“Santa Monica spent a century replacing its Craftsmen. This one, it decided to keep.”
- Sam O'Connor
405
Palisades Ave
Santa Monica
Bedrooms
6
Bathrooms
5
Total Area
4,772 Sq. FT
Lot Size
18,730 Sq. FT
Price
$14,000,000
The Craftsman Santa Monica Kept
This Craftsman went up on Palisades Avenue in 1912, and today it sits on a corner parcel of nearly 19,000 square feet, a few minutes from the bluffs. Over the century that followed, a great many of Santa Monica’s early houses were torn down and replaced, because the land beneath them came to be worth more than almost any house that could sit on it. This one survived. It carries a historic designation and a Mills Act contract, which means the city recognized what it was and its owners formally agreed to keep it that way. The restoration that followed was careful rather than ambitious. Much of the original architecture is intact, and what needed attention was restored rather than reinvented, so the house reads as original because so much of it is. You understand the terms of the place from the broad front porch: this is a house that was kept on purpose.
Listed by: Robin Walpert, Sotheby’s International Realty
Inside
The interiors run to roughly 4,772 square feet, and the millwork is the reason to see them. Coffered ceilings carry their beams across the principal rooms, the walls are paneled in deep-toned wood, and built-in cabinetry appears wherever a 1912 carpenter expected a family to need it, which turns out to be nearly everywhere. Leaded glass sits in the windows and breaks the afternoon light before it reaches the paneling. The rooms connect through wide openings rather than ordinary doorways, so the sightlines run long through the house and the woodwork reads as one continuous piece of craft instead of a series of rooms. What survives here was restored rather than replaced (a slower and more expensive choice than it sounds, and the right one). For all of its architectural standing, the house lives easily, with six bedrooms and the substantial, unfussy warmth of a place built for family life.
Outside
The grounds wrap the entire corner, and nearly 19,000 square feet is an unusual amount of land to find this close to the ocean. Tall hedges enclose it on every side, so the property goes private the moment you step off the sidewalk, and the garden is arranged to be discovered in pieces rather than taken in from a single spot. A pool and spa sit within the hedges, along with a bocce court, several places to gather outdoors, and an avocado tree that has clearly been left to do as it likes. A detached three-car garage sits apart from the house. None of this would be remarkable on an estate in the canyons. What makes it remarkable is the address: the bluffs and the Pacific are moments away, in a part of Santa Monica where most people trade land for proximity and rarely get to keep both.
The O' Factor
Almost everything a buyer wants in Santa Monica can be built. A pool can be dug in a season, a garage can go up in a few months, and a hedge can be planted and left to grow. The one thing nobody can build is 1912, and that is the whole argument for this house. The coffered ceilings, the paneled walls, and the leaded glass were made by carpenters who considered this kind of work ordinary, and that ordinariness is exactly what makes it impossible to fake now. A new house can borrow the look of a Craftsman, but a copy is only ever as old as its permit. The restoration here understood the difference, repairing what needed repair and leaving the rest alone, and the Mills Act contract carries that same understanding forward to whoever comes next. This is a house for someone who would rather inherit a century than commission one.
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The Homes we Represent,
Represent Us.
Every home has a soul. Every human has a place they were meant to be. Our instinct is knowing when the two finally meet. We honor architecture, preserve great design and celebrate the match. Welcome to O’Connor Estates. We’ve been waiting for you.
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