San Marino | $4.788 Million
A 1928 Mediterranean-style house with five bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, on a 0.76-acre lot
San Marino, a small city east of Pasadena, is best known as the home of the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, a complex established by the railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington that includes a collection of more than eight million manuscripts. Also in San Marino, a few blocks from this house, is the Old Mill, a museum run by the city that is believed to be the oldest commercial building in Southern California. Strict historic preservation laws mean that many San Marino homes built in the 1920s and 1930s still have their original facades. This house was designed by the architect Heth Wharton, who built a number of apartment complexes in the area.
Size: 5,759 square feet
Price per square foot: $831
Indoors: The house is set back from the street, behind a lawn and a circular driveway. The wood front door opens into a foyer with high ceilings, painted landscape scenes on the walls, an iron light fixture and a staircase with a wrought-iron railing.
To the left is a formal living room with a black-marble fireplace and casement windows facing the front porch. Off one side of the room is a study with built-in bookshelves and access to a covered patio; off the other is the primary suite, which has a large closet, a bathroom with heated floors and a wet bar.
Across the foyer is a formal dining room with red floral wallpaper and more casement windows facing the front porch. A nearby breakfast room is papered in a blue-and-orange lattice print that echoes the bright orange china cabinets and matching ceiling trim. The adjacent kitchen has cabinets painted the same color, and a ceiling and walls trimmed with white and blue subway tile. A laundry room off the kitchen connects this part of the house to a guest room with an en suite bathroom.
Upstairs, the hallway is open to the foyer below, and the largest of the second-floor bedrooms is to the right of the landing; it has a walk-in closet and an en suite bathroom tiled in pink and black (a popular color combination in homes of this period). Next door, a small room with plaid wallpaper and original cabinets could make a good nursery. Two more bedrooms, with built-in closets and original doorknobs, are off the main hallway; a private hallway connects them to a full bathroom with aqua and white tile.
Outdoor space: Behind the house is a covered patio with ample space for a dining table and additional furniture, along with an outdoor kitchen with a grill and a sink. A paved walkway connects the patio to a swimming pool with a fiberglass cover. A flat expanse of grass beyond the pool has space for play equipment or a garden, and the perimeter fence is lined with mature trees. The detached garage holds three cars.
Taxes: $59,856 (estimated)
Contact: Sarah Rogers, Compass, 626-390-0511; compass.com
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