You can look out at the city and enjoy the city, but you still feel like you're in your own little world. What its all-white rooms lacked, however, was personality. We travel so much. I didn't want our home to feel like a hotel room. We're a young family. We have kids and a dog. We wanted it to feel like us.
Spanning 6.5 acres, the grassy property centers on a two-story estate full of elegant living spaces and custom amenities. Three arched doorways mark the entry, leading into a chandelier-topped foyer with dual staircases. Elsewhere in the 12,862-square-foot interior are seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a wood-paneled living room, a formal dining room with a fireplace and an eat-in kitchen anchored by an oversized island.
L.A. contractor and noted partyer Hal B. Hayes built the home in 1953, erecting a six-level steel-and-glass showplace that would serve as the ultimate bachelor pad. According to The Times, he included a mirrored master suite, orchid greenhouse, rooftop garden and artificial beach for topless tanning, but the main highlight came in the custom swimming pool.
For many in these animal-friendly open doors, the inclusion of a creature or two is indicative of the overall attitude of their home: They live in family spaces that are ready to absorb whatever damage kids or animals might throw at it. For others, animals might be confined to a certain space, allowing investment furniture pieces to escape unscathed from any unwanted scratch marks or stains.
Twelve weeks after coming on the market, the Surrey house used to portray the home of actress Maggie Smith's character, Lady Violet Crawley, found a buyer and recently closed along with several adjacent properties for nearly $9 million. Known as Dower House on the TV series, it was built around 1686.
Smathers' style is evidenced by high ceilings, terrace balconies and formal areas designed for small and large-scale entertaining. Hedged privacy walls and eucalyptus trees, landscaped grounds feature a brick-lined patio, an outdoor dining room, a swimming pool and formal gardens.
They've done some wonderful brick work. There are some brick steps with inset lights leading down to a new pool in the back yard. The late actor's pool on another part of the 2.5-acre property has been filled with concrete, and the statuary he had installed has been sold.
With its five-story living room, 200 tons of stonework, soaring redwood beams and five-foot-thick, 14-foot-high, 2,000-pound front door, the triangular temple is still spectacular. Which is not to say that the former playboy's paradise has been turned into anything resembling a traditional home.
The actor commissioned local architect William Kesling to build the retreat close to the studios so he could go there during filming. The Streamline Moderne design, with exterior horizontal "speed lines" and wing-like pergola gates, reflects Beery's love of aircraft and flying.
