Inside A $115M Estate Once Owned By Hollywood Legends | On The Market | Architectural Digest

Welcome to the Alwood Estate in LA's exclusive Holmby Hills. The property was built in 1936 and has been home to some of Hollywood's most illustrious players. Sonny and Cher lived here while they filmed their TV show. Several studio heads have owned the property. Marilyn Monroe was a very, very frequent visitor. Recently Jay-Z and Beyonce hosted one of the most incredible Grammy Award parties at the estate. The home itself is comprised of just under 13,000 square feet of living space. We have nine bedrooms, 12 baths, and the most beautiful pool house slash guest house. This incredible property is currently on the market for 115 million dollars. Welcome to one of LA's most elegant grand foyers. As you can see, this two-story entrance hall really is the epitome of sophistication, elegance, and harks back to the time at which Alwood was built. The millwork, the plaster, the balustrade are all original to 1936, and they really do present the most glorious of entrances and welcomes to this incredible estate. So the room has some fantastic features which were really ahead of their time. The walls have secret panels that open up where you can house your silverware and is beautifully integrated into the millwork of the house. The fireplace in the formal dining room is just as elegant as the other public rooms in the home. It's hand-carved wood, beautiful marble inlays, you can just imagine having these incredible dinner parties here with a fireplace roaring during winter. This was conceived as the reception hall. Guests come in the beautiful front door, are let into here for appetizers, conversing, and then actually are able to go and access the rear grounds and the gorgeous rear elevation of the home. We've had the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Sam Ronson, and so many more luminaries that have congregated in this room as a pass-through to the rear gardens. We're now in the great parlor, which is really one of the most elegant parts of the house. This is where you do your formal entertaining, and if you look around, you can actually see the beautiful millwork that's been here since the 1930s. This was done by artisans. It's all hand-carved. You've got this gorgeous mantle with this really, really intricate detail. And then, of course, the most important aspect of the house is the scale. It really does have unmatched scale and volume. You can have a ballroom event in here, and this is just the formal living room of the house. So, you can imagine the events if the walls could talk. It would really be sensational. We just wrapped up the main level of the house. Now, let's head upstairs to the primary bedroom suite. We're now in the primary suite that really is reminiscent of Marie Antoinette. The room is lighter, brighter, and has the most beautiful and super intricate plaster and millwork throughout. These aren't just traditional crown moldings. They're actually hand-carved plaster. And once again, we have a fireplace that anchors the room. So, this is one of two primary bathrooms. As you can see, it's remained virtually unchanged since the 1930s. You have floor-to-ceiling marble, a really beautiful antique sink, and then an original tub. I think it has so much charm and character, and we really don't see this type of finish and marble work in new homes. It really is one of a kind. In today's day and age, we would call this the retreat. This is where you get banished when you're snoring, or you have to do some work, or you want to catch up on emails and don't want to do it in bed. It really has an elegance to it with these gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows that allow the room to be bathed in light, overlooking the oak tree reserve that dots the property. We're now in the junior primary suite, which is just as beautifully detailed as the main sleeping quarters. You've got gorgeous plasterwork, millwork throughout. It's en suite with its own bath. We're going to head down to the entertainment portion of the house. We're now at the lower level of the home, which is the entertainment wing. It's currently being used as a billiards area. However, originally, it was a screening room for some of Hollywood's biggest power players. There's actually four slots which would house the various projectors, and once one reel finished, they'd go on to the next one, and the next one, and so forth. The screening room was conceived by one of the previous owners, Joseph Schenk, who was the founder of 20th Century Fox Studios. I'm now in the Marilyn Monroe tunnel that was built for her. It leads out to the rear garden and provides the perfect discreet access point directly into Joseph Schenk's screening casting room. The good question is, why didn't she just come in the front door? First of all, Marilyn Monroe was the most famous of actresses during that time period. However, it is also rumored that she was having a tryst with the head of the studio at the time, and she would sneak in to the lower level of the house unnoticed. To get to the legendary pool house, you have to walk through the park-like grounds. It's five acres in and of itself. The trees that dot the property are several hundred years old. We've got oak trees and the most majestic of magnolias behind us. We are now at the legendary Esther Williams pool and pool house. Esther Williams was one of the most important actresses of Hollywood's heyday. She originated the swimming movies. She was an Olympic athlete. Of course, she had the pool that grounds the lower portion of what is now the Alwood Estate. I'd love to show you inside the guest house. Let's go on in. We're now in Esther Williams' legendary pool house. In fact, the pool house predates the construction of the Alwood residence. When permits were pulled, we noticed that the guest house was completed in the 1920s. Alwood itself was not finished until 1936. Thank you again for touring LA's iconic Alwood Estate. The property is the largest in all of Holmby Hills and rests on 10 park-like acres. The home itself is just under 13,000 square feet with nine bedrooms, 12 baths, a beautifully proportioned guest house, Olympic-sized pool, and really substantial tennis court. And all of this is on the market for $115 million.