If you have deep pockets and value historic architecture and complete privacy, Ellen Degeneres’s former Beverly Hills mansion is the home for you.
Called the Skouras residence, Degeneres lived in the 8,055-square-foot home at 924 N. Hillcrest Rd. from 2012 to 2014, and the real estate maven featured it in her book, Home, where she talks about what seven of her homes have taught her about design.
Celebrity architect Hal Leavitt (who also designed homes for Dean Martin and Steven Spielberg) built the Skouras residence in 1956 for Diane and Charles Skouras Jr., who were part owner and president of a major movie theater group.
The five-bedroom home in the Trousdale Estates neighborhood stayed in the family until it was sold in 2002 to interior designer Kelly Wearstler and her husband, who redid the home and sold it in 2006 to Hollywood producer Robert Cort. Cort sold it to DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi in 2012 for $17,400,000, according to the New York Post.
Perfect for stars and executives looking for privacy, the home is tucked behind large gates and thick foliage at the end of an expansive motor court. The listing calls it the “antithesis of the proliferation of modern boxes currently flooding the market.”
Floor-to-ceiling windows let you take in the views of the city below, and the dining room opens up to a terrace and (another) dining area outside next to a pool and lounge area that would look perfectly at-home in a hotel courtyard.
