Historic Palm Beach Mansion
That Housed Cuban Exiles

What: Eight-bedroom, 7-1/2 bathroom house in 8,660 square feet on 0.4 acre

Where: Palm Beach, Fla.

Amenities: Library, five fireplaces, covered terrace, pool, courtyard with fountain, elevator

Asking Price: $9.5 million

Opening Bid*: $9 million

Listing Agents: Wallace Turner, Sotheby's International Realty, 561-301-2060

Due Diligence: In 1921, Marion Sims Wyeth designed this home for New York stockbroker Sterling Postley (later, Mr. Wyeth would design the Florida governor's mansion). Current owners Joseph and Nancy Dryer bought the house in 1961 after moving to Palm Beach from Cuba to escape the revolution. (Mr. Dryer, a former Marine who lost a lung to a sniper's bullet in the Battle of Iwo Jima, met his wife in Cuba when he was working there in the 1950s.) The house's many bedrooms proved useful two years later, when the couple helped to house 12 Cuban exiles who had been captured during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and had just been released. The house, designated a Palm Beach historic landmark, has wrought-iron gates and a carved Moorish-style ceiling in the living room. The house also has an interior courtyard; on one side of the courtyard, a cloister with vaulted ceilings connects the living and dining rooms. Neighbors include telecommunications mogul John Kluge and singer Jimmy Buffett. Mr. Dryer, who after leaving Cuba became a stockbroker and businessman, said he and his wife are downsizing.

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