Monday, April 8, 2013

It's Official: Katy Perry Lists Park Hill Compound

SELLER: Katy Perry
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $6,925,000
SIZE: 8,835 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7 full and 4 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama has been hearing for months already that Miz Perry wants to unload her never-lived in L.A. compound, Park Hill, and—so the scuttlebutt went—she unsuccessfully had it shopped around off-market for a few months in the high seven millions before finally hoisting the grand estate on the open market today with an official (and notably lower) asking price of $6,925,000.

In June 2011, almost a year after nine time Grammy-nominated international pop music super star Katy Perry wed her now ex-husband—that would be raunchy and unkempt looking British comedian Russell Brand—in a lavish ceremony in India they dropped six and a half million clams on Park Hill, an historic, double-gated celebrity-style compound of nearly three acres nestled onto a private promontory just above the frequently traffic clogged mouth of Laurel Canyon in West Hollywood (CA).

According to the good people at Paradise Leased and The Movieland Directory, Park Hill was built in the mid-1920s for successful real estate developer C.F. DeWitt who lived in the house until shortly after his wife committed suicide in the house in the mid-1930s. Eventually the house was bought by Dan Laiken, the ex-CEO of National Lampoon who was put in the pokey in 2010 on a securities fraud conviction. It was Mister Laiken's people who sold the house to Miz Perry and Mister Brand.

Alas, the erstwhile couple broke up in a blaze of tabloid publicity and speculation just a few months after purchasing Park Hill. Mister Brand chivalrously granted complete ownership of Park Hill to Miz Perry who—so we've been told by someone in the position to know—never actually occupied the property. (She moved, instead, to a modest if hardly inexpensive rental in a storied West Hollywood apartment house and he snatched up a contemporary crib at the tippy-top of the Bird Streets neighborhood above the Sunset Strip where all the streets are named after—you got it—birds.)

Current listing details reveal Miz Perry's unwanted real estate albatross looms over a parking lot-sized motor court, stands three stories high at the back, measures in at a roomy but hardly humongous 8,835 square feet and contains a total of seven bedrooms, seven full and four half bathrooms. There are also two fireplaces—living room and library—and loads of original architectural detailing and vintage fixtures such as the silhouette chandelier that hangs in the stone-walled and marble floored front foyer and stair hall.

The mansion's public rooms are nothing if not baronial and include a capacious, 45-foot long double-height living room with dark-stained wood floors, a heavy beamed wood ceiling, massive carved stone fireplace that originally warmed an Italian castle and a towering Palladian window that opens to a small terrace with big city view. The room's quirky pièce de résistance is an old timey minstrel's gallery from where musician once serenaded residents and party attending guests. The partially panelled dining room isn't exactly the size of a royal banquet hall but is absolutely impressive with its hand-stenciled honeycomb pattern wood ceiling.

Some of the other living and entertaining spaces include a library with fireplace, media lounge, and spacious, center island country kitchen with snack counter, built-in banquette seating, high grade appliances and fixtures and an adjoining breakfast room with a hand-painted groin vaulted ceiling. All in all it looks like the kitchen in a suburban macmansion but anyone who pay seven million for this place can surely afford to replace the existing kitchen with something more stylish and/or suitable for a house of this magnitude.

The bulk of the property's landscaped grounds are at the front of the house where's there's a giant circular drive but there are balconies and terraces all around, some with city views, and tucked back into the steep, planted hillside there's a lagoon-style swimming pool with waterfall.

In addition to the main manse, the impressively scaled compound includes a two story detached structure with a three car garage upstairs and a caretakers apartment plus art/music studio below. A second detached guest house sits high on the hillside above the swimming on a legally separate lot and includes a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom according to listing details.

listing photos: Teles Properties

17 comments:

anay said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I'd be reaching for the white sage before even considering buying it, what with all that bad energy 'n all ...

Doug-G said...

I've always liked this house, though I think it would lend itself more to a unique lifestyle. So, let me go "six degrees" for a moment. As a reference, let me use Mama's post about Raymond Burr's old house:

http://realestalker.blogspot.com/search?q=raymond+burr

This house also needs "quirky" and perhaps a bit eccentric. At the time of this post Burr's former house was owned by Miles Copeland. Miles is the brother of the late Ian Copeland who was the step-cousin of Courteney Cox and (don't forget Courteney is from the South) also dated her.

With all this in mind, I suggest Courteney should buy this place. She's older and ripe for going a little off center. I think she's hot, so I'd be more than willing to team up and do this. God knows I'm crazy enough to pull it off! :) I just need someone with "production" budget. j/k

As a side note, the Realtor for this place is named "Ernie". Somehow that works.

jacksonville beach clubs said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Really doesnt look like a pleasant house to live in. And why do some people have those ugly puddles for frogs in the back. Thats not a swimming pool nor a decorative pool. And in a depressing crowded and dark place. I can understand the history of the place.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Lukey said...

I hate everything about this place, including the location. NO the other hand, I love KP & RB, I understand her break up with John Mayer was the result of her still close relationship with the brit comedian. Maybe they broke up over this ugly ass house.

Anyway I hope those two get back together because they just seemed so much in love. But, if they do, I hope they buy another love nest and dump this dump.

Petra's said...

It's fugly. Pure and simple.

commodity tips said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
lil' gay boy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lil' gay boy said...

I'm usually a sucker for vintage houses (even of the Mediterranean ilk) but this one has not weathered very well; not only does it seem that it would be an expensive proposition to return to glory, but given such a close perch over a busyt boulevard would make it, IMHO, a worthless exercise.

The only appeal I find is that it sits directly east of FLLW's Storer house, restored by Joel Silver over a decade ago...

Anonymous said...

suicide? eek.. no thank you...

Anonymous said...

When we see a body of water that green in the South, we throw a big rock in it first before we get in- to scare away the snakes.

Sandpiper said...

I expected to see Vincent Price and/or Russell Brand peering out from behind a drapery.

The house is rather charming but would rather have seen it staged in monochromatic white. Maybe next owner will donate existing furniture to Haunted Castle at Disneyland.

I say cut Betsy Johnson loose on the interiors!

Anonymous said...

I don't know what is worse - the broderie umbrella ceiling or the beehive in the dining room.
The pool I just can't look at, its too painful.

Flora

turesta, said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
mehndi design said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.