Photo by Karen Quincy Loberg // Buy this photo
An 1892 Victorian house with an addition and hangar stand on the 15.5-acre property formerly owned by Steve McQueen in Santa Paula. A one-day only open house was held for the ranch that has a 3-acre vineyard, stables, pond and shooting range with a reduced asking price of $1.725 million.
A 15-acre ranch in Santa Paula that once served as Hollywood movie star Steve McQueen’s hideaway is up for sale.
The property, in a secluded area close to the airport, is nestled against the mountains and offers equestrian facilities, a vineyard with three acres of syrah grapes and a 4,500-square-foot hangar that once housed McQueen’s collection of cars and motorcycles.
Bonnie Owen is selling the property after living there for seven years, and said she can understand why McQueen was attracted to the place.
“People are either lost or really trying to find it when they come here,” she said. “It’s just an amazing place. It’s beautiful. It’s not pretty and pristine, but it’s a piece of paradise.”
The property is listed at $1.725 million.
McQueen, who starred in such classic films as “Bullitt,” “The Great Escape” and “The Thomas Crown Affair,” purchased the ranch in 1979, He lived with third wife, Barbara Minty, in the three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath Victorian home built in 1892.
Stepping into the house, a visitor enters an open-plan kitchen and dining area under a galleried ceiling.
A little farther on is the living area with a skylight. McQueen and Minty were married there on Jan. 16, 1980.
Some of the original touches the couple made to the house remain, including the stained glass windows, the stove and chain-pull lavatories.
The home also includes a den with a fireplace, a master bedroom leading to an old wooden porch that overlooks a lawn area, and two smaller bedrooms linked by a Jack and Jill bathroom.
Outside, there’s a hen house, an original pond with turtles and Koi, fruit trees and vegetable plots.
Realtor David Kean, who has an office in Sherman Oaks, is handling the sale and said he’s had interest from film directors, musicians and some well-known actors.
“It’s bragging rights,” said Kean. “You can say, ‘Oh, this was Steve McQueen’s.’ And also it’s a great property in itself.”
In her book “Steve McQueen: The Last Mile,” published in 2008, Barbara McQueen recalled how the acting legend loved living in Santa Paula because he could fly his yellow Stearman biplane and because it reminded him of his hometown of Slater, Mo.
The Santa Paula ranch was to be McQueen’s last home. At age 50, he died in a Mexican hospital Nov. 7, 1980, from complications of lung cancer