At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House has one of the most famous addresses in the world. And with its white facade, towering pillars and symmetrical windows, the Neoclassical building is instantly recognisable.
In Washington, DC, the mansion has been home to every US president since John Adams in 1800. Over in California, there is a replica of the famed building, known as the Western White House, which is The National's International Property of the Week.
The key details
Located in the affluent town of Hillsborough, California, the Western White House is an early 1900s replica of the White House. A property with a remarkably similar grandeur, it boasts a wine cellar, cinema, gym and a library inspired by the Oval Office.
It is on sale for $25 million and has been on the market for less than three weeks.
What’s the story?
The Western White House is described as one of California’s “finest legacy estates”. Located 43 kilometres south of San Francisco, on the San Francisco Peninsula, the property is 17,550 square feet inside, on a sprawling manicured plot of 1.2 hectares.
A tribute to the White House, the Neoclassical Georgian colonial-style house was built in 1915 and redesigned in 1930 by Julia Morgan, the first woman admitted to the Beaux-Arts de Paris architecture programme. It was a commission by the Hearst family, for whom she designed the famed Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.
The property has 24 rooms, 11 of which are currently used as bedrooms, with 11 full bathrooms and four half-bathrooms.
The facilities in the property are stunning.
The property impresses from the moment you cross the gated threshold, with fountains, trees and hedgerows on entrance. At the front, there is a large mosaic motor court, which provides plenty of guest parking.
The mansion’s columns open to sprawling lawns, with a White House-style rose garden and ivy arches surrounding the outdoor swimming pool, bathhouse, gazebo and solar array.
What the broker says …
“Properties of this size rarely come on to the California market,” says Jennifer Gilson at Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.
Of the property’s high-profile owners, Gilson says it was owned by “Charles Frederick Crocker, heir to the Central Pacific Railroad fortune” and that the Hearst Family purchased it in 1930.
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