10539 Bellagio Road
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Sol Wurtzel House

The Sol Wurtzel House at 10539 Bellagio Road is a house designed by Wallace Neff for the film producer Sol M. Wurtzel and his wife, Marian. It is situated on Bellagio Road, in Bel Air, Los Angeles.

Neff received the commission in 1930 and the house was completed in 1932. It was set over a 1.5 acre site, and was 9,000 sq ft in size in 1991. The house is designed in a semicircle which fits the natural contour of the terrain. The house has two distinctive staircases which lead from the principal rooms of the house to a large terrace and tennis court. The main entrance to the house is framed by an elaborate a pair Corinthian columns two storeys in height topped with a broken pediment and urn.

Neff designed all rooms to "have at least two exposures opening onto wide loggias and terraces which overlook the gardens and on beyond to the sea" to enhance the views from the property. The house is 180 ft in length and situated on a 1.5 acre site that overlooks the Bel-Air Country Club. A large terrace and loggia with swimming pool was added by Neff to the west side of the house in 1939. A library and four bedrooms were situated on the second floor at the time of its construction, it had five bedrooms and seven bathrooms at the time of its 2019 sale with separate staff and guest rooms. The house was modelled by Neff on the Villa Giulia designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola for Pope Julius III. Kevin Starr praises the "splendiferous theatricality" of the house in his 1991 book Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s.

Wurtzel's wife, Marian, decorated the house with reproduction antique furniture and English silver and crystal chandeliers sourced from Italy.

The physic and astrologer Anthony Norvell acquired the house for $125,000 in 1953 (equivalent to $1,266,014 in 2021). It was the home of the British actor Reginald Owen in the 1950s; Owen sold it to Dolly Green in 1962. Green was the last surviving child of Burton Green, the co-founder of Beverly Hills. Green lived in the house from the early 1970s until her death in 1991. It was sold for $4.78 million in 1991 (equivalent to $9,509,783 in 2021) to the television producer William J. Bell, having previously been offered at $6.9 million. It was bought by businessman Jay Stein in 2019 for $31 million having been on the market since 2018 with an asking price of $37.5 million.

Bellagio Road - Wurtzel-Neff Estate

In August 1930, architect Wallace Neff received a telephone call that he would never forget. Powerful studio mogul Sol Wurtzel had just purchased a 1.5-acre parcel on the north side of Bellagio Road in Bel-Air, and he wanted to talk with Neff about designing his new mansion and estate. Shortly thereafter, the film producer decided Neff was the man for the job.

“The house,” Neff told friends, “was designed to fit the natural contour of the ground, resulting in a semicircular shape being selected for it.” Neff, moreover, took special care that every room was filled with light and took advantage of the views. “All rooms,” Neff explained, “have at least two exposures opening onto wide loggias and terraces which overlook the gardens and on beyond to the sea.”

The 180-foot-long curving mansion was crafted on a small knoll well back from Bellagio Road, east of Stone Canyon and overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club on the other side of the street. Two staircases flowed from the terraces that led off the main rooms, and they curved down to a second, larger terrace and the tennis court. Below, a broad lawn sloped gently off to Bellagio Road, where trees were planted to shield the property from view.

The driveway wound up the hill past the east portion of the mansion to the secluded motor court at the back of the property. To compensate for the lack of a grand view at the entrance, Neff gave the front door an elaborate treatment: a pair of two-story Corinthian columns ending in a gently curving broken pediment topped by an urn.

The front door opened into an intimate, circular foyer, which led into a very large—and very grand—oval reception room, with the curving grand staircase on one side. To the right was the huge living room with French doors leading to the arched loggia. To the left was the dining room and breakfast room, both opening onto their loggia, and the kitchen and service wing. The second floor contained the library and four master bedrooms. (In 1939, Neff added a magnificent terrace, swimming pool, and loggia on flat land just west of the main house.)

Marian Wurtzel, who loved to spend money, furnished the mansion with reproduction antique furniture, purchased fine English silver for their dinner par­ties, and bought crystal chandeliers during a trip to Italy. She bought furs and jewels for herself.

Since Howard Hughes, Prince Rainier, and Elvis Presley, the owners of this estate have been less eccentric, less royal, and less pursued by fans. They have however, admired the property’s beauty, and they protected the mansion and grounds from inappropriate changes. Today, the estate is one of the prized proper­ties of Old Bel-Air.