Former San Marino estate of USC presidents breaks sales record
A San Marino estate that housed USC presidents for more than four decades sold to an unknown buyer for $25 million, up 2% from the initial asking price.
Tuesday’s deal is the biggest property sale in the city to date, data from the Multiple Listing Service shows.
Measuring 12,870 square feet, the American Colonialstyle Seeley Mudd Estate has eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. It sits on 7-plus acres near the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens on land that Gen. George Patton and Henry Huntington donated.
Mudd, a former Keck School of Medicine dean who died in 1968 at 72, left the mansion to USC.
Presidential families first took up residence there in 1979 when it also became the site for large gatherings, from gala events to holiday parties. Students who couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving were invited to a traditional annual dinner in a huge tent on the lawn.
“It is a property with a celebrated history, and that is something that is appreciated by the people that purchased it,” said Richard Williamson of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty, who represented the buyers.
Although he wouldn’t divulge their identities, Williamson said his clients intend the property “for private use.”
The home was designed by Pasadena-based architect Reginald Davis Johnson and completed in 1934. It has undergone several ren
ovations, introducing modern conveniences without stripping it of historic details such as original walnut hardwood flooring, imported 17th-century wood paneling, door hardware and steel windows.
Fireplaces anchor the living room, dining room and master suite sitting room.
And like most grand houses of the era, it has a porte-cochere.
Spread across the private grounds are a sunken championship tennis court, swimming pool and carriage house, complete with a gas station, car wash bay and full garage pit for mechanical work underneath a vehicle.
“The property was lovingly maintained by the university over the years and it has had infrastructure updates, but there’s always some improvement that can be done,” Williamson said.
Last year, USC decided to sell the historic property
after revenue losses brought on by high-profile sexual abuse and college admissions scandals (not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic). It sought $24.5million in February and got multiple offers.
By March, it was under contract.
“Our plan from the beginning was to expose the
property for two weeks and then take offers,” said Brent Chang of Compass, who shared the listing with Douglas Elliman agents Ernie Carswell and Austin Alfieri. “Buyers were eager to submit after the first few days, but to ensure exposure, we waited and ultimately ended up with many more offers than expected.
More importantly, all but one were viable. The fine tuning of the accepted offer took a bit more time, but it really never became available again.”
USC since has purchased an $8.6 million modern, eco-friendly home in Santa Monica. It is occupied by the current president, Carol Folt.