In 1935, Albert Sweny commissioned the construction of a Tudor Revival-style home in the Riviera neighborhood for $10,600. Now, that same house, expanded and remodeled, is on the market for $5.7 million. Pacific Palisades residents Neal and Linda Vitale are selling their 7,014-sq.-ft. historic home, located at 780 Amalfi Dr., after living there for 12 years. Vitale is the founder of 1105 Media, which publishes Campus Technology, Redmond magazine, Recharger and Federal Computer Week. ’The architectural integrity of the house has been preserved throughout the years,’ said Brenda Chandler Cooke of Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills, who is sharing the listing with Mary Ann Musico of Sotheby’s International Reality in Beverly Hills. Interested in the home’s history, Vitale hired building biographer Tim Gregory, who has completed more than 2,000 property histories for homeowners and real estate firms. Gregory reported that the house was one of the first to be built in the Riviera neighborhood above Sunset (which stretches from Amalfi Drive to San Remo/Monaco Drives). Sweny, who lived off his father’s fortune from the lumber industry, hired architect Percy Parke Lewis to design the 3,731-sq.-ft. home for himself and his wife, Isabel. Lewis is most well known for designing the Fox Westwood Village Theatre, located at 961 Broxton Ave. The theater was constructed in 1931, and its tower, with Art Deco metal patterns, is a local landmark. He also designed the Twenty-Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist at the corner of Hilgard and Lindbrook in 1934 and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church at the northeast corner of South Hilgard and Westholme Avenue in 1940. ’Sweny wanted a Tudor Revival-style home because it was a sign of affluence,’ Cooke said. Popular in the early 20th century, Tudor Revival was inspired by late medieval English homes, ranging from thatched-roof folk cottages to grand manor houses. The Tudor characteristics on Sweny’s house, with its subsequent additions, include a steeply pitched roof, gables, a half-timbered second story and a first story of brick and stone. The main entry is also recessed, and the house features casement windows. Sweny and Isabel lived in the home until May 1944, when they sold it to Kenneth A. and Maude T. Murray. After the Murrays died, the property was sold in 1973 to William C. and Marilyn Doran, who later sold the house to Brad and Jill Gray in January 1988. Brad, then a prominent talent manager, is now the CEO of Paramount Pictures. The house was virtually unchanged until the Grays purchased it. They altered the kitchen, added a maid’s room, a bathroom and laundry, extended the family room, enlarged the garage and constructed a second floor above the garage (with a bedroom, two baths, a sauna, family room, loft and workout room). They also installed a swimming pool and spa. The Vitales purchased the house, with five bedrooms and six and a half baths, in 1998, and they hired interior designer Janet Lohman to make the space more colorful. Lohman used a color palette of robin’s egg blue, apple green and buttery yellow throughout the house. ’The new owners have made the house bright and cheerful,’ Cooke said. ‘It translates to a wonderful California home.’ The Vitales chose to leave untouched the mahogany library, with its built-in bookshelves and fireplace, but they lightened the oak walls in the dining room. They transformed the living room into a dynamic space with apple-green walls accented by white built-in bookshelves. They made the master bedroom, with two bay windows and a fireplace, feel warmer by painting the walls a light yellow. The Vitales also redid the family room above the garage, which the Grays had added onto the house. The room originally had a log-cabin feel, but the Vitales painted the log walls white and the windowpanes blue. They also made their 21-by-29-ft. kitchen more vibrant, and their changes were featured in Better Homes and Gardens’ Kitchen and Bath Ideas magazine in January/February 2004, The kitchen has light green and white-checkered floors and buttery yellow walls. The blue and green cupboards and drawers have a distressed finish, giving them a worn look. As an accent, four kitchen drawers feature glass panels at the front, showcasing macaroni, black-eyed peas, yellow lentils and baby white beans. The spacious kitchen, with a butler’s pantry, also has a sitting area and patio doors that open out to the backyard. The Vitales hired Diana Green to redo the backyard’s landscaping to include a knot garden, a white picket fence with rose bushes and a stone pool deck. They added a gazebo next to the house and a grassy area and playhouse for their daughter Marissa. ’The house really has a vintage, historic look,’ Musico said, adding that it truly is a traditional family home. Contact: Musico at (310) 786-1822 or Cooke at (323) 939-1112.
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