The Manor (Los Angeles)

The Manor, also known as Spelling Manor, is a mansion located in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, across the street from Holmby Park. Constructed in 1988 for television producer Aaron Spelling, it is the largest house in Los Angeles County. It was subsequently owned by British heiress Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone purchased the home in 2011 for $85 million after it had been on the market for two years with an asking price of $150 million, making it the most expensive residential real estate listing in the US at the time. In June 2019, The Manor sold to an anonymous buyer for $119.7 million; the sale set a new record as the highest sale in California history.
Description.
The Manor is a 56,500-square-foot (5,250 m2) French chateau-style mansion which has 123 rooms (including 27 bathrooms and 14 bedrooms) and which sits in 5 acres of land. It is the largest home in Los Angeles County and is located on Mapleton Drive. Aaron Spelling, widely known as the television producer of series including "Dynasty", "Charlie's Angels", "The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island", "7th Heaven", "Melrose Place", "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-storey house with an exterior of imported limestone is 51.5 ft high with a basement and an intermediate level for closets between the second storey and the attic. The decor for the Spelling design was traditional and expensive, with Candy Spelling and her interior designer taking trips to Europe to buy the fixtures and art for the home. When first built, the house included a screening room, a gym, a room for Candy Spelling's doll collection, a basement bowling alley, a gift wrapping room, a flower cutting room, a barbershop, a humidity-controlled storage room, four two-car garages, a tennis court and a pool. A long winding driveway leads to a circular granite motor court, fountain and space for 100 cars, and there are also 16 carports. Spelling razed the mansion that previously occupied the site which was built in 1932 by Gordon Kaufmann and was later owned by Bing Crosby. In the summer of 2011, five years after her husband's death, Candy Spelling put the house on the market and sold it for $85 million to the Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone. Immediately after taking possession of the home in June 2011, Ecclestone overhauled the design of the mansion and hired designer Gavin Brodin to undertake the $20 million overhaul. After a three-week design period, it took approximately 500 workers just nine weeks to install the new furnishings chosen by Ecclestone. In 2016, she decided to sell up with the property being on and off the market for three years. Originally priced at $200 million, it was eventually dropped down to $160 million and it sold in early July 2019 for a record $120 million to Canadian multi-billionaire Daryl Katz, the owner of the Edmonton Oilers ice hockey team.
Detailed description.
The grand foyer has a monochrome colour scheme with a sweeping double staircase, black and white marble flooring, a crystal floating castle chandelier and Renaissance-style paintings.
The formal living room is a vast white-on-white space with three separate seating areas, an open marble fireplace and a grand piano.
The second living room is less formal and is decorated in a cool grey palette. The original bookcases have been swapped for two aquariums and a bar. It has twin French doors.
The formal dining room has a monochrome colour scheme. A 20-seater dining table sits below a low-hanging crystal chandelier crowned by a black ceiling rose. French doors lead to the expansive gardens.
The master suite has 7,000 sq ft of living space and includes a kitchen, a living room, his and hers closets and bathrooms and a bedroom decorated in black, white and grey.
A massive bathroom with a soaking tub, cove ceiling and three wall-length vanity mirrors makes up just one of the home’s 27 bathrooms.
The beauty salon, which once housed Candy Spelling's doll collection, has a monochromatic colour scheme.
The cinema has 20 custom theatre seats spread over two tiers with carpeted flooring, a coffered ceiling and a movie screen that rises from the floor.
The basement has been designed to resemble a nightclub with a bar, a pool room and a two-lane bowling alley.
Other notable features include two walk-in closets, a gigantic kitchen, a granite motor court for 100 cars, a solarium, a wine cellar, a game room, a gym and tanning rooms.
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 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 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.
In popular culture.
The Spelling mansion has also been referenced in popular 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:
<poem>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
Spelling's Dwelling...</poem>
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 , 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 age 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 . 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."
On July 14, 2011, the house was sold to 23-year-old socialite Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone for $85 million—one of the largest real estate sales in Los Angeles County. The sale was brokered by celebrity real estate agent Sally Forster Jones along with Rick Hilton and Jeff Hyland. 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.
In June 2019, The Manor sold to an anonymous buyer for $119.7 million, the sale set a new record as the highest sale in California history.