Owlwood Estate is a historic mansion in

Holmby Hills Holmby Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. The neighborhood was developed in the early twentieth century by the Janss Investment Company, which developed the rest of Westwood as well as other Los Ang ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It was built in 1936 and designed by architect Robert D. Farquhar. Previous owners include actors

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s (Kansas Raiders, 1950) and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 f ...

and Cher.

Description

The Tuscan-style mansion was designed by architect Robert D. Farquhar (1872–1967) in 1937, and was the largest house in Los Angeles when it was built. It has two stories, six bedrooms and two staff bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and five half-bathrooms, a tennis court, a pool house, a swimming pool, a theatre, and a full-size elevator. It is located at 141 South Carolwood Drive,

History

Construction and first owners

The first owners were businessman Charles H. Quinn (1876–1975) and his wife, Florence Letts Quinn (1868–1944), the widow of

Arthur Letts Arthur Letts Sr. (June 17, 1862 – May 18, 1923) was an immigrant from England who made his fortune in Los Angeles, California, in the early years of the 20th century. He built his wealth by transforming a small, bankrupt dry goods store in Down ...

(1862–1923), the original developer of Holmby Hills. Arthur Letts chose 141 South Carolwood Drive from all the development's acreage for his family's estate. However, he died before building commenced, and his widow inherited the property, a 3.7-acre lot at the end of a cul-de-sac bordering the Los Angeles Country Club. It was the only property excluded from the original Holmby Hills offerings. Florence Letts selected prominent architect Robert D. Farquhar to design and build the estate, and was responsible for the European influences seen in the selections and finishes.

Subsequent owners

The second owner, Texas entrepreneur Joseph Drown, founder of the Hotel Bel Air, only lived at 141 South Carolwood for two years and made no major changes to the estate. The third owner was Joe Schenck (1878–1961), the first president of United Artists and chairman of 20th Century Fox. During his ownership, Marilyn Monroe, a close friend, was a regular visitor. He sold the estate in 1956 to William Keck of Superior Oil. In the 1960s,

(1925–2010) purchased the estate from Mr. Keck. In 1967,

Sonny Bono Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republica ...

(1935–1998) and Cher attended a birthday party at the estate; Cher fell in love with the estate but Curtis refused to sell his beloved Carolwood. But when he began filming in London a few years later, he called Cher. She and Sonny purchased the estate and she began an extensive design project. When it was completed, '' Architectural Digest'' featured 141 South Carolwood Drive in the May/June 1974. In 1976, Cher sold the estate to Chase and Ralph Mishkin, who renamed it "Owlwood", in honor of the

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

s that lived in the towering trees on the property. After only two years, they sold Owlwood to the eighth owner, Ghazi Alta, an investor from Monaco. Alta then acquired the neighboring 4.6-acre estate at 10060 Sunset Boulevard, which had been owned by Bill Osco, the producer of ''Flash Gordon'', and prior to that the Olympic swimmer and actress Esther Williams. Alta sold 141 South Carolwood Drive and 10060 Sunset Boulevard to Dawn and

Roland Arnall Roland E. Arnall (March 29, 1939 – March 17, 2008) was an American businessman and diplomat. As the owner of ACC Capital Holdings, he became a billionaire with Ameriquest Mortgage. He was the Founder and funded the City of David alone ...

in 2002. They added an adjacent estate at 10010 Sunset Boulevard, and the street, South Carolwood Drive, to the original estate. In 2016, Owlwood, known as "The Crown Jewel of Holmby Hills," was quietly shown to vetted buyers as a private off-market listing at a sales price of $150 million. Owlwood was never listed for sale in the MLS, publicized or advertised.

Ownership by investment firms

In September 2016, the Owlwood estate sold for 90 million to Sturmer Pippin Investments, LLC. Bob Shapiro, head of Sturmer Pippin Investments and Woodbridge Luxury Homes, said he intended to honor the property's legendary past. In 2016, the Owlwood purchase set the record as the third highest residential sale in Los Angeles history and represented the 2016 highest off-market private sale in Los Angeles. In July 2017, the Owlwood Estate returned to the Los Angeles real estate market, listed for sale at $180 million. In December 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against the Woodbridge Group of companies, which had bought Owlwood, and Bob Shapiro, alleging that Woodbridge and its associated companies operated as a Ponzi scheme.

References