Here’s your rare chance to own a home where Hollywood star Katharine Hepburn once held court.
The late actress, who holds the record for the most Best Actress Oscars (with four), rented a 1927-built “Mexican-style hacienda” in Los Angeles’ Coldwater Canyon neighborhood, a scenic swath tucked between Beverly Hills and Studio City, when she first moved there during Hollywood’s “golden” era. The stunning spread is now on the market, asking $7.39 million.
Hepburn relocated to California from New York in 1932, when she was trying to transition from Broadway to the big screen. The “Philadelphia Story” lead was married, but it was during that time that she allegedly started seeing her agent, Leland Hayward — and this manse is the reported site of the affair. Later, when they were both divorced, Hepburn ultimately declined Hayward’s marriage proposal.
The house, at 2320 Bowmont Drive, has five bedrooms and 5½ bathrooms spread over almost 5,000 square feet — plus a dressing room fit for a star, complete with lightbulb-lined mirrors. (Although that was probably added after she vacated the premises.)
Inside, reddish floors, beamed wooden ceilings and whitewashed brick walls set a rustic mood. Exotically patterned tiles line the stairs. Romantic chandeliered light fixtures and a generous number of fireplaces are also decidedly old-school — in the good way — but the home has all the contemporary conveniences, too.
Outside, a ruddy terra cotta roof and white brick walls set a quaint backdrop for modern amenities: a cozy lounge area in a courtyard with a pizza oven, plus a heated pool and some lush landscaping, set over an acre. Recliners and a sweet wooden hut, with strung-up canopies for shade, fill the garden.
Five years after Hepburn first moved in, the house sold to another Hollywood big shot, Boris Karloff — a Brit best known for playing Frankenstein in the series of monster movies that were released throughout the 1930s.
Reports cite Karloff’s memoir as proof that Hepburn thought the house was haunted, with a ghost “moving the furniture and jiggling.”
“You and your family can roam where legends once did,” implores broker Edward Fitz, who has the listing with The Agency.