Featured image credit: David Sawyer
It may be a historic love of the frontier days that gave LA its proliferation of Spanish-style home designs, but admiration for the Spanish house is still strong in the city’s present day. Who can deny the rustic charm of the clay tile roofing and stucco walls that recount the adobes of old, the gracefully arching windows and entries, and the decorative elements of wood and wrought iron? It’s no surprise that several celebrities have committed to the Spanish house over the decades, extending back to the initial housing trends of the silent film era.
Marilyn Monroe’s Only Home Was a Spanish House
With her life cut short at age 36, actress, model, and American icon Marilyn Monroe bought just one home in her life… and it was a Spanish-style home. The 1929 four-bedroom Brentwood beauty cost her just $75,000 (roughly equivalent to $830,000 today when adjusted for inflation). Monroe’s Spanish home offered her a sense of privacy, but she didn’t get to enjoy it for very long. She wouldn’t even live a year in the 2,600-square-foot gated home before her tragic passing. It remains one of LA’s most recognized homes to this day.
The Spanish-Style Home That Survived a Celebrity Plane Crash
Marilyn Monroe is a tough act to follow for anyone, but unless you’re an architecture aficionado, you’ve likely never heard of Wallace Neff. Instrumental to the designs that defined California, Neff was partial to the Spanish-style home. In 1926, he designed a Beverly Hills home that made liberal use of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. The home itself was never owned by a celebrity, but it was almost destroyed by one.
In 1946, eccentric entrepreneur Howard Hughes was personally testing his experimental XF-11 military aircraft when he crashed, slashing through the second-floor bedroom, narrowly missing the occupants themselves, and almost dying in the process. We don’t know what’s more surprising… that Hughes survived or that the house did after being bisected by a military craft.
Gwen Stefani’s Los Feliz Spanish House and Its Trail of Celebrities
Though she’s since sold it, No Doubt alum Gwen Stefani owned a 5,000-square-foot Spanish home in the Los Feliz neighborhood where she lived with her husband at the time, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale. Built in the 1920s, the Spanish-style home features soaring 25-foot ceilings, a lavish two-story entryway, and gorgeous French doors that lead to a tiled courtyard patio. Stefani isn’t the only celebrity to own the Los Feliz abode. In 2013, Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson purchased the property, but sold it in 2021 for $7.1 million. Robert Pattinson also resided in the home, and Leonardo DiCaprio is said to have purchased it for his mother.
John Stamos’s Ful…filling Spanish House
Full House star and sometimes Beach Boy John Stamos purchased his Spanish house in Beverly Hills in 2005. The earth-toned example enjoys further beautification courtesy of designer Chris Barrett, whom Stamos met during his time on Full House. While the Spanish style adds a lived-in, historic feel, the actor takes it even further, personalizing his home with unique details, such as framed letters from his late parents.
Nina Dobrev’s Spanish-Style House with European Flair
The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev is part of the Spanish house club too, securing her 1920s West Hollywood home in 2018 for $3.1 million. The property was famously renovated as part of Architectural Digest’s “Open Door” series. During the segment, professionals worked with Dobrev to strike a balance between the home’s historic architecture, the actress’s Bulgarian heritage, and European influences informed by her travels.
Adam Carolla’s Customized Casa
Comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla has long billed himself as a “home buff”. But if you don’t want to take his word for it, you need only look to his former 1921 Spanish-style home, still standing in the La Cañada Flintridge community. Carolla remodeled the home himself, laying authentic Batchelder tiles to bring further beauty to the fireplace.
The Right Place, Regardless of the Time
It’s no surprise that celebrities enjoy a lovingly constructed Spanish house as much as anyone. But this style does particularly well in the Southern California climate where blending the indoors with the outdoors is an art form. Earth-toned courtyards, old-world charm, and thick, insulating walls are still just as appreciated in LA today. And a Spanish-style home can be especially attractive to celebrities who didn’t choose the spotlight, owing to the architecture’s sense of privacy and rustic sensibility over exterior flash.
With a brand that says as much as JohnHart’s, Senior Copywriter Seth Styles never finds himself at a loss for words. Responsible for maintaining the voice of the company, he spends each day drafting marketing materials, blogs, bios, and agent resources that speak from the company’s collective mind and Hart… errr, heart.
Having spent over a decade in creative roles across a variety of industries, Seth brings with him vast experience in SEO practices, digital marketing, and all manner of professional writing with particular strength in blogging, content creation, and brand building. Gratitude, passion, and sincerity remain core tenets of his unwavering work ethic. The landscape of the industry changes daily, paralleling JohnHart’s efforts to {re}define real estate, but Seth works to maintain the company’s consistent message while offering both agents and clients a new echelon of service.
When not preserving the JohnHart essence in stirring copy, Seth puts his efforts into writing and illustrating an ongoing series entitled The Death of Romance. In addition, he adores spending quality time with his girlfriend and Romeo (his long-haired chihuahua mix), watching ‘70s and ‘80s horror movies, and reading (with a particular penchant for Victorian horror novels and authors Yukio Mishima and Bret Easton Ellis). He also occasionally records music as the vocalist and songwriter for his glam rock band, Peppermint Pumpkin.
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