Top Property: Vincent Price's Spanish Revival at Holmby Hills

LOS ANGELES - This is not just any estate in Holmby Hills. This Spanish Revival sprawls more than an acre and a half and used to be home to the man who thrilled us on screen and in song: Mr. Vincent Price.

“When he lived here Elvis Presley played football in the park down the street and Marilyn Monroe lived across the street,” said Coldwell Banker Global Luxury real estate agent Joyce Rey, who shares the listing with Timothy Di Prizito.

The two explain Price lived at 580 North Beverly Glen for almost twenty years with his wife Mary and daughter Victoria. Divorce led to selling it – something Victoria says her mother was against. Instead, Victoria says her mother wanted to keep it as a joint business investment, but Price didn’t. So, in 1974, she says, “they sold it for something like $238,000. As it went into $1.4 million, $4.1 million he would call up my mom and say, ‘you were right.’ ”

Originally built in 1927, the home has been meticulously maintained, restored and expanded. Today the living space spans close to 12,000 sq. ft, including a guest house. Overall, there are eight bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and worth noting: a two-story chandelier entry, grand living room with trussed ceiling and Juliet’s balcony, and dramatic master suite with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, fireplace, walk-in closets and a secret door that leads to the kids’ wing. 

The gated grounds that look like a fairytale forest also include a pool, tennis court, rose gardens, long motor-court and a private lanai where Price kept a 25-foot totem pole. That work of art is no longer standing there but the original patio fountain remains. 
Perhaps the greatest secret feature, as it relates to Price, is the downstairs classic screening room complete with original projectors.  

Asking price for Price’s now much pricier home: $20,995,000.

Letting all those zeroes sink in, Victoria says with a smile, “My dad is calling my mom somewhere going ‘you were right!’”