If our Secret Santas happen to be reading this and have been racking their brains wondering what to get the hard-working team here at DIRT for Christmas, we’d like to direct their attention to this heavenly haven by the sea (by the sea, by the beautiful sea) in Big Sur that’s just surfaced on the market.
The 350-acre spread was acquired in the late 1920s by Ohio transplant Ralph Newell, who built a cattle ranch atop its bluffs. Over the years, Newell and his descendants would become deeply entrenched in the coastal community — for instance, Ralph’s son Bruce is a cofounder of the Big Sur Land Trust conservation group — but after three generations of ownership, the family is now ready to let go of their longtime homestead.
Occupying six parcels of land 10 minutes south of Big Sur’s landmark restaurant Nepenthe, the property contains six individual residences — a three-bedroom adobe rancho with adjacent guest house, plus four contemporary cottages. There are a total of 12 bedrooms and 10.5 baths between the various residences that combined offer almost 10,000 square feet of space.
Built circa 1930, the original house and guest house pour on the rustic charm with a cornucopia of appealing original features such as vaulted beamed ceilings, walls of whitewashed adobe bricks and canyon stones, huge picture windows, built-in bookshelves and niches, brick floors, and hand-painted decorative tile. Other highlights found in this portion of the property include an indoor and an outdoor swimming pool, a central fountain, manicured flower beds, and an established orange grove.
A fair distance away from the original residence, with a veritable forest of redwood trees standing in between, the property’s modern structures were added/rebuilt in 2009. Ranging in size from a 251-square-foot studio to an 1,832-square-foot two bedroom-two bath, the contempo bungalows have strong “VRBO ski condo” energy, but on the plus side, they all feature lofty ceilings and oversize windows by which one can observe surf crashing, condors flying, and grey whales migrating.
Along with its vast land acreage featuring year-round streams, the Newell Ranch also comes with a private 100-by-400-foot section of beach frontage. The rare and picturesque property is listed with Compass agent Jonathan Spencer for an asking price of $22 million.
