Moorcrest: The Enchanted Hollywood Hills Mansion

• A rich narrative of Moorcrest’s history, from its Theosophist roots to celebrity ownership
• Market snapshot, lifestyle insights, and real estate takeaways

Perched above Beachwood Canyon, Moorcrest looks less like a house and more like a dream conjured from stained glass, mosaics, and myth, a stage where Hollywood itself once rehearsed its future.

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All home images are artistic illustrations, not photographs, used for educational and historical purposes.

How Moorcrest came to be

Moorcrest rose during Beachwood Canyon’s early utopian phase. The Krotona Colony, a Theosophist community, settled here in the 1910s. Member and designer Marie Russak Hotchener created several buildings for the group, with Moorcrest as her boldest residential work, completed around 1920 to 1921. By the mid 1920s, Krotona’s leadership began relocating to Ojai, but the whimsical structures, and Moorcrest above all, remained as landmarks of that era.

Inside and out, the home is all drama: leaded stained glass, mosaic tile, hand painted details, a copper fireplace, and a glass domed atrium that floods the interior with light. Even the pool terrace feels theatrical, with a small man made grotto and stepping stone path.

Famous residents

Charlie Chaplin, early 1920s

Chaplin is said to have been an early tenant, with sources placing him here around 1922, just as he was shaping the feature length films that defined silent era comedy and co founding United Artists in 1919 to control his own work.

Key films from Chaplin’s Moorcrest era:

• The Kid (1921) – The Tramp raises an abandoned child; comedy meets pathos. Co stars: Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance.
• A Woman of Paris (1923) – A small town woman becomes a Parisian socialite and must choose between love and luxury. Chaplin directs but does not star. Stars: Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou.
• The Gold Rush (1925) – The Tramp prospecting in the Klondike faces hunger, love, and blizzards, including the famous shoe eating scene. Co stars: Georgia Hale, Mack Swain.

Around this time, the studio system was solidifying and the Hollywoodland real estate boom put up a gigantic hillside billboard in 1923, now the Hollywood Sign. Sound films were close behind, with The Jazz Singer in 1927 introducing synchronized speech and songs. The silent era faded quickly after that.

Mary Astor and the Depression era

In 1925, teen star Mary Astor’s parents, Otto and Helen Langhanke, bought Moorcrest. They, and Mary, lived here for nearly a decade. In 1934, the family lost Moorcrest to foreclosure, the house reportedly bringing just $21,500. After that, it cycled through private owners.

Key films Astor starred in while at Moorcrest include:

• Beau Brummel (1924, just before residence) – Biography of Regency dandy Beau Brummell. Stars: John Barrymore, Mary Astor.
• Don Juan (1926) – A lavish romantic adventure with John Barrymore as the legendary lover and Astor as Adriana. First feature to use Vitaphone for synchronized music and effects.
• Red Dust (1932) – A steamy Indochina love triangle: plantation boss (Clark Gable), worldly Vantine (Jean Harlow), and Mary Astor as Barbara.

During these years, Hollywood raced from silents to sound, then dove into the spicy pre Code era from roughly 1930 to mid 1934. The Great Depression cut ticket sales. By mid 1934, the Hays Code began strict enforcement, toning down on screen scandal.

For decades afterward, Moorcrest faded from the limelight. No major celebrity owners were tied to the house during this period, though its striking architecture kept it a quiet landmark until its rediscovery in the late twentieth century.

Public records show sales in 1996 and again in 1999 for around $900,000. In the mid 2000s it was restored and offered at higher price points, listed in 2006 for about $9.99 million and again in 2007 for about $7.48 million, before ultimately selling off market in 2014. The period from the Depression through the 2000s was not defined by widely documented celebrity residents. Coverage focused primarily on the house’s architecture and its earlier Chaplin and Astor era.

Andy Samberg and Joanna Newsom

In 2014, Moorcrest quietly changed hands off market for $6.25 million, purchased by comedian Andy Samberg and musician Joanna Newsom. Samberg, known for Saturday Night Live, The Lonely Island, and Brooklyn Nine Nine, brought modern comedy stardom to the house. Newsom, a classically trained harpist and singer songwriter, is celebrated for albums like Ys and Divers, blending folk, avant garde, and orchestral sounds.

Together, they represent a new era of Hollywood creativity, spanning television, music, and indie artistry, while preserving one of Beachwood Canyon’s most storied homes.

Beachwood Canyon: then and now

Moorcrest sits in Beachwood Canyon, a 1920s hillside development once marketed as part of “Hollywoodland.” The sign went up in 1923 to sell lots. The area attracted creatives and idealists, including Krotona’s Theosophists and film figures who liked the tucked away streets and city views. Beachwood’s celebrity roster over the decades has included names like Charlie Chaplin, Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, and writer Aldous Huxley.

Across the wider hills, Moorcrest is part of a network of landmark homes that define Los Angeles architecture on the slopes. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House and Lloyd Wright’s Sowden House experiment with concrete block and Mayan inspired forms in nearby Los Feliz, while The Cedars channels Mediterranean drama and gothic Hollywood lore on another hillside. Together, they show how different visions of fantasy and spirituality were built into the canyons themselves.

What it is like inside today

While ownership changes, Moorcrest’s signature features endure: the glass domed atrium, stained glass, custom cabinetry, mosaics, and that theatrical pool terrace. When the estate sold off market for $6.25 million in 2014, listing photography showed the interiors in restored, exuberant detail, with the historic fabric carefully showcased rather than erased.

Why Moorcrest matters

• It is the most famous surviving house tied to the Krotona Colony, a window into the stranger, spiritual side of early Hollywood.
• It connects directly to two pivotal film figures at turning point moments: Chaplin on the cusp of his feature length masterpieces and the rise of sound, and Astor navigating stardom through silents, talkies, and pre Code heat.
• Architecturally, it is a rare and important work by Marie Russak Hotchener, one of very few women shaping Los Angeles’ built environment a century ago.

Market snapshot

While Beachwood Canyon values have softened, trophy homes like Moorcrest sit far above the neighborhood’s averages. That gap is a reminder that scarcity and story can outrun broader market shifts.

• Hollywood Hills: Median home value around $1.96 million, down modestly year over year.
• Beachwood Canyon: Median sale price recently near $1.55 million, with price per square foot around $739.
• New listings: Roughly twenty active listings in Beachwood Canyon, with a median listing price around $1.73 million.

Moorcrest, which sold off market for $6.25 million in 2014, now stands as a rare trophy estate. Comparing it to today’s local medians highlights its extraordinary prestige and why unique historic homes can remain resilient even in uneven markets.

What Moorcrest teaches about today’s market

1. Distinctive character adds value. Architectural oddities and historic provenance are not just conversation pieces. They create long term appeal and resilience in fluctuating markets.
2. Celebrity provenance amplifies interest. Homes linked to iconic figures, from Chaplin to Newsom and Samberg, carry cachet that often translates into increased demand among luxury buyers.
3. Scarcity is a powerful asset. There are very few homes like Moorcrest. In a neighborhood where the median listing hovers around the low seven figures, owning something in the multi million dollar trophy tier, with deep history, signals real exclusivity.

Follow along as I continue uncovering Hollywood’s hidden homes, each with its own story of stardom, scandal, and survival.

All home images are artistic illustrations used for educational and historical commentary.