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Here's what we know about the stunning clifftop California castle Brad Pitt just bought for $40 million
Brad Pitt just forked over $40 million for a historic clifftop home unlike any on the California coast.
The megastar — who once said "whilst acting is my career, architecture is my passion" — purchased the iconic D.L. James House in a deal described as "one of the priciest ever closed in the Carmel area" by the Wall Street Journal.
Hanging over the bluffs in the Carmel Highlands, the sandstone Mediterranean castle was built a century ago by famed Arts and Crafts architect Charles Greene to resemble Tintagel in Cornwall, England — the medieval fortress where King Arthur was conceived, so the legend goes.
Built in 1918 for Kansas City businessman D.L. James, the house was later lived in by James' son, controversial writer Daniel Lewis James. James was most famous for writing about Chicano culture in Los Angeles and kept his identity secret for most of his life. He came under criticism later for instead going by the pseudonym Danny Santiago as he achieved fame.
More recently, the property was owned by Chicago financier Joe Ritchie, who died earlier this year.
Also known as "Seaward," the house was described by critic Randell Makinson as "a monument unique in this country."
Built from granite and sandstone quarried from the cliffs there, Makinson wrote that "the stone structure seems to have grown out of its site atop the rocky cliffs south of Carmel. At places it is difficult to ascertain just where nature's rock has ended and man's masonry genius has begun."
Located south of Gibson's Beach, between the Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean, the home is the latest addition to Pitt's properties, which include the reportedly haunted Briarcliff Manor in Los Angeles. Pitt bought from the mansion from Cassandra Peterson, better known as horror hostess Elvira.
The sale marks the latest celebrity home in and around Carmel where former mayor Clint Eastwood was a longtime resident. More recently, the home of the late Betty White sold for nearly $5 million over its $7.95 million asking price.
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