Beloved Disney Artist's Carefully Restored Former House and Studio on the Market for $1.6M

This hillside residence in the Cahuenga Pass, built in 1939 and designed by architect Harwell Hamilton Harris, has just emerged from the chrysalis (aka a years-long restoration); the current owners purchased the house in 2011 and set to work, improving on the already lovely home. It's listed as the one-time studio and residence of famed Disney artist Mary Blair—known as "one of the all-time greats of Disney history and modernist illustration and color"—and her husband Lee Blair—himself a Disney animator and, incredibly, the winner of a 1932 Olympic Gold Medal for watercolor—and looking through the place, its easy to imagine how anyone could be inspired to create here. *(Mary Blair passed away in 1978, so it's been a while since she's done work here.)

In the house, a handful of double doors open from the living room and kitchen onto a back patio with a landscaped hillside. Windows are kind of a theme here, with big ones of a variety of sizes in every room. The kitchen, though on the small side, looks well laid-out at least, and appears to have a fittingly vintage-style stove and fridge. There is only one bedroom, with two beds arranged head to head, like this is a TV show in the Fifties where married couples can't share the same bed onscreen.

The one bathroom in the house has not been totally gutted and marble-filled, which is a relief. It's pretty clear that "The magic of the artists' residence and studio is alive and well, ready to enliven and enhance the life of the next special owner(s)," as the listing copy puts it.

The Mary and Lee Blair residence is asking $1.6 million.

· The Mary and Lee Blair Residence, 1939 [Crosby Doe]
­ 3763 Fredonia Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90068 [Redfin]