In San Diego, a $40 Million Beachfront Mansion Exudes the Elegance of a Bygone Era
For some, the perfect southern California beach house would be a sleek and glassy affair, and for others, it might be a simple wood-framed cottage. At the turn of the 20th century, in California’s San Diego area, fanciful Queen Anne-style Victorians were all the rage across the seaside resort community. But, for one man, banker/rancher Bartlett Richards, his vision of the ideal beachfront family home in San Diego was an opulent Tudor Revival mansion on Coronado Island, just across the bay from downtown and just down the street from the then new-ish but nowadays venerable Hotel del Coronado. And, if an elegant home that glows with the patina of time is also your idea of the perfect beach house, the old Richards residence, now known as Crown Manor, can be yours for the price of $40 million.
Dedicated in 1979 as a Coronado Historical Landmark, the property benefits from Mills Act Designation, which provides a reduction in taxes in exchange for the continued maintenance and preservation of historic buildings. Crown Manor is co-listed with Seth Nelson, Fredrik Eklund, and Jackie Guthrie of The Eklund/Gomes Team OC at Douglas Elliman.
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The grand residence, set at the head of a horseshoe drive behind a brick privacy wall and fortified gates, was designed by Irving Gill and William S. Hebbard, two of San Diego’s most influential architects. The original part of the home, a stately two-and-a-half-story red brick structure with high-pitched gables and half-timbering, was completed in 1902. It was later expanded.
Today the house measures in at a by-any-standard commodious 23,957 square feet and counts seven bedrooms—and as many as five more—and nine bathrooms, plus another seven powder rooms, among its more than 40 rooms. The property spans almost two-thirds of an acre and has 160 feet of frontage along the beach, though technically, the house sits across the street from the beach.
When Carol and Mort Paster paid $650,000 for the property in the mid 1970s, only one of the home’s dozen-plus bathrooms was working—they spent several years updating and restoring—and in the 1990s, then owner Larry Lawrence hosted Bill Clinton for a fundraiser. It was Lawrence, owner of the Hotel del Coronado until he died in 1996, who dubbed the aristocratic mansion Crown Manor. The current owners acquired the property about 20 years ago and, according to online records, have had the home on and off the market a few times since early 2018.
Beyond the stone lions that stand sentry outside the stained-glass front doors, a series of lavishly appointed public rooms feature numerous preserved original features, such as wood floors inlaid with an interlocking geometric pattern. The 1,000-square-foot wood-paneled living room features the original gold-leafed ceiling; brocade wall panels animate the formal dining room, which will easily seat more than 20 people; and delicate floral stenciling animates the walls and ceiling of the ocean-facing ballroom.
Elsewhere are a fireside billiards room, a spacious breakfast room, and a sprawling service complex with a huge butler’s pantry and a commercial-style kitchen. Tucked up into the sloped-roofed attic, a multi-room beauty salon and spa space is complete with a hair-washing bowl and a manicure station. The house also has a wine cellar and a fitness/wellness area that includes an infrared sauna and an egg-shaped tanning bed.
The nearly two-thirds-acre property is walled for security and landscaped for privacy and relaxed enjoyment. At the back of the house, mature plantings shade a wind-protected courtyard. Other backyard highlights include a grassy area with a fountain, a poolside terrace with a built-in grill and an outdoor fireplace, and a rectangular pool long enough to swim laps.
Click here for more photos of Crown Manor.
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