The Desert Sun’s Rosalie Murphy writes that the 1954 Old Las Palmas house, designed by Palm Springs modernist architect Donald Wexler, that once belonged to Oscar-winning actor Kirk Douglas is about to return to the market, listed at $3.45 million.
The house was Donald Wexler's second custom home, following his Lilliana Gardens house, also completed in 1954. Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, lived there for more than 40 years.
At the Douglas house, a flagstone wall and gently sloping roof are visible from the street. The front door opens into a post-and-beam ranch. The floor plan is open with corridors defined by stone half-walls, tall enough to separate people from each other but short enough to let a skylight and floor-to-ceiling rear windows light the whole space.
One wing of the nearly 4,000-square-foot house has four ensuite bedrooms. Another, separated from the living area by butler doors, includes a kitchen refurbished in the 1980s and another bedroom.
The lot, about three-quarters of an acre, includes a pool, spa, pool house, tennis court, gym building and carport.
The author writes that as expected the house is steeped in Old Hollywood lore. One bedroom is called the "Kate and Spencer" room, because Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy purportedly carried on an affair there. Frank Sinatra occasionally cooked meals in the kitchen. And when the house behind it belonged to Dinah Shore, the families installed a gate between their properties so they and their guests could travel back and forth. A plaque still visible on the Douglas side jokingly describes Shore's tennis court as "the Douglas B-Court." The Wexler-designed Dinah Shore house was bought by actor Leonardo DiCaprio in 2014.
Listing courtesy of Jim Schweitz, Bennion Deville Homes
To read Rosalie Murphy’s original article and view the accompanying pictures, courtesy of The Desert Sun, please visit: http://www.desertsun.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/04/11/palm-springs-kirk-douglas-wexler/82527520/