September 14, 2007
Johnny Depp pays $2.1M, and not the widely reported $2M amount, for his new penthouse condo unit in Los Angeles’ Eastern Columbia building
Actor Johnny Depp has paid $2,100,000 — and not the widely reported $2 million amount — for his new penthouse condominium unit in the Eastern Columbia building in L.A.
Many other well-regarded purveyors of celebrity real estate news — but not, oddly, the Los Angeles Times’ Ruth Ryon — have written about Depp’s purchase in the turquoise building, so we know we’re late to the party on this one. Back on July 27, TMZ.com broke the story of Depp having just “plunked down about $2 million” to buy a penthouse in the newly converted, Art Deco-style landmark building, at 849 S. Broadway Avenue in Los Angeles. Our friends at the Real Estalker soon followed suit, writing a fine post on the purchase as well, and suggesting that the purchase may well have been a publicity stunt (hey, it’s been done before — many times — by real-estate developers). And Curbed LA set off the entire storm back on June 1, with their report that Depp had been looking at a unit in the Eastern Columbia.
Now, we can report that public records show that Depp actually paid $2,100,000 through his Sweetzer Trust for the pied-a-terre. The deal closed on July 10 and was recorded by Los Angeles County on July 18, according to public records.
Depp is widely known for owning a villa in France. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Depp owns a celebrated, 7,430-square-foot Norman-style mansion at 1486 N. Sweetzer Avenue (hence the name of his trust) just north of Sunset Boulevard in the city’s Hollywood area that his Mooh Investment Trust purchased in 1995 for a reported $2.3 million, according to public records and an October 1995 article in the Los Angeles Times. The gated, castlelike mansion, which was built in 1922 and which was owned in the 1930s by “Dracula” star Bela Lugosi, is on a 2.54-acre parcel, making it easily one of the largest tracts in the area. The celebrity divorce lawyer who had sold the house to Depp had added a lagoon pool to the property.
Check out the website for the Eastern Columbia lofts building.
Filed under Celebrity Homes, Hollywood Stars by Bob Goldsborough
Comments on Johnny Depp pays $2.1M, and not the widely reported $2M amount, for his new penthouse condo unit in Los Angeles’ Eastern Columbia building »
Poor Mr. Depp got ripped off , $2M for an apartment in Mexico, yuk! Maybe it’s for his house staff in?
The Lugosi/Dracula story concerning Depp’s house on Sweetzer in Hollywood is a really popular urban myth, but Lugosi never lived there. The mansion was built by George Campbell Carson, an itinerant miner who in 1906 invented something called a side-charge hopper (whatever that it) that revolutionized ore processing. When the big mining companies screwed him he spent 19 years in court fighting them while living in a San Francisco rooming house. His 1925 victory came with $1,000,000 (probably $50,000,000 today) and in 1927 he married Hersee Moody and began construction on an estate they called Mt. Kalmia on a four-acre eucalyptus grove sitting about ninety feet above 8311 Sunset Boulevard (the original entrance was on Sunset).
It was an extravagant $500,000 castle, complete with battlements and rounded turrets and towers, seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, two sun decks, etc. The inside was designed to mimic the terraced grounds so there were a dozen levels. There was a music room, solarium, library, morning reading-room, coffee-room, nursery, a billiard-room, refectory, butler’s pantry, grocery and laundry rooms, and elaborate quarters for the maids and chauffeurs. Wide three-story tall winding staircases were lit by stained glass among more than 125 grilled windows. The wood moldings throughout were hand-carved and wallpaper painted by hand. The dining hall was all original Hepplewhite. The drawing room original Louis XVI.
The house was completed in late 1933 but George died in 1934. After a long court battle with Carson’s family, Helen kept the mansion. For a time in the late 1930’s, Helen stayed in the house and gave several well-publicized parties for children but by 1941 it was being rented by ex-Ziegfeld Follies dancer “Queen” Patricia Noblesse Hogan and used as a guest-house cum rooming house. It was sold in a tax sale to dentist Manuel Haig in 1947 for $83,000 and Hogan and 38 of her pals evicted.
Over the years the house has had a number of interesting tenants once it was cleaned up by the good dentist. Howard Hughes’ mysterious right-hand-man Noah Dietrich lived there in the 1950’s and music producer Barry Gordy in the 1960’s. Gordy hosted parties for 300 to 400 people. Super-agent Marvin Mitchelson lived there in the 1980s and Johnny Depp bought the castle in the 1990’s. In 2007 he was reportedly renting the house to Orlando Bloom.
Because of its resemblance to a Bavarian castle, Hollywood tour guides in the 1930’s told people that Bela Lugosi lived there (they’ve been lying to people for almost 90 years; most of the tour guide info given today is pure fiction). But he never did. In the early 1930’s Lugosi lived in several Hollywood and Beachwood Canyon houses. From the late 1920’s into the early 1930’s he lived at 1146 North Hudson. In 1934 he moved to 1728 North Hudson where he stayed for several years. From there he moved to 1534 North McCadden Place and then on to houses on Creston Drive and Outpost Drive. But he never lived at the Carson’s Mt. Kalmia house.
It’s 849 S. BROADWAY, not Columbia.
Yes - thanks for the correction
[...] That’s in part because almost four months ago, we wrote about Depp’s purchase. Ryon’s pretty late to the party on this one. We did find it fascinating that she reported that Depp hasn’t yet moved in to the unit. At the same time, it was never entirely clear to us why Depp ever needed a penthouse condo in Los Angeles when he already has his gated and celebrated, 7,430-square-foot, castlelike Norman-style mansion on 2.54 acres at 1486 N. Sweetzer Avenue in Los Angeles’ Hollywood area that his Mooh Investment Trust purchased in 1995 for a reported $2.3 million. [...]
[...] penthouses at the Eastern Columbia (where Johnny Depp bought for $2.1 million) got left out of the article, but if you’re going to spend that kind of [...]
[...] We previously had reported on September 14, 2007 about actor Johnny Depp’s purchase of a unit in the Eastern Columbia building. And we wrote about other buyers in the building on January 8. [...]