BUYER: Shonda Rhimes
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $4,599,000
SIZE: 4,895 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: A handsome, brick-faced residence set behind gates in the historically hoity-toity Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, described in marketing materials as an “English Country Manor,” was sold for $4,599,000 and real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak swears on her cherry red vintage Cadillac Seville the new owner is “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes. The 1920s-era residence, extensively restored and updated over a decade ago by designers Michael Mueller and Norman Wogan, measures in at a comfortably spacious but well short of huge 4,985-square-feet with five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.
A three-tiered fountain anchors the grassy front yard where, just off the slate-paved driveway, a discreet archway leads to a cozily compact porch and front door that opens to a marble floored center hall entry flanked by formal living and dining rooms. The graciously baronial living room has a fireplace and a small adjoining office while the dining room, with coffered ceiling and nearly floor-to-ceiling 24-pane casement windows, links through to a center island kitchen outfitted with up-to-date appliances and two-tone beige and brick colored stone counter tops on distressed wood cabinets. An informal dining area just off the kitchen has fireplace and the neighboring library/family room has a wood beamed ceiling and French doors to the backyard.
At least two of the guest/family bedrooms on the upper floor have luxuriously appointed private bathrooms, a third has a separate, window-lined study with extensive built-in desk space and the master suite features a vaulted ceiling, a fireplace, a cushioned window seat set between built-in wardrobes, and a bathroom with stone tile flooring, twin carved wood vanities, a free-standing soaking tub and a glass-enclosed shower space. A stone terrace along the rear of the residence gives way to a hedge girdled and pancake flat backyard with a small stretch of lawn, a heated swimming pool set into a stone terrace and a detached garage converted to a one-bedroom and one-bathroom poolside guesthouse.
Other notable amenities and creature comforts called out in marketing materials include new plumbing and electrical systems, rebuilt chimneys, a two-zone central heating and cooling apparatus, a comprehensive security system and an integrated stereo system throughout the house.
Miz Rhimes, listed as executive producer on a trio of upcoming TV movies as well as the legal drama series “For the People,” starring Anna Deveare Smith and Vondie Curtis-Hall, needs another home in the Hancock Park area about as much as an alley cat needs a surfboard. Property records and other online resources indicate the primetime television melodrama dynamo not only owns a two-family property on a leafy street just west of Hancock Park, purchased in July 2007 for $1.66 million, but also an 8,292-square-foot mansion on a prominent Hancock Park corner she snatched up in March 2010 for $5.6 million from indie musician Beck as well as an 8,398-square-foot Elmer Grey-designed Mediterranean villa purchased in 2014 for $8.8 million and previously owned by sitcom queen Patricia Heaton.
listing photos: Rodeo Realty
