Affluent Page - Index

Affluent Page - affluentpage - Index

Wealth has
long been a defining factor
in the history of Lake Tahoe.
Fortune seekers came to the area during
the mid-1800s, the heart of the California
Gold Rush, when the news hit that
a huge lode of silver was discovered in
the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The influx
of pioneers led to the discovery of Lake
Tahoe’s beauty, and by the turn of the
century, San Francisco’s elite were checking
into the area’s swanky new hotels.
The casino crowd began arriving in
Tahoe in 1944, when Harvey’s opened
as one of the area’s first gaming establishments.
Other casinos followed, and
by the 1950s, Lake Tahoe was the place
to be and be seen, attracting the likes of
Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack. While
the introduction of Las Vegas dampened
the glitz and glamour of Tahoe, the
area’s natural beauty continued to attract
wealthy vacationers and second-home
buyers from the San Francisco Bay area.
Today, Lake Tahoe holds some of the
most desirable lakefront estates in the
world, including a home that is currently
listed as one of the top five priciest in the
United States. At $100 million, Tranquility
falls in line behind the former Beverly
Hills estate of William Randolph Hearst
(listed at $165 million); Hala Ranch in
Aspen ($135 million); the late Leona
Helmsley’s manor in Greenwich, Connecticut,
a French chateaux-style home
in Los Angeles, and Donald Trump’s Palm
Beach estate (all listed at $125 million);
and a 250,000-acre cattle ranch in New
Mexico (listed at $115 million). While all
of the homes possess admirable attributes,
Tranquility is summed up by listing broker
Shari Chase, founder of Chase International
Realty, in one word: perfection.
It starts with the land. Purchased in 1931
by the Bourne family, heirs to the Singer
sewing machine fortune, the 241-acre parcel
in Nevada’s Zephyr Cove abuts U.S.
Forest Service land and contains a private,
2.5-acre lake. The property remained in
the family until 1985, when it was sold
to entertainer Wayne Newton. He had
aspirations to build a subdivision but was
stopped by the Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency, an organization dedicated to
protecting Tahoe’s environment by keeping
development in check. Newton then
went bankrupt, was unable to pay the land
taxes, and had to surrender the property to
Douglas County in 1995.
The Forest Service, which holds the
majority of the land on the Nevada side
of Lake Tahoe, has consistently bought
acreage to add to its portfolio, but this
property was snapped up by Joel Horowitz,
the co-founder of Tommy Hilfiger
Above: The 3,200-bottle wine cellar
features a carved bronze door that
once belonged to publishing mogul
William Randolph Hearst.
Opposite: The dining room ceiling
is adorned with hand-painted
images of animals indigenous to
Lake Tahoe while the floor was
salvaged from a 17th-century
French chateau.
MARCH/APRIL 2009 AFFLUENT PAGE LUXURY INDEX 71