Holmby Hills Real Estate – Los Angeles California
Holmby Hills is an affluent neighborhood in western Los Angeles. It is bordered by the city of Beverly Hills on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, Westwood on the west, and Bel-Air on the north. Sunset Boulevard is the area’s principal thoroughfare.
Holmby Hills, Bel-Air, and Beverly Hills form the “Platinum Triangle” of Los Angeles’ priciest and most exclusive neighborhoods. Many of the estates in Holmby Hills boast panoramic views of the entire Los Angeles Basin. Many high-level entertainment industry executives, such as Interscope Records founder Jimmy Lovine, television producer Aaron Spelling, movie mogul Ray Stark, and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner (whose home is better known as the Playboy Mansion), currently reside or have previously resided in the area.
History of Holmby Hills
The first developer of the land that Holmby Hills, Westwood, and UCLA now occupy was Don Maximo Alanis, a Spanish soldier who obtained title to 4,438 acres under a Mexican land grant in 1843. He called it San Jose de Buenos Aires. In 1884, about 2,000 acres of this land came into the possession of a forty-niner named John Wolfskill, who paid $10 an acre for it and built a ranch house near the present-day LA Temple of the LDS Church.
The actual development of Holmby Hills began when millionaire Arthur Letts, Sr. purchased 400 acres of the original Wolfskill ranch at $100 an acre. Letts, who was born in England in 1862, had made his fortune by transforming a small, bankrupt dry goods business in Los Angeles into the Broadway Department Store empire. He was not only a shrewd businessman, but also a skilled horticulturist; the grounds of his Hollywood home were planted with a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers, and his cactus collection was known across the country.
His master plan for the prime land he had purchased in west L.A. was to create a neighborhood of grandiose estates. He personally christened the development “Holmby Hills,” which was loosely derived from the name of his birthplace, a small hamlet in England called Holdenby. Letts died suddenly in 1923, before he could realize his vision.
His son-in-law, Harold Janss, took over the project, which was billed as “The Ultimate in Residential Estate Development.” Zoning for the community, which straddles Sunset Boulevard, was designed to accommodate large lot sizes (up to 4 acres). Electric and telephone lines were buried beneath the wide, tree-lined streets to preserve the landscape. Handsome, English-style street lamps, designed exclusively for Holmby Hills, were erected throughout the neighborhood.
Among the first mansions built here in the late 1920s was the Tudor-style home of the founder’s son, Arthur Letts, Jr. Thanks to its lush landscaping, enormous lot sizes, and privacy, from the beginning Holmby Hills has attracted the rich and famous. In the 1950s, Walt Disney built his dream home here, which featured a miniature steam railroad, complete with 300 feet of track and a 90-foot long tunnel. Celebrities such as Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Gary Cooper, Barbara Streisand, Hugh M. Hefner and Sonny & Cher have all called Holmby Hills their home.
The Draw
Besides grand homes, the neighborhood has two parks ringed by mature sycamore trees.
Holmby Park is south of Sunset Boulevard, and the quaint De Neve Square is to the north. Holmby Park has two playgrounds, a nine-hole putting green and classic lawn bowling. The Armand Hammer Golf Course is named for the founder of Occidental Petroleum, who lived just up the block and enjoyed the greens. The Holmby Park Bowling Club was established in 1927 and calls itself the official lawn bowling club of Los Angeles.
Watch this video of a Holmby Hills Mansion recently SOLD and the highest sales price so far recorded in the Holmby Hills Area of Los Angeles. SOLD by the Christophe Choo Real Estate Group
Holmby Hills Real Estate
Showing properties
1 - 45 of 45.
See more Bel Air - Holmby Hills community real estate.
(all data current as of
2/4/2012)
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$125,000,000 : 350 N CAROLWOOD DR, Los Angeles12 beds, 15.0 baths
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$39,000,000 : 10664 BELLAGIO RD, Los Angeles8 beds, 16.0 baths
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$29,995,000 : 755 SARBONNE RD, Los Angeles6 beds, 10.0 baths
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$28,500,000 : 534 BARNABY RD, Los Angeles8 beds, 11.0 baths
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$27,500,000 : 330 S MAPLETON DR, Los Angeles6 beds, 7 full, 7 part baths
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$27,500,000 : 601 N FARING RD, Los Angeles6 beds, 15.0 baths
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$24,500,000 : 624 NIMES RD, Los Angeles5 beds, 11.0 baths
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$23,950,000 : 10807 BELLAGIO RD, Los Angeles5 beds, 10.0 baths
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$23,500,000 : MLS # 11554501 in Los Angeles7 beds, 7.0 baths
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$22,900,000 : 250 DELFERN DR, Los Angeles5 beds, 7.5 baths
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$22,900,000 : 250 DELFERN DR, Los Angeles5 beds, 7.5 baths
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$22,500,000 : 256 COPA DE ORO RD, Los Angeles5 beds, 8.0 baths
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$21,950,000 : 10425 W Revuelta WAY, Los Angeles15 beds, 16.5 baths
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$21,950,000 : 10425 W Revuelta WAY, Los Angeles15 beds, 16.5 baths
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$21,000,000 : 10224 CHARING CROSS RD, Los Angeles7 beds, 10.0 baths
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$19,500,000 : MLS # 12574283 in Los Angeles5 beds, 6.5 baths
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$18,000,000 : 301 COPA DE ORO RD, Los Angeles8 beds, 10.0 baths
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$16,995,000 : 201 DELFERN DR, Los Angeles7 beds, 9.0 baths
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$16,995,000 : 655 SARBONNE RD, Los Angeles7 beds, 12.0 baths
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$15,900,000 : 525 PERUGIA WAY, Los Angeles6 beds, 10 full baths
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$14,995,000 : 200 S MAPLETON DR, Los Angeles9 beds, 9.5 baths
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$14,990,000 : 2123 RAVENSFIELD LN, Los Angeles11 beds, 12.0 baths
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$14,250,000 : 3384 STONE RIDGE LN, Los Angeles6 beds, 9.0 baths
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$14,000,000 : 1518 BEL AIR RD, Los Angeles6 beds, 9 full, 1 part baths
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$12,900,000 : 1001 BEL AIR RD, Los Angeles4 beds, 5.0 baths
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$12,750,000 : 651 N FARING RD, Los Angeles7 beds, 7.0 baths
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$12,500,000 : 1400 VISTA MORAGA, Los Angeles5 beds, 7.5 baths
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$12,250,000 : 325 BEL AIR RD, Los Angeles7 beds, 5.0 baths
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$11,950,000 : 3121 ANTELO RD, Los Angeles9 beds, 14.0 baths
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$11,500,000 : 250 N CAROLWOOD DR, Los Angeles5 beds, 5.0 baths
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$11,400,000 : 11790 SOUTHAMPTON CT, Bel Air5 beds, 6.5 baths
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$10,395,000 : 1120 BROOKLAWN DR, Los Angeles8 beds, 7.0 baths
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$9,900,000 : 347 ST CLOUD RD, Los Angeles5 beds, 4.0 baths
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$8,749,000 : 924 BEL AIR RD, Los Angeles5 beds, 6.5 baths
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$8,500,000 : 901 BEL AIR RD, Los Angeles4 beds, 7 full baths
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$7,900,000 : 281 BENTLEY CIR, Los Angeles5 beds, 8.0 baths
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$7,395,000 : 1498 MORAGA DR, Los Angeles6 beds, 6.5 baths
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$6,995,000 : 469 ST PIERRE RD, Los Angeles8 beds, 8.0 baths
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$6,995,000 : 1170 STONE CANYON RD, Los Angeles5 beds, 4.5 baths
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$6,250,000 : 2249 STRATFORD CIR, Los Angeles7 beds, 10.0 baths
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$5,995,000 : 0 SELKIRK LN, Los Angeles5 beds, 5.0 baths
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$5,995,000 : 0 SELKIRK LN, Bel Air5 beds, 5.0 baths
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$5,395,000 : 1150 BROOKLAWN DR, Los Angeles4 beds, 6.0 baths
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$5,150,000 : 11803 Norfield Court, Los Angeles6 beds, 7 full, 1 part baths
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$4,995,000 : 1116 LINDA FLORA DR, Los Angeles5 beds, 4 full, 1 part baths
Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.
