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Woodside’s historic 74-acre Green Gables estate that served as a summer retreat for five generations of the Fleishhacker family has sold for $85 million. The sale closed on Sept. 3, a spokeswoman at Compass Real Estate confirmed.
The property includes seven houses, three swimming pools, extensive gardens, its own reservoir and a Roman-style reflecting pool the size of a football field.
“Few other residences in the U.S. are endowed with the extraordinary history and beauty that Green Gables represents. We are very pleased to have played a critical role in finding the next, fortunate family that will now be blessed with the stewardship of this rare and remarkable property,” listing agents Helen and Brad Miller of Compass Real Estate said in a statement. They would not disclose who purchased the property.
This is the first time the property has changed hands since San Franciscan banker and businessman Mortimer Fleishhacker and his wife, artist Bella Gerstle Fleishhacker, built their summer retreat there in 1911 to escape San Francisco’s seasonal wind and fog.
The estate was up for sale in 2015 and 2018, but it wasn’t formally put on the market. In 2018, the family was reportedly seeking about $160 million. In 2021, the property was formally put on the market for $135 million. At the time, the estate was the most expensive listing in California, according to Zillow, and ranked in the top 25 most expensive listings worldwide, according to luxury magazine Robb Report. This past May, the family listed the property for sale as 10 lots ranging from $19 million to $55 million that could be purchased individually or in combination with other parcels on the estate. The price for the entire estate was $125 million, according to the listing.
Marc Fleishhacker, whose family owned the 114-year-old estate for five generations, told this publication last May that his family has always maintained the “romantic vision” that another family would want to buy the entire estate and experience life on a multi-family compound, as they have over the generations. Every June while growing up, Fleishhacker – whose great-grandfather built Green Gables – would come down from San Francisco with his parents to spend the entire summer in their home on the estate, along with his cousins and extended family, he said. With individual homes spread out on the property, there was plenty of independence, yet at the same time, lots of opportunity to come together as a family, he recalled.
“It has been an immense privilege for five generations of my family to create, enhance and profoundly enjoy Green Gables for the past 114 years,” Fleishhacker said in an email on Sept. 9. “My great grandfather’s vision and courage in transforming this remarkable piece of untamed paradise into the extraordinary estate it is today is a tribute to the love of both natural and man-made beauty which he so generously bestowed upon our family. I have no doubt that the new proprietors of Green Gables will bring an equally wonderful sense of vision and respect for the estate and the Woodside community that has always been a wonderful home for all of us.”
A summer retreat with 7 homes
Green Gables is a rare remaining example of the great estates that once dotted the area.
The English country-style main house and gardens were designed by brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, better known as Greene and Greene, celebrated architects of the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The estate is rare not only for its design and amenities, but also for its size and location.
The estate, located at 329 Albion Ave. in central Woodside near the intersection of Albion and Manuella avenues, offers expansive views of the hills: The Greene brothers designed the main house to maximize the views of the estate’s grounds and gardens.
In addition to the main house, architect Charles Greene lent his design talents to the estate’s Tea & Dairy House, a rustic two-story stone building. It was built at Bella Fleishhacker’s request as a place to host tea parties, and at one time housed a working dairy that processed milk, back when the estate had cows.
Greene is also credited as the designer of Green Gables’ free-form swimming pool. Built in 1916, it’s considered to be the first pool of such a design on the West Coast, and perhaps in the nation. Greene and Greene weren’t the only famed architects that the Fleishhackers tapped to build out Green Gables: Among the estate’s seven houses is the Wurster House, a six-bedroom, two-story residence built in 1933 and designed by renowned Modernist architect William Wurster.
