water with her family today (below) while her other daughter Christina was harder to track down.
However, her son, Stephen Badger, is known to have a compound in Beverly Hills and Santa Fe. The Beverly Hills compound was once owned by Eartha Kitt and the Fords of the modeling agency. Below are the houses in the Beverly Hills compound.
Back to the brothers: Forrest Jr.'s daughter Victoria Mars lives in Newton Square Pennsylvania in a modest and hidden house. Her sisters Valerie, Marijke, and Pamela are in New York though we do not know where exactly. Brother John in Wyoming's daughter Linda also appears to live in Wyoming but we cannot tell where his sons Frank and Michael Mars live today. The Mars family have definitely spread throughout the country finding some of the best real estate there is and we enjoyed looking at where they have chosen.