A Pasadena, California, mansion built for a lumber baron and member of the Goodyear family is on the market for the first time in 60 years with a listing price of $12 million.
Dating to 1913, the home, known as Knollcrest, was built for Charles A. Goodyear—not to be confused with his relative Charles Goodyear, the inventor of vulcanized rubber and for whom the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is named. Both men were descendants of Stephen Goodyear, a London merchant who was one of the founders of the New Haven Colony, which had settlements in what’s now New York, Connecticut and other states.
Goodyear, a collector of custom-made furnishings and artifacts, supposedly commissioned architect G. Lawrence Stimson to design the home to be entirely fireproof, according to the listing with Brent Chang and Ann Gluck of Compass.
“It’s one of these things that’s been passed down in the lore about the house,” Chang said. “It was the [Pasadena] Showcase House in 1968—I went back and read the description and it was in there too.”
Since Goodyear worked in the lumber business, he was able to hand-select and treat all of the lumber used to build the house, “making sure it was as fireproof as possible,” Chang added. “It’s also why they used a lot more marble. Usually you don’t see a lot of marble in this time period.”
Besides the modernized primary bathroom and the kitchen, the 8,700-square-foot home’s design is entirely original, from the woodwork to the door handles and even the light switches.
The size and layout of the 2.5-acre grounds are original, too, which Chang said is unusual for the area’s older homes.
“It retains the original site, and it’s really rare to find that with these big homes because usually throughout the decades, some generation has needed some dough and sold off parts of the lot,” he said. “That really changes the whole feel of the house.”
Not only are Knollcrest’s grounds large for the area, but they’re also flat, giving it a parklike setting adorned with palm trees. Behind the home, there’s a swimming pool and a guest house. The property has a total of seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms.
MORE: Whiskey Magnate’s Roaring Twenties Estate in Newport, Rhode Island, Sells for $16 Million
Like many grand homes of the pre-FDIC era, the house was designed with a vault for storing cash. Though it could still be used to protect valuables, the most recent owners converted it into a wine cellar.
The home last traded hands in 1966, when the late businessman Robert Waller and his wife, Judy, bought it, making it their longtime family home. They’re one of just a handful of families who’ve owned the property—other notable owners include iron mining mogul Thomas F. Cole and Samuel Robinson, president of American Stores.
Mansion Global couldn’t determine what the Wallers paid in 1966. The Waller family couldn’t be reached for comment.