The long-time post-White House home of President Gerald Ford and Betty Ford is up for sale in Rancho Mirage, asking $1.699 million. Betty Ford died last year; Gerald Ford died in 2006. Architect Welton Becket, who's known for buildings including the Capitol Records building and the Cinerama Dome, designed the house, which the Fords commissioned after leaving the White House in 1977, according to the Desert Sun. The five bedroom, seven bathroom house sits on the golf course in Thunderbird Estates and has a pool, 1.37 acres of land, and a backyard sculpture by artist Paul von Ringelheim. The Desert Sun got inside yesterday and took scads of photographs; see more here.
For the paranoids, there are no security cameras in the house, just "infrared security sensors and at least one emergency phone that was in the president's bathroom." Secret Service had lived in an adjacent house once owned by Ginger Rogers; it now belongs to USC and is also for sale (for $509,000).
According to the Sun, "Furniture and some historic mementos" will be auctioned off later this year. In these photos, the house "is essentially furnished the same way it was when the Fords moved there in 1978, with an array of floral patterns in the bedrooms and coordinating lime and avocado fabrics in the dining and great rooms." So, like Ford, the house is very well-appointed. Thank you, we'll be here all week.
· Fords' Rancho Mirage estate on market for $1.7 million [Desert Sun]
· 40471 SAND DUNE RD [HK Lane]
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