Will McCormick House Become a Private Residence Once Again?

Noteworthy new listings….

As we’ve known for a while now, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is looking to sell off the McCormick House at 1600 Santa Barbara Street ($7.5 million), on .72 acre at the corner of Arrellaga and across the street from Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden. According to the listing, it was “built in 1940 […] by architect Chester Carjola for the purpose of a wellness center,” “converted to a residence in the 1950s, then used since the 1970s as an art education center.” The public rooms in the front half still feel residential, and there are wonderful details like the caryatids flanking the fireplace. As you venture deeper, the layout and atmosphere turn more institutional, culminating in a mammoth great room. The property is a wonderful piece of Santa Barbara history in a convenient Upper East location, and I suspect that if someone takes on the project with an eye toward living there, he or she will utilize it in a live-work fashion. Or it could get divided into apartments.

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Tasteful, turnkey 610 Olive Road ($11.5 million) has a lot going for it—even the two-bedroom guest house is looking sharp—and just one serious ding against it, which is that the house is right on East Valley Road. At least the glamorous semicircular pool is toward the back, amid very pretty landscaping.

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4241 Mariposa Drive ($9.1 million) has welcoming, East Coast–style energy, with a few rooms that tip into quaint (which doesn’t mean I’d change a thing—love the den’s red leather armchairs and bar). The 2.85-acre property, in one of the better parts of Hope Ranch, also includes a guest house and three-stall stables. All I really want to talk about, however, is that swan in the pool. Is it permanent?

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Elsewhere in Hope Ranch, 4356 Via Glorieta ($3.995 million) is an architecturally undistinguished 1954 three-bedroom with a few surprises up its sleeve—namely, the triangular kiddie pool, the black-and-white primary bath, and whatever is going on in the living room.

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There are cute 1930s bones at 3020 Puesta del Sol ($2.795 million) in east San Roque, and the surfaces appear not to need much updating. The floor plan is blocky—rare is the room that has windows on more than one side, and the two guest rooms share a bathroom in the adjacent hallway. That stuff is hard to change, but you could add a pocket door to give the primary bedroom/bathroom more privacy. P.S. BW points out that this is an extremely hot potato.

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340 W. Mountain Drive ($2.395 million) is on the back of the Riviera, but it looks like it would be more at home in Big Bear. The woodsy atmosphere meshes rather nicely with the 1970s architecture; while the kitchen might be fine as is, the bathrooms could stand a refresh. The primary is on the ground floor, and upstairs there are three bedrooms that share a pair of side-by-side hallway baths.

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Also worth checking out:
••• 1383 School House Road ($6.1 million): Floops of a 1965 three-bedroom near Montecito Union School; the seller paid $5.75 million six weeks ago.

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