Century-Old Silicon Valley Estate On Sale For $135 Million
At the turn of the 20th century, industrialist Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr. was looking to escape two things: San Francisco’s foggy summer weather and his in-laws. “They had a home on the north side of the bay, in San Rafael,” says his great-grandson Marc Fleishhacker. “So he drove south.” At the time, the California coast was comparatively undeveloped and Mortimer, who founded the Anglo California Bank and the Great Western Power Co., was in a position to buy whatever land struck his fancy. In what his great-grandson calls a “quest to build a family compound,” he quickly amassed nine parcels in Woodside, a town that’s now the heart of Silicon Valley. Inspired by a trip to England’s countryside, he hired architects Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene to build the compound’s main house, which has the general air of a Cotswolds cottage, albeit one that was staffed by a minimum of five servants at all times. Green Gables, as the property came to be known, opened for leisure in 1911. The 74-acre estate has seven residences with a total of 32 bedrooms, three swimming pools, a tennis court, an orchard, and several gardens. Most important it has remained a family compound for over a century, just as its founder intended. Currently, three branches of the family, totaling 10 cousins, own shares of the land. “And as we look at the next generation, and we think of the inevitable passing of this to our children, well, that number goes from 10 to 17,” says Fleishhacker, a marketing executive who lives in Florence, Italy. “And that becomes 34 if everyone has a significant other, so you can imagine how difficult that is to manage.” And so, to preempt any discord, the Fleishhacker descendants have decided to put the compound on the market. At first, they listed it without a price, but the offers they received were, in the family’s estimation, too low. So now they’ve officially listed the home for $135 million with Zackary Wright of Christie’s International Real Estate and Brad and Helen Miller of Compass. “We’re doing the next round of estate planning,” Fleishhacker says.
Tags : INTERNATIONAL sale Century-Old Silicon Valley Estate $135 Million