Brad Pitt Buys $40 Million Home in Carmel, California

Table Of Content

• Is Brad Pitt Helping Carmel, California, Make a Comeback?
• The Home’s Original Owner was Related to Outlaw Jesse James, Whom Pitt Famously Played
• Brad Pitt Just Dropped $40 Million on a Cliffside "Bachelor Pad" in Carmel
• Brad Pitt says he’s been in love with new…
• In Between, the Home Was Owned by Financier Joe Richie
• Inside Brad Pitt's new $40m home – which sits dangerously close to a clifftop

Location and views are generally very important criteria for luxury home buyers, whether the property is situated ocean front or with ocean views, or golf front and with golf views, or with sunny valley and vineyard views. Despite this A-list history, when news broke last week that Brad Pitt purchased a property in Carmel for $40 million, it certainly raised some eyebrows. It’s been a long time since the days of Clint Eastwood’s mayoral stint in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. According to The Daily Mail, the home, aka Seaward (yep, is so fancy that it has its own name), comes with a ton of history.

Is Brad Pitt Helping Carmel, California, Make a Comeback?

The house is reported to be about 3,000 square feet, with a service wing for live-in help and a basement-level library on the property. Brad Pitt has reportedly splashed out $40million on a historic home in the celebrity haven of Carmel, California. Charles and his brother, Henry Mather Greene, grew up alternately in Cincinnati, rural West Virginia and St. Louis in the late 19th century. At their father’s urging, the two went to architectural school and ultimately founded the architectural firm Greene & Greene together in Pasadena. The property was constructed around 1918 and designed by American Arts and Crafts movement pioneer and prominent architect Charles Sumner Greene.

The Home’s Original Owner was Related to Outlaw Jesse James, Whom Pitt Famously Played

It tends to be highest in areas where the local housing market is hot. Brad Pitt has once again purchased property on the Central Coast, this time a little further away from Carmel Beach in Carmel-by-the-Sea, the Wall Street Journal reported. Most recently, the property once owned by the author known for “Famous All Over Town,” was owned by Chicago-based options trader Joe Ritchie and his wife, Sharon.

Brad Pitt Just Dropped $40 Million on a Cliffside "Bachelor Pad" in Carmel

An “off-market property” refers to a house that sells without ever being publicly marketed. The seller either advertises the home privately to a select group of potential buyers or negotiates with the buyer directly without ever advertising the property is for sale. James in 1918 by architect Charles Sumner Greene and was later lived in by his son, infamous author Daniel Lewis James, who wrote Famous All Over Town. More recently, the property was owned by Chicago financier Joe Ritchie, who died earlier this year. The Bullet Train star is now the proud owner of the iconic D.L.

Brad Pitt says he’s been in love with new…

There’s also a caretaker’s cottage on the grounds of the estate, which was built in 1940 and offers an additional bedroom and one bathroom. Pitt expanded the estate during his two-decade stay, buying four surrounding properties from 1998 to 2009. “Brad has decided that he wants to live a peaceful life going forward and is deciding what ‘semi-retirement’ looks like for him,” a source told Page Six in December. Pitt’s decision to downsize comes as all his children are getting older and his contentious divorce from Jolie reportedly strained his relationships with some of them. The possibility that Pitt could relocate to Carmel has some merit, given the report that he was stepping back from Hollywood after selling a majority stake in his storied Hollywood production company, Plan B. She explains that the Monterey Peninsula features different “micro markets” with personalities and qualities of their own and each market attracts different types of clients and buyers.

In Between, the Home Was Owned by Financier Joe Richie

The historic house has timeless, arched windows with multiple small panels made of timber and steel, which was a prominent feature in the Arts and Crafts movement. The durable tiled roof reflects a Mediterranean influence and California Architecture style and features a tall and wide large chimney with ornately decorated stacks. Pitt bought the house that sits on a cliff-side perch high above the ocean in an off-market purchase that is said to be one of the priciest sales in one of the most sought-after locations in the country. Ritchie, who died earlier in 2022, was the last owner of the property before Brad Pitt bought it.

Actor Brad Pitt has purchased the former home of American businessman and writer D.L. James in the Carmel Highlands of California, The Wall Street Journal reported. After James died in 1944, the house was passed down to James’ son, who was also a writer. James and his wife lived there until he died there in 1988, and the property continued to be known as the D.L. One of their masterpieces is the historic estate that would later become Brad Pitt’s house, which was originally built in 1918 as a summer retreat for the family of American writer and Kansas City businessman D.L.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the off-the-market deal and noted that the Mediterranean-style castle has a resemblance to that of the medieval fortress where King Arthur was born in Cornwall, England. Pitt’s purchase of the Carmel castle — a century-old, historic estate known as the D.L. James house — marked the most expensive sale in the area’s history. But Brad had big plans (and decades of love) for the property, and he’s making it his main home.

Real Estate

Known as Seaward (also often called the D.L. James House), the sandstone and granite home sits on a bluff in the Carmel Highlands that overlooks the water, according to The Gamble House, an organization dedicated to the architect’s work. The walls were made to look as though they are growing out of the cliffside. The cliffside bachelor pad is a real estate gem with its expressive and aesthetic design. The castle has five fireplaces, a 550-square-foot greenhouse, a 504-square-foot garage, and a 588-square-foot basement.

The 3,793 square foot main residence has three bedrooms and four bathrooms. A caretaker’s cottage was built in 1940 and features one bedroom and one bathroom. In Carmel, Doris Day owned an 8.62-acre residential property for 38 years, until her death in 2019.

For Pitt, buying Getty’s elegantly sleek, 2,000-square-foot home is his version of “downsizing,” Architectural Digest also reported. He also owns an 11.5-acre Santa Barbara County coastal retreat he paid about $4 million for in the early 2000s. The actor also has a French chateau known as Miraval, a 1,200-acre property he purchased in 2008 for about $60 million. Pitt, who is known for films like “Fight Club,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” is also reportedly an architecture buff who especially appreciates Craftsman-style homes. So you know he’s not interested in just any slapped-together McMansion. Although Pitt is known to have a few favored architectural styles, he’s particularly interested in the American Arts & Craft style.

Doris Day was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the ’50s and ’60s, but when she chose to leave behind life on the silver screen in favor of animal rights activism, she chose Carmel as her home base. Before Pitt, the house was owned since 1999 by an LLC linked to Chicago Research and Trading founder Joe Ritchie, who died earlier this year, according to Architectural Digest. It reflects a second 695-square-foot structure built in 1940 consisting of one bedroom and one bathroom. Other attributes on the county document list a total of five fireplaces, a 550-square-foot greenhouse, a 504-square-foot garage, and a 588-square-foot basement. A Monterey County property characteristics record describes a parcel of 2.51 acres that consists of land with two dwellings, the largest being a 3,793-square-foot structure of three bedrooms and four bathrooms constructed in 1914. His main residence though is his multi-house compound in the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A., which he's owned since the mid-1990s.

Inside Brad Pitt's New $40 Million Home in Beachy Carmel, California - E! NEWS

Inside Brad Pitt's New $40 Million Home in Beachy Carmel, California.

Posted: Wed, 27 Jul 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The Wall Street Journal reported (paywall) that Brad Pitt paid a whopping $40 million for the century-old home on a bluff in the Carmel Highlands along California’s central coast. Brad Pitt splashed out on a historic $40 million bachelor pad located on the cliffs of Carmel, California. Carmel-by-the-Sea—which is roughly 100 miles south of San Francisco—has long attracted Hollywoods stars.