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Wallace Neff-designed home in San Marino lists after 55 years for $6.8M

June 27, 2023

The foyer. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The formal dining room. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The wood-paneled library fitted with a billiard table. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The living room. The door on the right leads to the wood-paneled library. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The kitchen. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The butler’s pantry. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The pool and pool cabana. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

An aerial view of the pool and tennis court. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

The front facade. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

A wide circular driveway leads to the house’s front door. (Photo by Aerious Plus)

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For the first time in 55 years, a San Marino mansion by noted architect Wallace Neff is on the market.

The asking price is $6.75 million.

Designed in an Italian revival style, this 7,381-square-foot house sits on nearly 1 acre of park-like grounds with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

The listing calls it “a rare opportunity to update a historically significant and stately two-story home in one of the city’s premiere locations” across from The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden grounds.

Multiple listing service photos show the home is well-maintained, albeit dated. A wide circular driveway leads to the house’s front facade, embellished with black shutters.

The front door opens into a grand foyer with a staircase, one of two. There is also a service staircase. A fireplace anchors the formal living room, which leads to an impressive wood-paneled library with bookcases lining the wall.

Floral wall coverings match the drapes in the formal dining room. From there, a door swings into the butler’s pantry and beyond to the kitchen. Like the kitchen, has breakfast room’s walls feature the same floral pattern as the dining room.

A highlight of the second floor is the spacious primary suite. It has two dressing rooms and a full bathroom, one of four on this level.

The grounds feature a solar-heated pool, a pool cabana with a dressing room and a bathroom, and a lighted north-south tennis court.

Neff, who died in 1982 at 87, was known for designing period revival style homes for the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant and other Southern California celebrities. His most celebrated work is the Pickfair mansion in Beverly Hills, which he transformed from a lodge into a Tudor style for Hollywood power couple Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in 1927.

According to listing agent Bill Podley of DPP Real Estate, the San Marino home was built as a spec property by Neff’s brother-in-law, Thaddeus Up de Graff Jr., in 1929. The first owner was Stuart Llewellyn Williams, a real estate broker and Nevada gold mine owner, who bought it in 1930. It sold last in 1968 for $125,000.

Records show the home belongs to the family of Martha and E. Leroy Tolles. Martha Tolles, 101, is a best-selling author of the Katie and Darci children’s fiction series and the adult historical novel “Love and Sabotage.” Roy Tolles, who died in 2008 at 85, was a founding partner of the nationally recognized Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson.

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Orange County Register

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Wallace Neff-designed home in San Marino lists after 55 years for $6.8M

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