It's called Bellosguardo: “Beautiful view.” But driving by, you can barely see it: It hides behind high walls, bookending the southern tip of Santa Barbara, Calif. A $100 million mansion perched on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, immaculately maintained, as if waiting for someone who has gone off for the weekend.
But the owner hasn't been seen here since Barbara Dorin lived on the estate as a child. “It’s like ‘The Secret Garden,’ ” said Dorin, now 65. “ ‘The Secret Garden’ and Nancy Drew, all rolled up into one.”
Dorin’s dad was manager of two of the owners’ properties for 50 years. Barbara lived in the manager’s cottage, and explored the 23-acre estate with a child’s curiosity.
“I loved to play in Andrée's cottage,” she said, referring to a children's playhouse on the estate. “It had a little settee and tea service. The roof was made of thatch. Sometimes my friends and I would sneak into the empty mansion, put on little white booties—”
“Why?” I interrupted.
“Because of the parquet floors! Nobody walked on those parquet floors in the mansion; they were pristine, fabulous. There was also a fantastic music room, two stories high, that looked out over the ocean.”
“How many people did it take to keep the mansion in order?” I wondered.
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-The Kybalion-
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