For those seeking the ultimate refuge from an upcoming zombie apocalypse, few places in Southern California compare to this one-of-a-kind Glendora mansion. Located in L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley, in the quiet bedroom community of Glendora, the modern house is perched atop a tall mountain, thousands of feet above the city below. And it’s on a 33-acre parcel of land, meaning the nearest neighbors aren’t within sugar-borrowing distance — you’ll actually be commuting to get to them.
But inarguably the best part of the property are its astonishing jetliner views. On a clear day, nearly the entirety of the greater SoCal basin is visible, from snowcapped Mount Baldy and the Inland Empire to the fireworks at Disneyland and Newport Harbor, to the Downtown L.A. skyline and beyond to Catalina Island and the Pacific Ocean.
Stashed away behind not one but two security gates — it’s in a gated community within another gated community — the property is bordered by open wilderness land, the Angeles National Forest and the historic Bluebird Ranch Mountain Preserve, a one-time haven for Hollywood’s silent movie stars like Charlie Chaplin. The late ’80s modernist residence was originally crafted and engineered by the California architecture firm AC Martin Partners.
Completed in 1990, the one-of-a-kind synthetic stucco behemoth features 5,000-plus square feet of living space on split levels encompassing four bedrooms and three baths. Sustainability is also at the forefront, and the place is complete with solar panels and a passive solar design that employs skylights and walls of glass to minimize energy use. A “living roof” — with 18 inches of earth and grassy plantings atop the bunker-like home’s ceilings — also helps keep the house comfortable year-round and is ideal spot for a real rooftop garden.
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Image Credit: Zillow Still, the semi-remote mountaintop location means you’re nearly an hour outside of L.A. by car, a drag for commuting. But those pesky cars can be avoided altogether, provided you’ve got the funds — the property will transfer with its own helipad, installed by the current owner, who owns and frequently travels via his own helicopter.
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Image Credit: Zillow So what helicopter-traveling titan built this extravagant estate — was it a Hollywood celebrity, billionaire business magnate, or perhaps a Bond villain? None of the above, surprisingly — records show the property was built (and is still owned) by Dr. Timothy Ferguson, a local physician and real estate heir whose family owned hundreds of acres of the surrounding land. County records reveal the Ferguson family sold a substantial swath of their Glendora land holdings in 2005 for $19 million to a local conservancy, though they appear to still retain hundreds of local acres.
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Image Credit: Zillow The Ferguson home’s centerpiece: a massive great hall, which connects the manse’s three separate wings. There are a spacious living room, library, office, a game room, kitchen and the bedrooms. In addition to the rooftop gardens, there are multiple outdoor decks from which to enjoy the unparalleled scenery. Plus, an attached garage can accommodate five luxury vehicles, just in case the helicopter’s not readily at hand.
Jade Knight of Hill Top Real Estate serves as the listing agent.
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GlendoraHouse7
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