Bob Hope Estate Hits the Market for $23 Million

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The 5.21-acre Bob and Dolores Hope estate in Toluca Lake is back on the market at $23 million.
 
The Hope estate at 10346 Moorpark Street was designed in an English traditional style by architect Richard Finkelhor who also built houses for Barbara Stanwyck and Zeppo and Harpo Marx.  The Hopes loved to entertain and planned the home to accommodate large star-studded gatherings as well as informal visits from neighbors like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Toluca Lake has long been a favored home base for stars including current residents Steve Carell, Melissa McCarthy and Kiefer Sutherland, notes Strong.  
 
The centerpiece of the Hope Estate, built in 1939, is an almost 15,000-square-foot main residence with an immense formal living room renovated in the 1950s by John Elgin Woolf, the king of Hollywood Regency style.  In the main residence, a soaring foyer leads to a vast formal living room with walls of glass overlooking the breathtaking grounds and a post and beam patio. The main house also includes a family room, bar and billiard room, formal dining room, family dining room, commercial grade chef's kitchen, a library, office and staff quarters.   A curving staircase rises to the second floor, home to four family bedroom suites and a lavish master wing with a fireplace, his-and-her spa baths and closets, and a shared study.
 
In addition to the classic outdoor pool, a glass-enclosed indoor pool and spa look out across the grounds. An array of outdoor spaces on both levels afford views of the gardens and lawns, highlighted by a formal rose garden and a one-hole, three-par golf course. A large motor court completes the home.
 
Legacy trees border the walled and gated estate making this a unique private retreat.   The site encompasses four parcels, offering abundant space for multiple structures including a two-bedroom, two-bath pool house and a 4,000-square-foot production office-guest house at the front of the property that housed Hope's staff that managed his radio, television, film and real estate interests.
 
"This is an unparalleled opportunity to own one of the most iconic and devotedly cared-for estates in Los Angeles, home to one of our most beloved entertainers, and available for the first time in 75 years.  It's a property that you really need to experience," says listing agent Craig Strong of the John Aaroe Group.