Listing of the Day
Location: Pasadena, California
Price: $2.995 million
From their couch in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the classic hacienda in Pasadena seemed to have it all: historic charm, an interesting backstory, California cool, and a big 1950s swimming pool to boot. But Richard Whobrey and John Tanner soon discovered that the online listing only painted part of the picture.
"We fell in love with the idea of the house," Mr. Whobrey said. "But when we had it inspected, we discovered that the house had not really been touched in 60 years."
The plumbing in the bathrooms didn’t work, all of the electrical wiring needed to be replaced and updated, and there was no heat nor air-conditioning.
The 1949 house was built and owned by Franklin Otis Booth Jr., philanthropist and great-grandson of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times.
Soon after closing on their new home in 2014, Mr. Whobrey and Mr. Tanner began a complete restoration and renovation.
"We loved the look of the house," Mr. Whobrey said. "We wanted to restore the parts of the house we loved and then get modern technology into it." They rescued everything they could, he said, including the original steel and leaded-glass windows and patio doors.
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They reproduced the solid Douglas fir interior doors and oak library cabinets, repaired and replaced the poplar wood paneling throughout the house, and replated and rewired the original iron light fixtures.
They estimate their renovation costs as $500,000 to $600,000.
Their broker, Brent Chang, has nothing but praise for their beautifully done, historic restoration.
"The original house is very recognizable," said Mr. Chang of Compass. "It’s a true Pasadena hacienda-style home."
The Stats
The 2,998-foot-square home has three bedrooms, three full baths and one half bath. The one-story house sits on a 0.4-acre lot.
Amenities
The gated property has a large swimming pool with a 323-square-foot casita, or pool house, with one bedroom and one bathroom. There is also a two-car detached garage.
On the outside, the couple repaired and replaced the copper gutters and downspouts, as well as the pool, driveway gate and brick walkways. The front yard now features drought-resistant landscaping.
The state-of-the-art kitchen includes a Sub-Zero 72-bottle wine cooler; Sub-Zero refrigerator, two freezer drawers, and two beverages drawers; Wolf eight-burner range with double ovens and a Wolf hood; a pair of Rohl sinks, with Waterworks and Rohl fixtures; under-counter microwave; and two Bosch dishwashers. The counters, island, backsplashes and sills are made of solid-slab Carrera marble.
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Celebrity Cachet
At the Los Angeles Times, Franklin Otis Booth Jr. was responsible for the printing of the newspaper in the 1950s. In 1968, he became corporate vice president of the Times Mirror Corporation in charge of forest products and commercial printing.
Booth was also a canny real estate investor and became one of the earliest and largest shareholders in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway. He later became known as the "accidental billionaire."
After his retirement from the L.A. Times in 1972, Booth invested in agriculture, amassing 9,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley devoted to orange groves, citrus packing houses, and cattle-raising. In 2007, Forbes Magazine put him at No. 204 on its list of wealthiest Americans.
Otis Booth Jr. died in 2008 at the age of 84.
Neighborhood Notes
The house is in the highly desirable Langham Hotel area of Pasadena. "It’s an area with wide streets, big yards and those old gated estates," Mr. Chang said.
Agent: Brent Chang, Compass
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