The Manor (Los Angeles)

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.[4] 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-story house with an exterior of imported limestone is 51.5 ft high with a basement and an intermediate level for closets between the second story 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.[5] A long winding driveway leads to a circular granite motor court, fountain and space for 100 cars, and there are also 16 carports.[4] Spelling razed the mansion that previously occupied the site[5] 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.[6]

At the time of its construction, the project spawned a controversy over its massive size and ostentatious architecture.[5] In April 1988, the Los Angeles Times asked:[5]

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:[8]

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)".[9] 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
Spelling's Dwelling....[9]

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."[10]

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

Spelling died in the mansion on June 23, 2006, from complications of a stroke, at age 83.[11] 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.[11]

The Manor was listed for sale in 2009 at an asking price of $150 million—making it the most expensive home listing in America.[12][13][14] 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".[4] 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."[4]

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[1]—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.[12][15] Subsequently the chandeliers, wall lights and fireplace mantels were removed by the new owner and the interior was updated.[16] But by July 2014, it was reported that she was looking to sell the mansion for $150 million.[17] In October 2016, the Manor was relisted with Rick Hilton and David Kramer of Hilton & Hyland with an asking price of $200 million.[18] In February 2017, it was reported that singer Beyoncé and her husband Hip-hop mogul Jay Z had secretly visited the property.[19]

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.[20]

• List of largest houses in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
• List of largest houses in the United States