After eight months on the market, the Los Angeles estate known as Chartwell just got $50 million cheaper. As of Monday, it’s priced at $195 million, down from $245 million.
The palatial estate in L.A.’s Bel Air neighborhood is famous for being the set for the 1960s sitcom “Beverly Hillbillies.” You might have heard the story about Jed Clampett, the poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed. “Then one day when he was shooting at some food, up through the ground come a bubblin crude. Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea,” the catchy theme song went.
What was the first thing ol’ Jed did? He “loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly – Hills, that is. Swimming pools, movie stars.” In the TV series, their banker, Mr. Drysdale lived next door and his secretary, Miss Jane Hathaway, was often in the Clampett’s mansion trying to get the hillbilly family out of one scrape or another.
The limestone mansion was designed by Sumner Spaulding in the 1930s in a French Neoclassical style. There are 11 bedrooms, 18 full bathrooms, and a 12,000-bottle wine cellar. The house is set on more than six acres with manicured gardens and water fountains. There’s a 75-foot pool with an adjacent pool house that connects to the mansion via an underground tunnel. There’s also a tennis court. And for visiting family you love but want to keep at a distance, there’s a five-bedroom guesthouse.
Chartwell's prior owner was the now-deceased CEO of Univision, billionaire Jerrold Perenchio. He bought the house in 1986 for $13.5 million and added to the property by purchasing adjoining land, including one lot he bought from Ronald Reagan.
If Chartwell sells for its full asking price, it wouldn’t be a record. The most expensive residential sale was billionaire Ken Griffin's purchase of a New York condo for $238 million earlier this year.
