NEWPORT BEACH : Old Manse Getting New Lease on Life
Over half a century ago, safety-razor magnate King Gillette built a lavish,23-room mansion at the very end of Balboa Peninsula.
It was a 12,000-square-foot beach “cottage” with spectacular ocean and bay-front views.
But Gillette never moved into the palatial home on Newport Harbor. Legend has it that the day he arrived a powerful storm lashed the coastline and he watched with a mixture of awe and fear as high surf slammed against the house and fierce waves crashed over the roof. As the tale goes, the razor king headed back to Beverly Hills, never to spend a night in the house.
Now, the bay-front landmark that has fallen into disrepair in the last few years has been purchased for $1.4 million by a couple who own an Irvine computer leasing firm. Albert and Loyce Grasso plan to turn the mansion into an Italian, Mediterranean-style villa on the bay.
Steeped in nostalgia and a bit of quirky history, the old Gillette mansion is located near the place where a rock jetty forms the famed “Wedge” surfing spot in Newport Beach.
Over the years, it has been home to an eclectic cast of characters, from a pair of feuding brothers who cut the house in half to musician Dick Dale, “King of the Surf Guitar.”
As the stories go, Gillette built the house in 1926 for $24,000. After he refused to move in, the home remained empty for five years. In 1931, brothers Martin and James Padway bought the house and spent about $100,000 to divide it in half, creating two separate homes.
During World War II, the home was taken over by the Coast Guard and used as a lifesaving station and temporary housing for military personnel. It was sold a couple more times and finally bought in 1976 by Dale, undoubtedly the mansion’s most flamboyant and famous resident.
While living in the mansion Dale began remodeling, boasting that he wanted to turn the house into a “miniature Hearst Castle.” But he never completed the work.
In the early 1980s, Dale’s life took a troubled turn when his marriage to a Tahitian dancer fell apart and he faced criminal charges of sexually molesting a 13-year-old girl at his once-grand mansion. Dale was eventually acquitted of 10 of the 12 charges and the remaining two counts were dismissed.
When the Grassos bought the home, there were holes in the walls, sloping floors and a deteriorating seawall.
But with the help of Newport Beach architect Brion Jeannette, the Grassos are determined to add a new, more luxurious chapter to the old mansion’s life.
“It will be grand,” said Jeannette. The house will be painted in light pastels; detailed archways, columns and marble floors will be installed and murals will be painted on the walls and ceilings. There will be six bedrooms, an exercise room, a library, an elevator, a see-through, glass-enclosed fireplace, a whirlpool and a sophisticated audio-visual sound and television system in the master bedroom. But the renovated mansion’s best feature, Jeannette said, will be the view.
“We’ll have a view of the ocean or bay from every room in the house,” Albert Grasso said. “The location here is such a special part of Newport Beach. Although fixing up the house has turned into a lot more work and is costlier than we had anticipated, I’m still real excited about moving in.”
