Inside The Historic Bradbury Home, Now On The Market For $12 Million

Four-bedroom, four-bath, on the bluffs in Santa Monica overlooking the beach—$12 million.

A seemingly unremarkable listing for today's luxury real estate market (oh, what a world we live in that that's a true statement), but there's more to the story.

The home for sale in question was built in 1922-23 by Lewis L. Bradbury, Jr. (son of mining magnate Lewis L. Bradbury, Sr., who built downtown's iconic Bradbury Building in 1893). In 1902, Junior assumed control of his father's company, and continued growing the Bradbury Estate Company's mine holdings.

The Bradbury House was designed by renowned architect John W. Buyers. "It's really the home that established him as an expert on the [Spanish Colonial Revival] style," Kelly DeLaat, the listing agent on the property, told LAist. Buyers used soil from onsite to create the adobe for the house, notes the Palisadian Post. "The adobe is 20-inches thick on the first floor, and 18-inches thick on the second," DeLaat added. "It was a 'green' home before anyone knew what that was. There is no central heating or air in the house; the idea is that the adobe captures the heat during the day, and when the sun goes does, releases it back into the house. So, it's always a pretty comfortable temperature."

What is more, "Lumber used in the construction is said to have come from the 4,7000-foot Long Wharf at Potrero Canyon, built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in a bid to make Santa Monica a main deep-water harbor," a statement from the John Aaroe Group, the agency selling the house, writes.

And the $12 million price tag buys you more than just the house. The sale also includes the adjacent lot which contains the pool, as well as two adjacent lots across the street that have restrictions against building so that the home maintains its views of the beach. The home was listed as an historic-cultural monument by the City of Los Angeles in 1994.

"I imagine the buyer to be a strong preservationist," DeLaat concluded. "Someone who loves the style, collecting art—the architecture is the art of it. And the location, with its views, is a separate whamy."

DeLaat notes that she has had some interest from an international buyer to turn the property into a corporate retreat. It sounds like some sort of allegory for the times we live in, but we're too busy ogling this house to think much more about it.