Post by Graveyardbride on Mar 28, 2017 9:57:11 GMT -5
For Sale: Bela Lugosi’s Hollywood Home - $3 Million
It’s been over more than years since iconic cinema star Bela Lugosi slept in this stately Tudor dwelling at 2835 Westshire Drive in Beachwood Canyon, yet his reputation still haunts it. Whether it’s called Westshire Manor, Castle La Paloma, or simply the Bela Lugosi House, the remodeled mansion is now up for sale and the asking price is $3 million. The hillside Los Angeles neighborhood where this house is perched is right under the world-famous “Hollywood” sign, and is in fact still known as “Hollywoodland,” which is what the sign read when it was first constructed.
Best known for playing Count Dracula, Lugosi moved around Los Angeles and was hard to pin down, but the best sources place him in this particular home between 1934 and 1937. Apparently he, his fourth wife, Lillian, and their large dogs, including Great Danes and a white German Shepherd, enjoyed hiking to what was the Hollywoodland sign at the time. Lugosi, who died August 16, 1956, at 73, played villains other than the vampire count. He starred in White Zombie (1932), Bride of the Monster (1955) and the posthumously released Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).
In the 1980s, New York Times bestseller and psychic Sylvia Browne was invited to Lugosi’s home with a group of paranormal investigators. In her 2011 book, Afterlives of the Rich and Famous, she claimed she came upon the room where Bela Lugosi’s “earthbound spirit remained.” Allegedly, she saw him lying in his wooden casket, wrapped in his signature Dracula cape, and he looked into Browne’s eyes and said: “You weren't invited.”
Lugosi wasn’t the only celebrity to inhabit the manor. Actress Kathy Bates lived there for several years. Considering her roles in Misery as well as American Horror Story, we thought Westshore Manor might have a scary actor vibe. But in 1999, Bates sold it for $859,000 to Jon Cryer of the decidedly non-frightening Two and a Half Men. Public records show he parted with it in 2004 for $1,367,000. A major remodel and restoration took place after Cryer left, boosting the price to its present amount.
So what is it about the manse that has intrigued celebrities for decades? Built by Frank W. Green in the 1920s, the house retains many vintage features, including a ballroom-size livingroom with stone fireplace, formal diningroom with iron-paned windows and library. There’s also a master suite with marble fireplace, original tile work and mahogany peg-and-groove flooring. Hand-wrought ironwork can be found throughout the home. But there are also features that would appeal to a modern buyer: an updated chef’s kitchen with Gaggenau appliances, wine cellar, heated in-ground spa, gym and an outdoor stone shower. All this, plus three bedrooms and four baths, is spread over 3,484 square feet on a large terraced lot. Some of the many fountains and water features on the grounds date to Lugosi’s time.
Sources: Lisa Johnson Mandrell, The Albany Times-Union, March 27, 2017, and Anna Hopkins, The Daily Mail, March 27, 2017.
