Within Walking Distance of Montana Avenue, 558 15th Street a Newly-built Sprawling Santa Monica Craftsman Revival Home Combines Classic Beauty and Charm With State-of-the-art Amenities
Built as vacation retreats at the turn of the last century, many of Santa Monica‘s craftsman homes are overlooked in favor of airy, modern spaces. It’s understandable: created for Victorian and Edwardian-era pleasures, their rambling floor plans, slender closets, and small kitchens are at odds with contemporary needs. Yet their beauty is undeniable. The ideal solution would marry the conveniences of today with the charms of yesteryear.
558 15th Street, Santa Monica is offered by Charles Pence of Pence Hathorn Silver at Compass located just off Montana Avenue. Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu would also be accessible, not to mention the city’s most revered museums, galleries, and charming boutiques. If this describes your dream, then 558 15th Street is your dream come true.
Reigning over the corner of 15th Street and Alta Avenue, it’s hard to believe that this elegant and commanding structure is not a vintage home updated with an immaculate restoration. With Its soft green exterior, its clapboard siding, its shingled roof, its flying eaves, and its welcoming portico, it’s perfectly in tune with those compelling originals. But, in fact, it was just recently completed. Designed by architect Michael Kemp in collaboration with builder Craig Bentz, the three-year labor of love, perfectly captures the graciousness of another era.
Yet, step inside and it’s clear that the three-level space, with its open rafter design, generous proportions, and wide-planked European Oak floor, was designed with the needs of a modern family in mind. Traditional details, like moldings and wainscoting, exude warmth while thoughtful touches—an elevator, two laundry rooms, a butler’s pantry, and front and back staircases—understand the chaos of an interconnected world.
The main floor understands the gentle rhythm of open and closed rooms that allow for a family to be together yet also find their separate spots within which to read, play video games, work, and attend remote lectures. Many of the rooms here open to the beautifully landscaped exterior, some with graceful French doors. A grand yet inviting open kitchen sparkles with top-of-the-line appliances including a SubZero fridge, hidden by impeccable cabinetry, and Wolf appliances. A large built-in banquette is ideal for a meal or just hanging out with friends. Invite them to stay for dinner. If the weather is nice, you’ll set the table in the back garden. On chilly nights, you enjoy meals from the warmth of the dining room.
In fact, the two spots often work in tandem, a detail that’s especially welcome when the guest list expands. How can you leave anyone off after not seeing people for a year? In fact, from dinner parties to cocktails in the garden to viewing parties (there’s a theatre room downstairs with an electric fireplace and a kitchenette, stocked with snacks and beverages), inviting people over has become your preferred form of entertaining.
No wonder the three ensuite guest bedrooms on the first and lower floors (these are in addition to the beautiful master and three other ensuite bedrooms upstairs), are spoken for from now well until next spring. Guests love the autonomy they enjoy at your house. Whether they bunk downstairs or on the main floor, they have the freedom to come and go as they wish (the main level’s guest room is positioned right near the front door while downstairs offers its own entrance).
And there’s plenty of space for everyone to grab alone time as well. Now that your work has decided to relinquish its office space, you’ve gone full tilt with decorating your home setup. Looking out over the street, you can intercept the mail person, keep an eye on the comings and goings of the neighborhood, or welcome clients, without leading them through the whole house. Once your work is done for the day, you’ll take a moment to work out at the gym downstairs or check on the BBQ with a built-in sink area on the patio. Then you’ll slip upstairs for a bath. You really have to commend the designers. Deftly separating the primary bedroom’s bathroom into two separate but adjoining spaces was genius, avoiding so many unnecessary arguments. So too was putting in a laundry on this floor.
You can hear your video champ talking to their friends online. The window seat in their room, which adjoins a balcony that overlooks the backyard, is another detail you love. You gave your older child the spacious back bedroom near a secluded rear staircase; they’ve blossomed in the knowledge that you trust them not to abuse the independence this gives them. Yet, despite this freedom, friends marvel at how much time your family seems to hang out together. You just smile. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s the house. It feels magical, like something you conjured up. Not everyone’s dreams come true—but yours did.
Charles Pence | 310-403-9238 | DRE# 00670728
Pence Hathorn Silver
Of Compass
List Price $7,888,000
Photographs by Paul Jonason