On top of the world

For the low, low price of $8 million, Sunset Beach’s landmark water tower could become your new home.A Surfside Colony landmark could be yours for a cool $8 million.

After 11 years of living in one of the most unusual homes in Orange County, real estate mogul and former Lynnwood Fire Chief Jerry Wallace is ready to sell his water-tower house, complete with panoramic views.

“There really isn’t anything like it,” realtor Gloria Sceberras said. “This is the property for the trophy person, the one who already has everything and wants to add something special to their holdings.”

The interior of the 90-foot tower at 1 Anderson St. remains a mystery to most Sunset Beach residents. But since it is easily the tallest structure for miles in any direction, many rely on it as a navigational tool when driving down Pacific Coast Highway or steering their dinghies into nearby Huntington Harbor.

“I use it as a reference point when I come in on my boat,” volunteer firefighter John Woods said. “It’s like a lighthouse in that it can be seen from a good distance.”

The house comes with its own elevator, maid’s quarters, complete wrap-around deck and top-floor party room with electric shutters and a hydraulic-powered fire pit that can be raised to dinning table level or hidden in the ceiling to make room for a dance floor.

Wallace’s water-tower house is a mystery in a community that prides itself on neighborliness. Stepping into the home is a badge of honor in Sunset Beach, a privilege usually reserved for A-list partygoers and donors to the Sunset Beach Women’s Club.

Artist Bill Anderson has never set foot in the house, but about 20 of his Sunset Beach paintings contain pictures of the tower.

“As soon as you put that water tower in a painting, people say ‘I know where that is,’” Anderson said. “The character of Sunset Beach is so much defined by that tower, along with buildings like Mothers and the Harbor House. It’s like Huntington Beach in the old days when the Golden Bear was still there.”

While the character of the building will remain the same, the new owners will have a heck of time replacing the furniture -- anything bigger than a toaster oven has to be pulled up the side of the house using an intricate pulley system.

They might also want to consider updating some technological features in the house that were once in vogue but would now seem more appropriate on the set of an early Stanley Kubrick film.

The giant projection television could be exchanged for something a little more high-definition, and the video-intercom system seems more like a Cold War relic than a modern security system.

Despite the need for a few minor improvements, the place is a rare gem in an otherwise homogenized housing market. A lower deck under the house hides a hot tub and barbecue from curious tourists who gather to stare at the property, and the master bathroom makes up for a lack of doors with a circular design that allows the wall of the room to spin and block the entryway.

Then there’s the view, a spectacular 360-degree experience that includes nearly every icon in north Orange County and Long Beach as well as Catalina Island.

“On a clear day, you can see San Diego,” said Sceberras. “It’s really a landmark by the bay. When we have a full moon over the red tides, the ocean literally glows.”

Property records don’t give a clear date of construction, but the original water tower was built around 1890 to supply Sunset Beach and Surfside Colony. It was later replaced with a new tower that included a 75,000-gallon redwood tank. In 1966 the tower was sold to the city of Huntington Beach, which integrated it into its own water system for nine years. After that, Seal Beach gained ownership.

When the tower became obsolete, a three-year public debate raged over what to do with the historic structure. The California Coastal Commission eventually approved a plan by business partners George Armstrong and Robert Odell Jr. to covert the tower into a home on the condition that they perfectly replicate its original design. Woods said he remembers community fundraisers and block parties to raise money for the project.

Eventually the 50-ton house -- 35 feet high and 35 feet in diameter -- was constructed in a nearby parking lot and placed atop the tower platform with a giant crane. It would be almost a decade before the pair sold the place.

These days the house costs about $25,000 a year to maintain, including painting every two years and regular termite work -- the house has been tented twice since it was built.

The house also attracts another type of visitor that sometimes tests nerves -- tourists. Hardly a week goes by without someone ringing the doorbell to get a peek. They have plenty of excuses -- they were lost, they thought it was a restaurant or they just wanted to check the place out.

There’s also the claustrophobic elevator ride to the top, the sways from earthquakes and storms and the isolation of living in a tower six stories above everyone else. Pat Theis of the Sunset Beach Community Assn. said the house will always be an icon to the residents of Sunset Beach, but probably not a source of envy.

“It’s an unusual house that would take a very unusual person to want to live there,” she said.

20051013io830hknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Realtor Gloria Sceberras opens the automatic shades on the top floor of the water-tower house in Sunset Beach. The windows offer 360-degree views stretching from Catalina Island to Long Beach and northern Orange County. 20051013io830uknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Fish swim in an aquarium along the staircase that leads to the top level of the landmark water-tower house in Sunset Beach.