The Former James Cagney Estate

Description

In 1939, James Cagney built himself a hideout on five private acres in Beverly Hills. Not a movie star mansion. A New England country house, tucked beneath what is now the Franklin Canyon Nature Reserve, filled with books, muskets, an artist's studio and tiered citrus orchards. He wanted to disappear. The house made that possible. Eighty-seven years later the compound has been restored to a standard the original never reached, and it still reads as his. Multiple residences sit across more than five acres of secured gated grounds, linked by hand-laid stone paths through tiered citrus gardens, sculptural courtyards, candle-carved stone walls and museum-quality European statuary. Separate regulation tennis and pickleball courts carry grandfathered night lighting that cannot be permitted in Beverly Hills today. Five acres in the 90210 with this compound density cannot be assembled from scratch at any price. That is the argument for the property. The terracotta, the French oak and the trees follow from it.

History

Cagney built here in 1939. He chose a New England country house on five private acres of Coldwater Canyon over anything the market would have expected of him. Architectural Digest returned to the house in 1990 with the film critic Richard Schickel, who wrote that "between James Cagney's image and his chosen architecture there falls a shadow." On screen he was urban voltage and barely contained aggression. The house he built was intimate, bookish, green and quiet. Schickel read it as a man living out his most cherished boyhood dream.

Provenance

The estate has carried Cagney's name for nearly nine decades, and the current steward has treated that as the brief. The work has been restoration rather than replacement, carried out over many years and finished to a level Cagney, working with a fraction of today's resources, never reached. That is the harder version of this job. Anyone with enough capital can commission a spectacular modern house in Beverly Hills. Taking something historically significant and lifting every element of it without erasing what made it irreplaceable is a different exercise. The result is a compound with the full amenity set of world-class new construction and an atmosphere that new construction cannot manufacture.

Residence Overview

The Main Villa announces itself through a grand cobblestone circular motor court. Inside, the plan runs from the butler's pantry through formal dining to elegant yet warm living rooms, built for seamless entertaining. Two primary suites carry couture-scale closets, grand ensuite baths, soaking tubs, double vanities and step-in showers for two. A further guest bedroom suite has a cedar closet dressing room and ensuite bath.

The Compound

"The Boathouse" is a secluded guest residence with its own private gated drive and porte-cochère. It functions as a fully self-contained residence and works equally as an event venue, creative retreat or production studio. "The Carriage House" is a multipurpose creative studio with a full kitchen, ensuite bath and auto garages. The detached "Guest Cottage" was Cagney's original art studio, the room where he completed many of his paintings, now renovated with a full kitchen and ensuite bath while reviving its essential character. Multiple self-contained living environments sit behind one set of gates, which makes this an unusually versatile estate for multigenerational living or artists in residence.

Upgrades/Features

Every structure has been brought to a contemporary standard without losing its period language. The Main Villa is roofed in reclaimed European terracotta tiles beneath exposed trussed-beam cathedral ceilings, with leaded glass windows and multiple restored original fireplaces. None of it is reproduction. The Boathouse is floored and beamed in antique nineteenth century reclaimed French oak. Across the grounds, candle-carved stone walls, hand-laid stone pathways and internationally curated antique statuary define the outdoor rooms.

Expansion

The footprint has grown with the restoration. Beneath the Main Villa, a new subterranean level holds the wine cellar, a full service laundry facility and generous storage. Outside, the estate carries a recreation program that matches anything being built today. A regulation hard tennis court and a separate regulation pickleball court share grandfathered night lighting, a permitting status that cannot be replicated under current Beverly Hills ordinances. A tennis spectator pavilion with wet bar overlooks play. A glass-tile swimming pool and spa sits alongside a poolside cabana and an outdoor dining bistro, and the pavilion and cabana each carry a fully equipped outdoor chef's kitchen with restrooms and showers. A full gym with steam room completes the set.

Property

Beyond the residences the estate unfolds as a village, a quality of spatial organisation that is genuinely rare in Los Angeles and impossible to replicate in new construction, which must be designed as a village from the outset rather than becoming one over time. Stone pathways wind through tiered citrus gardens and sculptural courtyards. An ancient banyan anchors the landscape, with mature specimen trees shading the grounds. That density took nearly nine decades. A new build can plant trees. It cannot grow them. Expansive flat lawns and play fields offer rare recreational space within the hills above Sunset Boulevard, with mountain views beyond.

Location

9631 Cedarbrook Drive sits privately beneath the Franklin Canyon Nature Reserve, gated and secured, in one of Los Angeles' most exclusive enclaves. More than five acres of gated grounds give an unheard-of combination of acreage, provenance and seclusion.

5.04 Acres

Surface:

• Tennis Hard Court
• Pickleball Court 

Condition: Excellent

Lighting: Yes