Described as a “magical architectural masterpiece,” the 5-bedroom, 7.5-bathroom home that’s known as the Hume Castle at 2900 Buena Vista Way has been listed for sale, priced at $5 million.
The medieval-style marvel was designed by John Hudson Thomas and built in 1929 for Samuel and Portia Bell Hume. Thomas took his inspiration from the 13th-century Convent of the Augustines in Toulouse, and it certainly looks like it would fit right into the Southern French landscape.
Like the French convent, the Hume mansion, a Berkeley landmark, is arranged around a large internal courtyard surrounded by colonnaded cloisters featuring Gothic tracery arches. It sits on just under three-quarter acres of private, gated property tucked into a sweeping curve of Buena Vista Way, to the east of the Rose Garden.
Samuel James Hume was a leading scholar of drama and a nationally known theatrical director and producer. His wife, Portia, studied sculpture in Paris, later obtaining her M.D. and teaching psychiatry.
The 5,746-square-foot home is by far the most expensive home for sale in Berkeley. The second most costly home currently on the market is 1530 Grizzly Peak Boulevard, a 5-bedroom built in 2005, listed for $2.78 million. The last Berkeley home to sell in the multi-million-dollar range was 25 Tanglewood Road, a rebuilt mid-century modern in the Claremont neighborhood. It sold for $3.9 million in July last year.
The home is for sale via Bebe McRae at the Grubb Company. No open houses are currently scheduled. For more information visit The Grubb Company online.
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