Texas Bidnessman Bobby Patton Buys in L.A.

BUYERS: Bobby and Sherri Patton
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $7,000,000
SIZE: somewhere between 6,800 and 7,500 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4+ bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We first heard it from Tipsy Tipster and we subsequently confirmed it with property records that big-livin' and winsomely quirky Texas businessman Bobby Patton and his wife, Sherri, have shelled out $7,000,000 for an historic house in the gated and star-studded Laughlin Park 'hood in L.A.'s Los Feliz area.

Mister Patton, a former attorney turned savvy and successful investor, has, on at least one occasion, shown a real flair for sartorial savoir faire, donates to both right and left side political parties, and reportedly owns the petrified remains of 15 dinosaurs. He is likely best known to Angelenos and avid professional baseball aficionados as one of the consortium of investors headed up by pro basketball icon Magic Johnson that, in 2012, paid lucky lucky lucky Frank McCourt a record shattering two billion dollars for L.A.'s once great and tarnished but still venerable Dodgers baseball franchise.

The .65 acre mini-estate has a bit of a history of Tinseltown-y occupants including W.C. Fields, who rented it back in the day, and the newly wedded and perfectly tuned comedienne Lily Tomlin who bought in the late 1980s and famously painted it pink. Since 2004 the property had been owned by Showbiz World exec Dennis Rice who bought if for $4,437,000 from actor/producer Gary Werntz and Emmy-winning produer Mimi Leder.

The property first popped up on Your Mama's radar back in late 2009 when Mister Rice listed it with an woefully optimistic $11,000,000 price tag. It remained on and then off then back on the market again for just one month before it taken off the market. It popped back up in September 2012 for a much lower and more reasonable $7,149,000 but only for a hot minute before it was de- and then re-listed with a higher asking price of $7,495,000. It remained on the open market until at least March 2013. Finally, in late November 2013, along came the well-heeled Forth Worth Pattons who, at long last, took Mister Rice's Laughlin Park real estate white elephant off his hands for, as mentioned above, for exactly seven million George Washingtons.

Depending on which of the several detailed listings we dug up on the internets the vintage, 1920s house measures either 6,865 square feet with four bedrooms and six bathrooms or it has four bedrooms and four full and two half bathrooms in about 7,450 square feet. A third listing shows it at 7,450 square feet with four bedrooms and only four bathrooms. The Los Angeles County Tax Man, in case anyone cares, puts it at 6,865 square feet with four bedrooms and five bathrooms.

Anyhoodles, poodles, however many square feet and whatever number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the angled two-story Mediterranean sits high on its street-to-street parcel and has crazy good scalloped ceilings in the entrance hall, original woodwork throughout, and a downright dynamite barrel-vaulted copper-framed sun room. The most detailed of the listings we turned up shows there are two distinct master bedrooms with private bathrooms, additional staff/guest quarters, front and rear staircases, a basement—somewhat rare in Southern California, and a wine cellar that may or may not be accommodated in said basement.

The front door is accessible by way of a street-side pavilion and a long arched colonnade or, at the opposite side of the property that's accessible from a second street, it's long healthy, glute-busting hike up a wide and regal set of steps from a motor court to the decorated entry facade and front door. To the right, the foyer gives way to the roomy formal living room with wood floors, high ceilings ornamented with wedding cake moldings, arched glass doors, and a fireplace dressed what look like a sweet copper hood) On the left four step climb to a wood-paneled formal dining room that, in turn, opens to the aforementioned all-glass sun room.

Less formal family quarters includes an extra-wide galley-style kitchen with snack bar equipped central work island and olive green-ish tile counter tops and back splashes. The fairly narrow adjoining family room has mirror image sectional sofas along the wall for optimal view of the boob-toob in the built-in entertainment cabinet.

The larger of the two master suites has a fireplace and French doors to a Juliet balcony and the smaller has a soaring exposed wood and beamed ceiling and a kiva-style fireplace flanked by built-in storaage and open shelves.

There are party-sized tiled terraces on either end of the house and set well below the house and terraces area a simple, rectangular swimming pool and an open air cabana with kitchenette and changing room.

Other high (and semi-high) profile entertainment industry denizens who own homes in the Laughlin Park nabe include Kristen Stewart, Natasha Bedingfield, Jenna and Bohdi Elfman, Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied, and Casey Affleck and Summer Phoenix.

Mister and Missus Patton's residential property portfolio also includes, as per property records, an impressively scaled, 9,100+ square foot Italianate villa in the leafy and affluent Westridge area of Forth Worth that they appear to have picked up way back in 1998. Property records also reveal that in May 2011 the couple coughed up $1.25 million for a boat-friendly, two-residence mini-compound on a double lot in a gated Port Aransas, TX, enclave that's all but in the backyard of the itty-bitty local airport. They own a more impressive and much larger six bedroom and ten bathroom ski chalet with nearly 10,000 square feet in Beaver Creek, CO, that they scooped up in late 2011 for $9,950,000.

listing photos: Global Realty (via Movoto)

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