2009 La Mesa Dr | Santa Monica

The A.N. Kemp / Kathryn Grayson Estate (1926): Originally designed by master architect Elmer Grey (who also designed the Beverly Hills Hotel, Huntington Library, Bel Air Bay Club, Pasadena Playhouse, and Harvey Mudd Estate), this just-renovated and expanded, historically-landmarked 6-bedroom, 8-bath English Cottage – Tudor estate, sits on a double lot, on the best street in Santa Monica, with the largest frontage on La Mesa Drive overlooking Riviera Country Club.

Spanning more than 11,000 square feet of living space, the home features exceptional, cutting-edge design by top designers such as Elaine Culotti, Ralph Pucci, David Bromstad, Susan Cohen, Sami Hayek,  Kelly Van Halen and Kyle Schuneman, who have retained many of the home’s original Old World hallmarks (English Oak paneling, rounded archways, minstrel’s gallery, high-pitched beams and hand-crafted leaded windows) and updated it to provide the features most desired for today’s lifestyle, such as the spacious entertaining kitchen; his and hers master closets and baths; rooms bathed in natural light; forward-thinking home automation and audio-visual; a huge grassy yard and extraordinary flush-edge infinity pool; detached 2-bedroom guesthouse; and a home theater (which is in process of completion).

For the musically inclined, the home is further distinguished by a state-of-the-art home recording studio designed and curated in collaboration with a multi-Grammy winning producer, Blue Microphone, Vintage King, SSL, Audio Perception, JSX Audio and several high-end audio partners — built to inspire artists to create. This one-of-a-kind studio occupies the top floor of this historic Santa Monica estate and is at the forefront of the music industry’s evolution toward a more personalized environment, where artists can work in the privacy of their home at any time of the day or night and have emergent technology at their fingertips. Indeed, the library, the great room, and even the master bathroom, are hardwired with microphone panels, fiber optics and digital lines so that artists and amateurs alike can record in a variety of environments.

In its last incarnation, you might have found Grayson performing a duet with Mario Lanza while Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra cozied up by the fireplace and Howard Hughes slept in a guest room. Today, undoubtedly a new era of household names will grace the property with their presence and gifts.

• Price $100,000
• Beds 6
• Square Footage 11,000
• Style English Cottage-Tudor
• Pool Infinity, Private, Heated

• Neighborhood Santa Monica
• Baths 8
• Lot Size 33,801

• Property Features 
  • Detached 2-bedroom guesthouse
  • State-of-the-art home recording studio
  • Various rooms hardwired with microphone panels, fiber optics &
    digital lines
  • Huge grassy yard
  • Circular drive