Actress Sela Ward’s onetime home in Hancock Park retains its 1930s elegance

Before they moved on to bigger things and a bigger project in Bel-Air, Emmy Award-winning actress Sela Ward and her husband, Howard Sherman, left their mark on this handsome home in historic Hancock Park.

The couple updated and restored the 1939 French Country-inspired home, designed by El Capitan Theater architect Stiles O. Clements for art patrons Mildred and Lucius Green, before selling in 2005 to American Rag CEO Mark Werts for about $3.8 million. Werts would eventually flip the home two years later for $4.695 million.

Now for sale at $5.995 million, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home retains its vintage curb appeal with a broad roofline, arched dormers and vines wrapping the exterior.

Interiors of more than 5,000 square feet invite intimate and large-scale entertaining with grand formal areas done in parquet wood floors, delicate wainscoting and elaborate chandeliers. Rows of slender picture windows bring the manicured grounds inside.

A writer’s nook has a wall of bookshelves and French doors opening to the outside, and an updated kitchen centers on a wide center island. Three bedroom suites reside in the main house, with the third-floor acting as a dedicated guest suite.

Another guest suite sits the above the garage.

Formal gardens, outdoor sitting areas and a swimming pool and spa fill the hedged and gated setting. A sports court sits off the gardens to complete the nearly half-acre grounds.

R.L. Morgan of Sotheby’s International Realty is the listing agent.

Twitter: @NJLeitereg