Ray Charles | House Tour | From His Childhood Home to Beverly Hills Mansion

In 2019, a trophy property once owned by the late Ray Charles, often called the Father of Soul, came up for sale at about 10.7 million dollars. This single level home likely looked a little bit different when Ray lived here, and in recent years, it's been completely remodeled into a contemporary style pad. While the legendary musician passed away in 2004, he had experienced quite the success and came a long way from his small childhood home in Greenville, Florida. Today, we'll check out some of his former properties, we even found the listings. In these videos we don't reveal any addresses and even though I've done a house tour of my own place, please do not show up at any private residences because it's not safe for anyone. Ray Charles Robinson was a singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer who passed away in 2004, but his legacy and music lives on. He was often referred to as the genius as well as the father of soul, pioneering the genre during the 1950s by combining blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles while he was recording music for Atlantic. Later, when he was signed to ABC Records, Ray became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company. While Ray was blinded during childhood at the age of 7 due to glaucoma, this never stopped or slowed him down in the slightest. In fact, he said this himself. Ray told the New York Times. I was going to do what I was going to do anyway. I played music since I was 3 I could see then. I lost my sight when I was 7 so blindness didn't have anything to do with it. It didn't give me anything and it didn't take nothing. He had his keyboards marked with Braille and never once let his disability limit him. Charles' 1960 hit song Georgia On My Mind was the first of his top 3 career number one hits on the charts, and went on to release hit albums as well. For his contributions to music, Ray received multiple awards and accolades including a National Medal of Arts, and won 17 Grammys, including 5 after his passing in 2004. At the time of his passing, Ray's estimated net worth was said to be 75 million dollars. He reportedly left most of his money and real estate to the Ray Charles Foundation, his charity that supports the vision and hearing impaired. Another chunk of his estate went to 500 thousand dollar trust funds he left for each of his 12 children. Hey guys, it's Kara the Vampire Slayer and I'm bringing you another house tour here on Famous Entertainment. Be sure to hit that subscribe button and ring that bell, we post a new video daily. Today we're gonna take a look at the Beverly Hills mansion Ray Charles called home before he passed away, as well as a few of his other properties prior to this. If you like this video, we've also done house tours on other music legends such as Aretha Franklin and Prince, which we'll link to at the end. As usual, don't forget to follow me on Instagram to chat, and now, let's get into this video. First we'll take a look at the childhood home where Ray grew up, and it's a far cry from how he was living once he found success. His boyhood home can be found in Northern Florida in a small town called Greenville, and it's still maintained in an excellent condition. Ray lived in this little house since he was an infant with his mother until she passed away while he was still a kid. The home was scheduled to be demolished in 2006, but was saved by the Greenville mayor, who at the time was actually a childhood friend of Ray's, and then it was restored in 2009. Now the home is a historic landmark for the town, and a tourist attraction. A fence surrounds the property, and now there's a historical marker out front. Ray's childhood house was likely built during the 1920s, and it had no electricity or plumbing. There was a wood burning stove, a fireplace, and a hand pump next to the house that supplied them with well water. When Ray was 7, he was sent away to a school for the deaf and blind, but returned to visit his mother for many years here until she passed away when he was only 15. Now while we don't have much to go on for this next home, Ray used to live in this house in Leimert Park with his family back in the 1960s. This home was also shown in the film Ray, the biopic from 2005. There are no interior photos available of this house, but from listing materials, we know the house spanned 2,644 square feet of space with 4 beds and 3 baths. It's also estimated to be worth about 1.2 million dollars in current times. Leimert Park is a neighborhood located in South Los Angeles, which was developed in the 1920s as a residential community, and is full of Spanish colonial revival houses and tree lined streets. Another one of Ray's former homes, which they showed in the Hollywood movie, was this mansion sized abode he and his family upgraded to located in the View Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. This home was located just northeast of the Los Angeles airport, and production managed to film the house just before the current owners were carrying out renovations. View Park Windsor Hills is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles near LAX. It's said that Ray had this home built in 1956 when he came to California from Florida, and more recently it was on the market for about 1 million dollars. Ray's former mansion spans over 8,400 square feet of space with 6 beds and 7 baths, and sat on nearly an acre of land. Outside, the original swimming pool still graces the property, where an outline of one of Ray's pianos is etched in the bottom of the pool. The estate also boasts a tennis court and a view from downtown LA to the South Bay. Looking at the exterior, it seems the original style of the home still remains from when Ray was living here with his family, but the interiors have been upgraded since. Finally, in 2019, a trophy property that Ray used to call home came up on the market for 10.5 million dollars. Located in Beverly Hills, this single level home has been completely remodeled in recent years, taking on a super modern and contemporary look. The whitewashed exterior boasts a flat roof, and inside there's 3,600 square feet of space. Interiors are made up of open and sprawling living spaces with polished concrete floors and plenty of floor to ceiling windows. Most living areas offer sliding glass doors that open out to the swimming pool and patio. The entertainer's backyard has a vast terrace that connects to the swimming pool and spa, and all of the furniture, furnishings, and electronics were included with the sale of the property. Other features of this house included a sleek center island kitchen, sitting area with fireplace and mounted TV, and formal dining area. Views from the property overlook the surrounding canyons as well as the downtown skyline. The views are also present in the large master suite which is only one of 3 bedrooms, and there are also 4.5 baths throughout. Alright, so now we've taken a look at the homes of Ray Charles, aka the father of soul, and we can see how far he'd come from his quaint childhood home in Greenville, Florida. His main mansion was the one he built in the 1950s in the View Park neighborhood, and he had left that property to his family according to reports. It's just a shame we couldn't see more of the interiors. After seeing Ray's properties over the years, what did you guys think? I know I haven't done this in a while but I've been reading all your comments on our house tours lately and I'm going to be shouting you guys out again. I love sharing what you guys have to say about these gorgeous celebrity homes. These are from our recent Aretha Franklin house tour. Janice Hudson said Nice beautiful home. She definitely worked so hard to earn something like that. It's just a blessing. Her soul is resting. Thank the lord. She's free. RIP beautiful queen. I agree that Aretha's homes were beautiful and the hard work definitely paid off. Then Gypsy Fire wrote Wow she lived like a queen. Well deserved. And finally, Shed said The classic look is exquisite. Now the pink look is a personal preference understandable. It would have to go overall if I was a buyer. But some accents I really like. The classic red tub and the entryway. I too thought there were some things in Aretha's former home that would need to be upgraded and modernized, but there were also some eccentric features I would definitely keep. I love the classic look of her house. If you want me to shout out your comment next, be sure to drop one below and tell me what you thought about the homes of Ray Charles. If you haven't, go subscribe to my personal channel because I would love to get to know all of you better. We'll link you my latest video for you to check out. Alright, alright, alright. Oh my gosh. I'm going to start talking about David Berkowitz. So, like I said, David Berk. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and I will see you guys all in the next video. Bye!