The newly renovated historic Far Afield estate, on nearly 10.5 acres with over 25 cultivated and native gardens, has been listed for $68,000,000 by Joyce Rey and Timothy Di Prizito, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury Property Specialists affiliated with the Beverly Hills office of Coldwell Banker Realty. Located in Montecito, Calif., the nearly 20,000-square-foot residence has seven bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.
“Far Afield has recently been renovated and redesigned with over 25 separate gardens surely to be considered as one of the top private gardens in America,” said Di Prizito. “The garden renovation took six months with significant investment. It's not the same property as it was in 2021. It's an entirely new experience.”
The Far Afield gardens include portions of the original Bridal Path connecting horticultural, botanical, native and formal parterre gardens across acres of fertile land. It also features the historic statuary of Rose Farwell “The Lady” and Dionysus & The Historic Folly. There are incredible natural orchards and groves such as The Citrus, Stone Fruit Orchards, Forest Pansy and Oak Cathedral Groves. In addition, there are several formal rose gardens and dozens of other varieties of native flora.
A gated long driveway approach set back far from Hot Springs Road introduces an unassuming, yet unbelievably awe-inspiring romantic main villa and guest residence with indelible charm and character. Each of the parquet floor patterns was custom built on-site with hand-cut French Oak, imported from historic Chateaus. A curated collection of Dutch, Italian and Spanish antique tiles are attentively integrated throughout the estate’s interior and exterior.
In 1916, Far Afield was parceled off from the original Las Tejas Estate by the owner, and early Montecito settler, William Alston Hayne, who sold it to famed American writer Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor and wife Rose Farwell, the daughter of US Senator Charlie B. Farwell. Farewell and Chatfield purchased the land and named the property Far Afield by name blending, symbolizing the estate as their vacation home “far away” from their primary home in Lake Forest, Ill. This Preeminent Mediterranean Villa Estate was designed in 1917 and completed in 1918 by renowned Santa Barbara architect Francis T. Underhill, outdoing his other masterpieces such as Villa Solana and La Chiquita. At an enormous expense and length of time, the 15-year restoration project completed in 2017 delivers art and architecture thoughtfully finished with handcrafted custom details using 17th and 18th century reclaimed building materials curated throughout Europe.
“In the prime Montecito ‘Golden Quadrangle,’ Far Afield is a legacy estate for the ages with everything one would expect of class and sophistication,” said Rey. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity thanks to its location, acreage, gardens and pedigree architecture, which is impossible to replicate today.”
To view the home, contact Joyce Rey at 310-285-7529 or joyce@joycerey.com or Timothy Di Prizito at 310-266-2777 or tdipri@gmail.com.
Coldwell Banker Realty in Southern California, the No. 1 residential real estate brokerage in Southern California, operates 61 offices with approximately 4,341 affiliated agents. Real estate agents affiliated with the company are independent contractor agents and are not employees of the company. Coldwell Banker Realty is owned by a subsidiary of Anywhere Real Estate Inc. (NYSE:HOUS), the largest full-service residential real estate services company in the United States. For more information, visit ColdwellBankerHomes.com. CalDRE #01908304.
Photo by Eric Foote.
