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HOME FOR A BILLIONAIRE
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his Reginald Johnson-designed Monterey Manor is called Rancho San Carlos and it is perched at the end of a long driveway on a 237-acre
property in the very heart of Montecito’s east side. Reginald Johnson, you should know, designed the Biltmore Hotel, the Clark family estate,
Bellosguardo
– built on a hilltop overlooking East Beach in Santa Barbara, – Miraflores in its present form, home of the Music Academy of the West,
and Lotusland (before G.W. Smith remodeled it).
Only those friendly or related to the family that has owned this ranch for 100 years or so have actually seen the sprawling hilltop estate, as it is
reachable only by a private winding road and is completely hidden from the main thoroughfare. It’s not clear how many bedrooms the main house
has, but the 10 full and three half-baths indicate that the family will be well taken care of and there are plenty of spaces to sleep.
There are a total of 12 separate structures on the property, including a barn, stable, workshop, foreman’s house, ranch office, a second residence,
and other employee quarters. Views include everything from expansive ocean views all the way to Santa Barbara Harbor, nearly the entire Figueroa
mountain range directly behind Montecito, along with wooded views overlooking the lemon, orange, and avocado orchards.
The indoor squash court and/or spacious, covered paddock says it all: there is nothing that isn’t grand about Rancho San Carlos. This
property and its main structure sits firmly in the upper echelon of Montecito’s great estates, exceeded only by, say, Oprah Winfrey’s 70-plus-acre
abode and Ty Warner’s 7-acre oceanfront estate, both of which would fetch upward of $125 million and have cost much more than that to build
to their current standards.
Listed by Suzanne Perkins and Harry Kolb at $125 million
photos by Jim Bartsch
