Ex-Saturday Night Live cast member and general funnyman Andy Samberg and harpist/singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom have, somewhat surprisingly, just purchased the famous Moorish-Gothic-Art Nouveau-Mission Revival estate in Beachwood Canyon known as Moorcrest, reports the LA Times. The early-1920s house, home to Maltese Falcon actress Mary Astor and little tramp Charlie Chaplin over the years, wasn't on the open market; Samberg and Newsom closed on it in late March for $6.25 million.
The four-bedroom, six-bathroom Moorcrest was designed by Marie Russak Hotchener, a rare female architect (at the time), and was originally part of the legendary Krotona Colony, a group within the Theosophist Society that tried for about a decade to build a utopian community in Beachwood Canyon, then ended up ditching the compound for Ojai. Hotchener designed other house in the area, as well, but this is the one she's famous for.
Charlie Chaplin tramped on in and rented the house at some time in the early 1920s. Actress Mary Astor's mother and father, Otto and Helen Langhanke, purchased it in 1925 and lived there with Astor for nearly ten years. It was eventually foreclosed-on and sold at auction in 1934 for $21,500, about a tenth of its estimated value at the time.
Moorcrest is in great shape now, having been recently restored to its full, multi-cultural, elaborate glory, and features "leaded stained-glass windows, copper and marble baseboards, custom cabinetry, hand-painted frescos and elaborate mosaic tiles." Its grounds total nearly an acre and include a pool, as seen in the above photo.
The property last sold for $900,000 in 1999, according to Zillow, and was listed in 2006 for $9.989 million, then chopped that same year to $8.989 million. It was listed again in late 2007 for $7.475 million, but there were apparently no takers until now.
· Andy Samberg buys former home of Mary Astor, Charlie Chaplin [LAT]
· 6147 Temple Hill Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068 [Zillow]
· The Creation of Beachwood Canyon's Theosophist "Dreamland [Curbed LA]
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