For sale: Nixons Western White House for $75 million

In 1969, then President Richard M. Nixon purchased a 5.5-acre estate in the small seaside city of San Clemente on the southern tip of Orange County, California. Nixon put it on the map and soon after the he moved in, signs on the city limits read “Home of the Western White House.”

On Wednesday, the Orange County Register reported that its owner for 35 years, retired Allergan CEO Gavin Herbert, is selling the property for $75 million.

 “It’s one of a kind,” listing agent Rob Giem, of HÔM Sotheby’s International Realty told The Wall Street Journal. Giem told the paper the price is justified. Ocean front lots in Orange County will typically sell for $5 million to $10 million per quarter-acre and aside from property’s history, it’s the largest stretch of residential oceanfront available south of Los Angeles.  The property has 450 feet of ocean frontage and a total living space of more than 15,000 square feet. 

Secluded on a coastal bluff, Nixon called it La Casa Pacifica. The hacienda-style main residence was built for Hamilton Cotton in the 1920s. The Orange County Register writes:

“The estate boasts a pavilion with a grand main room, bar, guest suite and den, a two-bedroom guest house, pool and pool terrace, lighted tennis court, gazebo on the bluff, expansive lawns, vegetable and succulent gardens, a greenhouse, catering facility, four staff residences, security annexes and a private well for landscaping water.”

Nixon, who was born and raised in South California, loved the area. He proposed to his future bride with just a few miles north near Dana Point, The Los Angeles Times reported. Shortly after he won the election,  presidential assistant John Ehrlichman ask a 19-year-old campaign aide Fred Divel, from San Clemente to scouted locations. Divel told the paper, “The next thing you know, [Nixon] was checking out the swallows at San Juan Capistrano.”

In 1969 Nixon said he purchased the property for $100,000 down and he owed a $240,000 mortgage. But years later the truth came out. The Los Angeles Times reports:

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“It turned out that the sale was a more complicated transaction that involved Nixon receiving a $450,000 loan from his millionaire friend Robert Abplanalp to buy the estate and adjacent property. Later, an investment company formed by Abplanalp and [Charles (Bebe)] Rebozo bought most of the property from Nixon, leaving the president with 5.9 acres, but effectively giving him control of the entire acreage.

In addition, a congressional committee investigating government spending on Nixon’s properties found that at least $66,614 of the money spent on the house should have been paid for by the president, according to “Nightmare,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer J. Anthony Lukas.”

During his presidency the western White House was frequented for family retreats and meetings with world leaders such as the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev, Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. Other guests included Henry Kissinger, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne. 

When Nixon resigned in 1974, he retired to La Casa Pacifica and wrote his memoir. By that time, the city signs reading “Home of the Western White House,” were gone.

The estate was sold in 1980 to Herbert, and partners after the Nixon decided to move to New York to be closer to family.

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