Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton's first home in Hope, Arkansas has been a museum for many years but the museum will become a national historic site as of the first of the year. Clinton lived in the two-story, wood-frame home until he was four years old spending much of that time with his grandparents. After that the home continued to be owned by his family until his maternal grandfather, Eldridge Cassidy, died in 1956. Cassidy ran a grocery store that served both black and white customers, an unusual occurrence in the 1950s South. The Cassidy family moved into the home in 1938 and purchased it in 1946. The home dates from 1917 and was built in the style known as American foursquare.

The museum has been open since 1997 and more than 80,000 people from 159 countries have taken a tour at the home. An article in the Christian Science Monitor says that the site is particularly popular with international visitors. The Clinton Birthplace Foundation bought the home in 1993 and restored it keeping original details including the staircase in the living room. Most of the second floor finishes are said to be original, including the flooring and the beaded board in the hallway and nursery. The foundation has made a gift of the site to the National Park Service. When the site reopens after the holiday on January 2, uniformed park service workers will staff the facility. The status of being a national historic site is expected to bring more tourists to the area.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--A walled and gated Encino estate that has been home to actors Al Jolson, Kirstie Alley, Katey Sagal and Charlie Sheen at various times has come back on the market at $6.95 million. It was listed at $8.995 million earlier this year. The listing is here.
--Designer Waldo Fernandez has sold a house he remodeled in Beverly Hills for $8.3 million.
Celebrity photographer Mark Liddell has listed a gorgeous compound in the Hollywood Hills area at $3.25 million. The woodsy retreat includes a main house, guest house, saltwater pool and a meditation garden. The listing is here.
A gated Corona del Mar home with eight fireplaces and a 60-foot waterfall has come on the market for $19 million. The listing is here.
Retired pro basketball player Kiki Vandeweghe has bought an estate in Encino for $2.25 million.


From the NY Observer:
-- Architect Jill Brunstad, who's designed retail spaces for Dolce & Gabbana and Eileen Fisher, has sold her penthouse at 145 East 84th Street for $2.1 million.
--Senior MTV exec Joey Molko has sold his Upper East Side apartment for $1.385 million to Jean Vitau, a French jewelry designer.
--Edwin Muelensteen, a Dutch art dealer who recently purchased one of the city's most exclusive art galleries, has also grabbed a home at 122 Chambers Street, in the Seaman Company Building, for $1.8 million.
--Another apartment at Chelsea Enclave, on the grounds of the theological seminary, has sold for a $5.3 million,a nearly 12 percent cut.
--Aby Rosen's 11,700-square-foot, single-family townhouse at 3 East 94th Street is off the market because it has been rented. Estimates have it renting for between $50,000 to $100,000 a month. It was listed at $29.5 million when it was our estate of the day.

--Jane Holzer has sold a five-story townhouse at 109 East 69th Street for $13.15 million. The former Warhol muse purchased the brownstone in March of 2008 for $10.5 million and later listed it for $17 million. The home is currently listed for rent for $48,000 per month.
--Senior MTV exec Joey Molko has sold his Upper East Side apartment for $1.385 million to Jean Vitau, a French jewelry designer.
--Edwin Muelensteen, a Dutch art dealer who recently purchased one of the city's most exclusive art galleries, has also grabbed a home at 122 Chambers Street, in the Seaman Company Building, for $1.8 million.
--Hip-hop clothing mogul Joseph Betesh, the man behind Dr. Jay clothing, has sold his home at 15 Central Park West for $11.39 million. He bought the 28th-floor condo in 2008 for $5.6 million.
The home of the late William F. Buckley Jr. has had another price cut. It was listed at $24.9 million when we first checked it out in 2008. It is now listed with Brown Harris Stevens for $10 million.

--Judge Judy (Judith Sheindlin) and her husband Jerry, have sold their penthouse at 60 Sutton Place for $2.25 million.
--Actress Francie Swift has bought an apartment at 2 East End Avenue for $1.6 million.
--Mexico's former finance secretary, Pedro Aspe, has snatched up a spot in Lenox Hill for $1.475 million.
--L'Oreal CEO Laurent Attal has purchased a Carnegie Hill home for $1.3 million.
--1024 Lexington Avenue the building, which was once the offices of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex counselor to the nation, has sold for $24.5 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--A waterfront home in Corona del Mar, California owned by a trust linked to actress Diane Keaton and her sister, and an adjacent lot for which Ms. Keaton's sister is a trustee under a different trust have sold for a total of $6.5 million, that price is 28 percent less than the original $9.5 million asking price.
--Fashion designer Leon Max of Max Studio is the new owner of Castillo del Lago, the Los Angeles home once owned by Madonna. He bought the home for $7 million. It was listed at $15 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day in April 2009.

--A property in Miami Beach, Florida, has listed for $29 million. The seller is Mark Gainor, a health-care entrepreneur who purchased the home for $13.9 million in 2005 from the singer/actress Jennifer Lopez.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Singer Rachel Sweet has put her Los Feliz area on the market for $9,995,000. The home known as Los Pavoreales was designed in 1926 by architect Wallace Neff and has been owned by Madonna, Jenna Elfman and Katey Sagal. The listing is here.
--Celebrity artist Steve Kaufman who was once Andy Warhol's assistant, has placed his four-bedroom home in Los Feliz neighborhood on the market for $1.597 million. The listing is here.
--Retired basketball star Alonzo Mourning finally sold his Miami home for $6 million. It was once listed at $10 million and was at $9.5 million when it was our estate of the day in 2007.
--Alan Alda has sold a three-bedroom single-family house in Sag Harbor, N.Y. for $550,000.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Marisa Noel Brown, the youngest daughter of disgraced hedge fund manager Walter Noel, and her husband Matt Brown, have found a buyer for their townhouse at 12 East 78th Street. The home, which was $12 million in May, went into contract late last week. The couple purchased the home for $13.5 million in January 2008.
--via the NY Times, the buyer who paid $37 million for Gerhard Andlinger's penthouse at the Time Warner Center was Andrei Vavilov, the Russian financier who agreed to buy two penthouses at the Plaza last year for $53.5 million, but ended up suing the developer.
--via the NY Times, Italian movie mogul Vittorio Cecchi Gori has gone into contract to sell his penthouse at the Trump International for $18 million but the new buyer won't be able to move into the apartment-which Cecchi Gori bought from Donald Trump for $10.4 million in 1997, for a while. The foreclosed apartment has been gutted.
--via the NY Observer, My pick for New York City's most romantic apartment, the St. Urban penthouse owned by architect Lee Harris Pomeroy has had another price drop. It was listed at $16.5 million bit is now listed for $7.75 million. It was our estate of the day last year.
--via NY Mag, how low will the Harlem mansion built by Barnum & Bailey co-founder James Bailey go? It started at $10 million but is now listed for $3.5 million. We checked out this unique structure back in April.
--Software titan Peter Norton has gone into contract to sell his 45th-floor apartment at Trump International for the second time.
--Warren Spector, the former co-president at Bear Stearns has sold his penthouse at 40 Fifth Avenue. The buyer, retired Goldman Sachs executive Scott Pinkus, paid $8 million for the two-bedroom apartment.
--via the NY Observer, billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen and his wife Alexandra paid $2.7 million for a loft at 99 Warren Street for Steve's 20-something stepson.
--via Christoper Fountain, John McCloy, a Connecticut banker has put his home in Greenwich on the market for $6.495 million. The listing for the three-acre estate is here.
--via the NY Post, An unidentified Texas banker is reportedly in contract to pay $15 million for a 19th-century townhouse at 34 West 10th Street. The 8,000-square-foot home had been listed for $17.9 million.
--Mortgage company founder Steven Schnall and his wife Sherri have dropped the price of their massive townhouse at 2 North Moore Street less than three months after putting it back on the market for $33 million. It is now listed at $29 million.
--Richard Bressler, a managing director at the private equity shop Thomas H. Lee Partners and the former CFO of Viacom, has gone into contract to sell his duplex at 850 Park. It was most recently listed at $13.5 million.
--Dorris Carr Bonfigli one of Bernie Madoff's victims, has dropped the price of her penthouse apartment at 930 Fifth for the second time since listing it for $11.3 million last December. It is now listed at $9.8 million.
-- Tommy Hilfiger is moving into the Plaza duplex he tried to sell for $50 million last fall.
--via the NY Observer, Maddona paid $32 million for her NYC townhouse.
--Michael Targoff, the Loral Space & Communications CEO who paid $10.25 million for a penthouse at 778 Park Avenue last year, has finally sold off his townhouse at 211 East 61st Street for $6 million
--Miami real estate developer Tibor Hollo and his wife Sheila have paid $2.1 million for a 38th-floor apartment at the Trump Plaza on 61st Street.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A couple who sold their classic prewar co-op at 333 Central Park West during the peak of the market have now listed their Central Park North penthouse condo. Neil Breslau and Nancy Fire Breslau bought the penthouse at the 111 Central Park North new development for $4.975 million in May 2007 and have listed it for $6.4 million. The listing is here.
--Real-estate investor Michael Hirtenstein is selling his listed-for-$20 million Gramercy Park townhouse to newlyweds Lauren Davis (a Vogue contributor) and Andres Santo Domingo (a billionaire Colombian heir). He is living in a four-bedroom triplex penthouse at 25 Bond St, a rental that had been listed at $60,000 a month and is unofficially on the market for around $30 million.
--Brokers haven't gotten a peek at Ruth Madoff's apartment. The brokers need to appraise the homes before the feds can sell them.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Emmy-winning producer and writer Gary David Goldberg has sold his Brentwood estate for $15.15 million. It was first listed back in January for $19.95 million.
--Actress Brynn Thayer and her husband manager-writer-producer David Steinberg, have sold their longtime Pacific Palisades home for $2.995 million.
Actor-turned-producer David Ladd and his wife, actress Dey Young are listing their Beverly Hills Post Office area home for $5.995 million. The listing is here.
--L.A. Police Chief William J. Bratton and his wife, lawyer Rikki Klieman, have listed their Los Feliz-area home at $1,875,000. The listing is here.
--Actor-composer-artist Michael Toland and his wife, Stephanie, have sold a 1921 Mediterranean in the Los Feliz area for $2.5 million.

The Clinton Foundation has recently concluded its philanthropy tour of Africa, where the former President worked tirelessly to reduce treatment costs for malaria and spoke in support of public health efforts to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS among children. He also helped celebrate the opening of a $1 million, 180-bed hospital in Rwanda. The foundation's Travel to Africa Blog followed Clinton on his multiple stops throughout the continent between the end of July and August 6 and includes video of some of Clinton's speeches during his visit.

Bill Clinton established his eponymous foundation during his second term as President. The foundation has grown to support programs focused on combating climate change, HIV/AIDS and other health concerns and childhood obesity.