The Manor (Los Angeles)

Description

The Manor is a French chateau-style mansion with 123 rooms and 56,000 square feet (5,200 m²) of space on more than 4.6 acres (1.9 ha). It is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Aaron Spelling—widely known as the television producer of series including Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Charmed—built The Manor as his private residence.

Designed by architects James Langenheim & Associates and built in 1988 at a cost of $12 million, the two-story house is 51.5 feet (15.7 m) high with a basement and an intermediate level for closets between the second story and attic. The house includes a screening room, gym, bowling alley, three rooms for wrapping presents, four two-car garages, tennis court, and pool. The parking lot accommodates 100 vehicles, and there are also 16 carports. Spelling razed the mansion which previously occupied the site and had been built in 1932 by Gordon Kaufmann and later owned by Bing Crosby.

Controversy and critical reception

At the time of its construction, the project spawned a controversy over its massive size and ostentatious architecture. In April 1988, the Los Angeles Times asked:

What's bigger than a football field, smaller than Hearst Castle, has a bowling alley and an entire floor of closets, and is making some people very annoyed? Aaron and Candy Spelling's 56,500-square-foot (5,250 m²) mansion in Holmby Hills. The French chateau, under construction now for two years, has turned the corner of Mapleton and Club View drives into a gawker's paradise. Sprawled across 6 acres (2.4 ha) on what once was the Bing Crosby estate, the house dwarfs the sizable mansions on the block and looms large over tranquil Holmby Park near Wilshire Boulevard.

After its completion, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Sam Hall Kaplan panned the structure as one of the region's worst projects built in the 1980s:

Aaron Spelling residence, which at 56,500 square feet (5,250 m²), should be considered a congregate living facility and not a single-family home, and therefore in violation of Holmby Hills zoning. What Spelling's folly is, of course, is a sad commentary on the distorted values that have taken the architectural form of monster mansions at a time when tens of thousands of persons are homeless.

In popular culture

The Spelling mansion has also been referenced in pop culture. People magazine ran a feature on the massive home, and performer John Perry composed a calypso/rap novelty song about the house called "The Ballad of Aaron and Candy (An Ode to Spelling's Dwelling)". Some of the lyrics were:

See Candy's jewels, see Aaron's money,

Aaron doesn't think being picked on is funny.
See Candy's clothes, see Aaron's pad
See Aaron and Candy's castle make the neighbors mad.
But they're livin' in splendor high above the crowds
60,000 square feet of heaven.
That's Spelling's dwelling, I said

In the movie Legally Blonde, Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) described her social standing to Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) this way: "I grew up in Bel Air [sic], Warner. Across the street from Aaron Spelling."

In the sitcom Will & Grace several episodes of season five make reference to "a gift-wrapping room like Candy Spelling has".

Recent status

Spelling died in the mansion on June 23, 2006, from complications of a stroke, at the age of 83. The house was discussed in his obituary:

Mr. Spelling himself, though a self-effacing and extremely shy man in private, put his own vast wealth on display in the late 1980s when he and his wife, Candy, supervised the construction of their home in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. The structure, which like his shows drew mostly scathing reviews, eventually contained 123 rooms over about 56,000 square feet (5,200 m²). It was said to include a bowling alley, an ice rink and an entire wing devoted to his wife's wardrobe.

The Manor was listed for sale in 2009 at an asking price of $150 million—making it the most expensive home listing in America. When the house was listed, Candy Spelling called it the "greatest entertainment house ever" with a "kitchen where you can cook for two or 800". In her 18 years living at The Manor, Spelling recalled, "All the stars came through, Prince Rainier, Prince Charles, Jackie Kennedy—every star from every one of Aaron's shows."

In July 14, 2011, the house was sold to 23-year-old socialite Petra Stunt, daughter of Formula One racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone for $85 million—one of the largest real estate sales in Los Angeles County. Subsequently the chandeliers, wall lights and fireplace mantels were removed by the new owner and the interior was updated. But by July 2014, it was reported that she was looking to sell the mansion for $150 million. In October 2016, the Manor was relisted with Rick Hilton and David Kramer of Hilton & Hyland with an asking price of $200 million. In February 2017, it was reported that singer Beyoncé and her husband Hip-hop mogul Jay Z had secretly visited the property.