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Nixon's 'Western White House' Up For Sale

The Oceanside California home of President and Mrs. Richard Nixon as it appeared on May 13, 1969. The 10-room Spanish-style adobe in San Clemente, is back on the market for $75 million.
HF AP
The Oceanside California home of President and Mrs. Richard Nixon as it appeared on May 13, 1969. The 10-room Spanish-style adobe in San Clemente, is back on the market for $75 million.

President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon welcome South Vietnam's President Nguyen  Van Thieu and his wife Nguyen Thi Mai Anh to a working dinner at the San Clemente home on April 2, 1973.
Charles Tasnadi AP
President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon welcome South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu and his wife Nguyen Thi Mai Anh to a working dinner at the San Clemente home on April 2, 1973.

Gathered in the living room of the president's home at the Western White House in San Clemente on Jan. 6, 1971 are Richard Nixon and guests. From left to right are Bob Hope; Tricia Nixon; Pat Nixon; Gerald Ford, then minority leader of the House; Dolores Hope, Nixon; Betty Ford; Henry Kissinger; and Arnold Palmer.
Anonymous AP
Gathered in the living room of the president's home at the Western White House in San Clemente on Jan. 6, 1971 are Richard Nixon and guests. From left to right are Bob Hope; Tricia Nixon; Pat Nixon; Gerald Ford, then minority leader of the House; Dolores Hope, Nixon; Betty Ford; Henry Kissinger; and Arnold Palmer.

After owning the estate for 35 years, retired Allergan CEO Gavin S. Herbert is selling the former home of President Richard Nixon for $75 million.

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The estate is large. Its main residence is 9,000 square feet and the entire compound boasts over 15,000 square feet of living space. The Wall Street Journal has details:

The tranquil lot overlooks a popular surfing beach. It has flower and vegetable gardens, neatly trimmed hedges, and palm and cypress trees. The home is designed in a Spanish Colonial style—white stucco and red-tile roof, and living spaces around a central courtyard with a fountain. An outside staircase leads to an office with a fireplace that Mr. Nixon added. The dining room overlooks the home's ornamental and English gardens on the opposite side.

The Orange County Register lists all the spaces on the compound. They include "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 bought the estate in 1969 for $1.4 million, just six months into his presidency, according to The Journal. He named it La Casa Pacifica. During his presidency, Nixon hosted his family as well as world leaders. After resigning from office in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal, Nixon retreated to the estate, where he wrote his memoir.

The OC Register notes that Herbert, along with partners, bought the estate from Nixon in 1980, after the former president moved to New York. The Wall Street Journal says Herbert's life-long love of gardening led him to volunteer as head gardener for the estate even before he owned it.

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