Una familia se encuentra cara a cara con 999 repelentes fantasmas en la espeluznante Gracey Manor. Bel Air mansion Casa Encantada is on the market again, this time for $225 million, which would be a record high in the U.S. UPDATED, 2:55 p.m., Oct. 17: The last two times that Bel Air's massive. Roughly one mile north of Casa Encantada is the contemporary wonderland of handbag mogul Bruce Makowsky. The over-the-top mansion, which features a bowling alley and an ornamental helicopter. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
On March 22, 1934, Hilda Weber purchased what would become Casa Encantada for $100,000—an astonishing sum in the Depression. Some of the greatest estates of the 1920s—like twenty-two-acre Dias Dorados and Frances Marion and Fred Thomson's twenty-two-acre Enchanted Hill—had languished for years on the market at that price.
In 1935, Hilda hired Benjamin Morton Purdy as landscape architect. A year later, his crews started grading the property, planting full-grown trees and preparing the gardens, which would stretch for hundreds of feet behind the mansion.
On March 17, 1936, Hilda hired James E. Dolena as architect. He started working drawings on April 29, 1936, in a Moderne-influenced Georgian style, or what he described to his client as 'modern Georgian with Grecian influences.'
Next, Hilda hired Peterson Studios of Santa Barbara and T. H. Robsjohn- Gibbings to design and manufacture custom-made furniture, carpets, and fabrics. Many of Los Angeles's 'best families' purchased pricey reproduction furniture from department stores for their homes. Not Hilda Weber.
On May 15, 1937, Hilda Weber—and her architect, landscape architect, and contractor—laid the cornerstone for the mansion.
Construction proceeded quickly on the 40,000-square-foot residence and its outbuildings. On December 17, 1938, the mansion was finished, and all furnishings were installed. A few days later, the Webers moved into their estate, which had cost more than $2 million, a significant portion of Hilda's net worth.
Unfortunately, like so many who become suddenly wealthy, Hilda Weber was always careless about money. First, she had spent $2 million building and furnishing Casa Encantada. Then, she gave away one of Santa Barbara's prized estates. Her day-to-day living expenses were enormous. Her household staff reportedly totaled twenty-one, and she employed another twenty-one full-time groundskeepers and gardeners.
In 1948, she reluctantly put Casa Encantada up for sale. The original asking price was $1.5 million—less than the estate and its furniture had cost ten years earlier. No takers.
Finally, in 1950, hotel magnate Conrad Hilton purchased the estate— including its furniture, art, and silver—for $225,000.
For Conrad Hilton, Casa Encantada lived up to its name, and he lived there in grand style until his death in 1979. In those four decades, Hilton made almost no changes to the mansion, its furnishing and art, or its grounds. The mansion was an extraordinary time capsule of high-style 1940s taste.
After Hilton's death, the family sold the estate for $12.4 million—the highest price for any single-family home in the United States at the time. The new owners redecorated the mansion with the finest antiques.
After Hilton's death, the family sold the estate for $12.4 million—the highest price for any single-family home in the United States at the time. The new owners redecorated the mansion with the finest antiques.
In 2000, Casa Encantada was sold to its current owner for $94 million—setting another record for the most expensive home in the country.UPDATED, 2:55 p.m., Oct. 17: The last two times that Bel Air's massive Casa Encantada sold — in 1979 and 2000 — it broke the record for highest residential sale in the nation. Now, the storied estate is on the market again at $225 million, instantly becoming the country's priciest residential listing.
The 40,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion, owned by financier Gary Winnick, is officially up for sale, according to the Los Angeles Times. If it sold at ask, the price would be $105 million more than the Los Angeles County record set when the 56,500-square-foot Spelling Manor sold this summer.
The listing comes amid a slowdown in sales at the high end of L.A.'s residential market. Interest seems especially low for the crop of sleek and modern spec homes that have hit the market over the last several years.
Hilton & Hyland founder Jeff Hyland, who has the listing with his partner Rick Hilton and Nest Seekers International's Shawn Elliott, told the Times that Casa Encantada's history and unique attributes 'allow for premium pricing.' Reports surfaced in early 2013 that the estate — whose name means enchanted house in Spanish — was being quietly shopped for the same amount.
'It's not affected by market gyrations, world issues in the economy and other comparable estates,' Hyland said.
That may be optimistic. The Spelling Manor was on the market for three years and sold for 40 percent below its original $200 million asking price. The equally grand Chartwell Estate, also in Bel Air, was asking $350 million before the price was eventually dropped to $195 million in June.
The 60-room Casa Encantada was built in the 1930s at the direction of the widow of a wealthy glass manufacturer who commissioned some of the most prominent designers of the time to work on the estate.
Architect James Dolena incorporated Art Deco and Moderne styles into the ornate interiors. The eight-acre grounds have a tennis court, basketball court, a rose garden and greenhouses, among other facilities.
Winnick hired architect Peter Marino to lead a comprehensive restoration of the property after purchasing it for $94 million from Dole Food Company CEO David Murdock in 2000. Murdock purchased it from Conrad Hilton for $12.4 million in 1979.
La Encantada Restaurant Tucson
The record for the most expensive home sale in the U.S. belongs to New York's 220 Central Park South, where hedge funder Ken Griffin paid $238 million for a penthouse in a deal that closed in January. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch
La Mansion Encantada Pelicula Completa
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the brokerage Shawn Elliott is affiliated with. He is with Nest Seekers International.
