The Lifestyle of 1800 Jelinda Road

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1800 JELINDA DRIVE THE LIFESTYLE

WHAT’S INSIDE

The Story of Montecito

The Story of Our Home Reflecting on Our Memories

The Next Journey Forward

The History of Ennisbrook

Things To Do Around Montecito

of

OF MONTECITO STORY THE

Nestled in the picturesque landscapes of Santa Barbara County, California, Montecito boasts a captivating history and a delightful ambiance. Originally inhabited by the indigenous Chumash people, the area has a heritage that stretches back thousands of years.

During the late 19th century, Montecito began to attract discerning individuals in search of a serene haven. Its breathtaking climate and scenic beauty made it an appealing retreat for those seeking solace and natural splendor. Notable families, enamored by its charms, established exquisite estates that added to the area’s allure and splendor.

Today, Montecito thrives as an inviting community that radiates a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Its residents, who range from accomplished professionals to artists and visionaries, contribute to its vibrant, diverse, and unique character. Montecito is located in the middle of stunning surroundings, charming cafes, and a lively cultural scene.

Montecito’s enduring appeal lies in its ability to balance the tranquility of nature with a sense of refined living. The area’s coastal vistas and lush landscapes create an enchanting backdrop for an idyllic lifestyle. It’s a place where one can find respite, inspiration, and a true appreciation for the simple joys of life.

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1800 JELINDA DRIVE, MONTECITO, CA 93108
Beds
Baths
Ft. SCAN HERE FOR MORE PROPERTY INFORMATION
6
5,862 Sq.

Welcome to a unique world of luxury where extraordinary, custom-designed architectural spaces, breathtaking gardens, and timeless elegance blend perfectly. This stunning 5,862 sq ft estate is offered by the homeowners and features four bedrooms and six bathrooms in the highly sought-after and exclusive gated Montecito Ennisbrook community. It is a spectacular architectural masterpiece created in 1989 by worldrenowned architect Barry Berkus and the current owners, boasting a perfect blend of modernity and sophistication.

This home offers dramatic architectural forms, where soaring volumes seamlessly blend with ever-changing views and sculpted spaces. Each room incorporates a unique design

offering comfort and awe-inspiring vistas of the majestic ocean, magnificent mountains, and a show-stopping, private garden with views of the beautiful Santa Ynez Mountains.

As you enter the light-filled welcoming atrium, the grandeur of the soaring architectural forms envelops you, inviting you in and hinting at the surprises to come. The generous open room incorporates a stunning flagstone planter and floating stairway that create shared living spaces that are simultaneously expansive and intimate. It features a living room with a dramatic 33-foot arched vault, a unique fireplace incorporating custom art glass, and a dining room.

The welcoming rooms are overlooked by a raised piano or entertainment area and an Oval Office, which has a commanding view of the entrance, the ocean, the gardens, and the mountains. The gourmet kitchen with a charming breakfast area adjoins a spacious family room that opens invitingly to a dramatic entertainment patio boasting privacy, breathtaking garden views, and sweeping mountainscapes. Ascend the unique floating stairway to the second level of this remarkable residence, where vaulted spaces invite you to indulge in moments of relaxation and contemplation. Lose yourself in a book while enjoying the expansive ocean, Channel Islands, and mountain vistas from these cozy retreats.

The primary suite, nicely separated from the three-bedroom private wing, offers a serene sanctuary. Unwind in the mountain-view spa, feeling the day’s stresses melt away. Each of the three other bedrooms offers ocean or mountain views, with even a private balcony from which you can soak in the encompassing beauty of the surrounding vista of the gardens and the beautiful Santa Ynez Mountains.

Experience this architectural gem’s harmonious blend of contemporary living and natural beauty, custom-designed to take maximum advantage of this remarkably situated property. This home transcends time, captivating both the eye and the soul with its seamless fusion of modern design and Montecito’s breathtaking environs. Make this exceptional estate your own and embark on a life of refined elegance.

Embrace the allure of outdoor living on this sprawling 2.1-acre property, where magnificent gardens adorned with enchanting water features await. Custom-designed to inspire it’s residents and guests. This architectural masterpiece serves as the perfect stage for a life of serene luxury. Whether hosting small or large gatherings, this oneof-a-kind home comes alive, welcoming guests into an emotionally embracing and visually stimulating environment.

THE STORY OF OUR HOME

How did you end up here?

My two brothers and I grew up in Montecito, not far from here, in a big house with a long, beautiful, private garden looking toward the Santa Ynez Mountains. I lived in that beautiful, private setting my whole childhood. We were very close to our parents. The wonderful thing about that home was that it served as a magnet, drawing the three of us, and then our children back to the home to all be together. Beth and I love Montecito, and dreamed of building a home that, like the home I grew up in, would be a magnet to draw our children, their friends, and hopefully, grandchildren back to be together in a unique, loving, welcoming home. We achieved that goal beyond our wildest imagination.

Who built this home?

We interviewed many architects, each of whom seemed to have a limited style or focus. We told them that we had no specific style in mind, other than contemporary, but wanted it to work for our family of three children, how we lived our lives together, and that it be ideal for the site itself, respecting the land, with the views, living spaces, and garden that we hoped to create. More than any other architect we met, Barry found that vision exciting. He had the extraordinary ability to design a home from the inside out, not vice versa, creating rooms and interior spaces that would relate to one another and to how our family lived, and only then designing the exterior to fit the living spaces. We worked on the floor plan and the volumes, moving rooms around and trying to make each interesting for over a year, before ever looking at exterior designs. In fact, ultimately, Barry designed 4 completely different exteriors for the basic floor plan we have, until we achieved a design that we found exciting and beautiful.

What did you like about working with Barry?

My fondest memories of working with Barry—besides the fact that he his wife, and his children became such good friends—and he was 100% open to every comment, question, concern we raised. But rather that “just” doing what we suggested, he found a way of responding to our concern or question in incredibly creative ways that never occurred to us. He listened to our concern not as a request but as a springboard from which to do something that fully responded, but in totally unexpected ways. As a result, every room has the views we hoped for and its own unique architectural interest. In all the 35 years we’ve lived here, the design, layout, and floor plan of each room continues to delight me.

Did you enjoy the neighborhood?

The things that we have most enjoyed about Ennisbrook is the beautiful setting, the beautifully maintained common areas, the remarkable 44-acre wild preserve and 3 manicured acres to play and ride our horses. There is the wonderful clubhouse, tennis courts, swimming pool, and BBQ area we would use when our grandkids visited. We would walk to the pool every day.

REFLECTING ON OUR MEMORIES

We have had three weddings in the garden, we hosted the all night parties for the entire graduating classes of each of our children, we had magic shows, a masked ball for our 70th Birthdays, and innumerable gatherings of friends and supporters of our philanthropic passions. Our son Peter started a 25-year tradition of inviting his friends from Stanford to our home for 3-4 days of Fiesta celebrations—filled with games, contests, sports, competitions, partying, and joy. On the occasion of the biggest gathering, we had 30 of his friends and our family staying here for 3-4 days, sleeping in the living room, my office, hallways, closets and even camping outside. We, and I know our son’s friends, count these occasions as unique and unforgettable. And it brought me special satisfaction to know that the dream that originally inspired our home—a magnet to draw the next generation—fulfilled its promise. - Derek & Beth

I’m the younger son behind the annual Fiesta tradition. I got married in the backyard as well. When Barry Berkus was in hospice care, my dad suggested we write some notes to him. Mine was about a very brief, simple moment: the first morning I woke up in the house. I believe it was the morning of my 10th birthday in 1988 (or perhaps the day before). I had only ever had one bedroom before that, so one would imagine my feeling a bit unmoored or out of sorts in a new and notyet-familiar place—but no. I just got up, came downstairs, and fixed myself a bowl of cereal, feeling completely at home and comfortable. - Peter

For Thanksgiving , Christmas, or any other special occasion (e.g. Wednesday) we would meet in the living room in front of the fireplace for bubbles and appetizers. My wife Aynur dubbed this room the “Champagne Room”—a name which stuck—and we consumed a prodigious amount of it here over the years. When opening a new bottle, the game was always to try to land a cork on the small balcony upstairs. Of course, for family gatherings we spent as much or more time in the garden as in the house. Happy hours with margaritas and guacamole were a ritual on any sunny day (and even some foggy ones). My friends and I would play in the backyard until it was too dark

By Homeowners Derek & Beth and their three children, David, Peter, and Kaz

to continue. My mom would get upset when errant frisbee throws decapitated the roses. One year we built an orange cannon, powered by black powder, which was capable of shooting a navel orange distances of up to a mile. If you look carefully, you can still see the scar where the big tree took a direct hit in the trunk, atomizing the orange and leaving a faint smell of citrus that lingered in the backyard for hours. Mom’s garden suffered a lot during our teenage years. Over the last few years, I associate the house with memories of watching my own kids (aged 4 and 6) playing in the garden, feeding the fish in the pond, looking for tadpoles in the creek, hunting for Easter eggs, or being spun around by the arms by aunts and uncles, until they were too dizzy to walk. My family moved many times during their first few years of life, so the house in Montecito was actually the most consistent home of their young childhood. They still ask us—often— when we are going back to Oppa and Nana’s house. We will all be sad to say goodbye to it. - David

I remember some epic games of Sardines in the house when we were kids. Sardines is like Hide and Seek, but when you find the hider, you join them in their hiding spot until one lonely person is looking, and eventually finds the other 3-5 kids crammed together into some tight spot trying not to laugh. I can still point out all the best hiding places people found over the years! Speaking of hiding, we had an Easter tradition that my parents would hide our Easter baskets for us to find Sunday morning. We would fan out and check all the obvious places - in cupboards, under sinks, in the dishwasher. No one ever found anything that way, but you had to make sure. Then it would get serious. Sometimes you’d find a sibling’s basket before your own, but you never told them where it was (though gloating that you found it first was definitely allowed). Eventually you’d find yourself on your back under the piano fishing out a suspended basket, or looking up into the chimney, or discovering a hithertounknown-to-be-removable panel for electronic wiring, and there it would be, nestled inside, the chocolate all the sweeter for how hard you’d had to work to get it. And on the holiday memories, we once made a simplified version of the house out of gingerbread - quite a feat! We made a mold, covered in aluminum foil, for the arch, then rolled out the dough and froze it over the mold before baking, so that it would hold its shape before it melted. It was the best gingerbread house ever! But sadly well before the days of digital photography - I don’t think any evidence of it remains… - Kaz

HOME FEATURES & AMENITIES

INDOOR AMENITIES

Clerestory windows bring light into the formal dining room without sacrificing privacy.

• A distinctive three-sided stone fireplace serves as a focal point while creating a sense of separation for the interior. High ceilings and a raised piano area allow music to fill the interior, adding elegance to any occasion.

• Open to a casual dining room and adjacent to the family room; the airy open kitchen features spacious counters, an island with an additional sink, two dishwashers, and an expansive butler’s pantry with top-to-bottom storage. French doors connect the family room to an expansive private patio for entertaining.

• A large “oval office” with walls of oversized windows serves modern lifestyle requirements, making days spent working from home feel presidential.

• Privately set away from the secondary bedrooms, the luxurious primary suite features include a mountain view spa, a private balcony, and a refined, spa-like bath with dual vanities.

OUTDOOR AMENITIES

Set on a serene, approximately two-acre property with mature rosebushes, lush gardens, a Koi pond, a water feature, and wildflowers, the residence is a wellconceived retreat. The house even includes an in-ground house solar system installed in 2015.

Located adjacent to the Birnam Wood and Valley Club Golf Courses, the estate is a short drive from beautiful local beaches, fine dining options, galleries, and boutiques.

Ennisbrook is a sought-after community prized for its exclusive access to walking, hiking, and equestrian trails which are open to the public. The neighborhood includes 44 acres of protected open space and around 102 estate-size properties of one to three acres, making it easy to see why it is home to many Hollywood elites, A-listers, and celebrities.

A work of architectural significance, its timeless form echoes the fluidity and simplicity of the natural world. This collector-quality estate is the ultimate legacy property.

THE NEXT JOURNEY FORWARD

If there is one thing you could change about this home what would it be?

I have often asked myself if there is anything I would change, if I had it all to do over again, and have only come up with trivial things—a little bigger outdoor closet off the back patio to store lawn furniture cushions, and maybe even more walls for art.

What will you miss most about this home?

After all these years, I still find the wonderful interior forms, and the spectacular volumes and shapes of the interior architecture stimulating and exciting. It has been an incredible privilege to spend so many decades in such thrilling architectural spaces and the memories of so many emotionally fulfilling times with our family and our children’s friends are indelible.

Why are you leaving this place?

Frankly, we are torn about downsizing and moving. On the one hand, we still love the home, the garden, the spectacular view of the Santa Ynez Mountains, the privacy, and the always-thrilling architecture. We loved every minutes of designing and building the home—still remember the thrill of chalking out the entire furnished floor plan on the empty land before breaking ground—and feel that creating this home and the joy of living here for 35 years is among the most satisfying things we have ever achieved. We will miss each of those things terribly. And it is also true that we are now each almost 80, it really is a bit crazy for just two people to be living here now, the maintenance of the garden, which has been Beth’s passion and pride and joy, is becoming challenging. We have always wanted to keep the house beautiful, and at our age that is a greater burden than when we were younger. And at some point, maybe not too far in the future, we anticipate a community of people our age which will provide many conveniences and services we have created for ourselves, together with stimulating friends provided by such a community.

What are you looking forward to most?

We are looking forward to a lovely, smaller home in Santa Barbara, that will give us greater freedom to travel and maybe be away from Santa Barbara for much longer periods (one son and his wife and two children live in Turkey, and our twins and two grandsons live in the Bay Area, and would like to be there more. So, it will be a new, and we hope exciting period in our lives.

OF ENNISBROOK HISTORY THE

I often say that in Santa Barbara, you can’t throw a stick without hitting history, and here, we have the history of our destination, Ennisbrook, under our tires. It is one of the few gated communities in Montecito. Ennisbrook began life in 1845 as Rancho San Leandro—a name easily remembered as it is the street we are driving on, which marks the southern border of the former rancho. Right out of the gate, what made Rancho San Leandro so special is that it wasn’t a rancho granted by one of the governors, which were thousands of acres in size; this was granted by the Town Council of Santa Barbara, and it was 356 acres. As such, it was one of the largest, if not the largest, parcels of property given by the Town Council, as most of their granted parcels were a few acres or less.

The first owner in 1845 was Nemecio Dominguez, a retired soldier of the Santa Barbara Presidio, and it’s quite possible he got it as “back pay” since many of the soldiers hadn’t been paid in years. He built an adobe—still standing—and a racetrack (obviously for horses, as MG sports cars hadn’t been invented yet), starting a long tradition of equestrian activity on this land.

Señor Dominguez sold the property in 1868, and it passed through several owners before eventually being split into two parcels. The western acreage was sold in 1916 to Herbert C. Cox, who named it Ennisbrook. Ennis is a Celtic word more or less translating to “land by a river” or “from the island,” and it comes from the Irish town of Ennis, which is on an island surrounded by the River Fergus. Mr. Cox liked the word Ennis, as his home, an estate on Lake Ontario in Canada, was named Ennisclare. By profession, Mr. Cox was president of the Canada Life Assurance Company.

Mr. Cox remodeled the adobe and, being a grand lover of horses, built two polo fields. These came in handy as the property was next sold to Elmer J. Boeseke Jr., a highly ranked polo player—so good that he was a member of the U.S. Polo team which took silver in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. For several years, the Santa Barbara Polo Club leased the polo fields, and Boeseke built stables to accommodate 150 horses. Following his death in 1965, Ennisbrook stayed in the family until 1986 when it was purchased by developers. It took three years to get the plans and permits approved, and a lot of forward thinking went into the development. One of the great attractions of this community is that a 44-acre section was set aside as open land, taking you back to how this untouched land has looked for thousands of years. - Neal Graffy

THINGS TO DO AROUND MONTECITO

EXPLORE LOTUSLAND

Immerse yourself in the enchanting beauty of this stunning botanical garden featuring unique plant species and exquisite gardens.

RELAX ON BUTTERFLY BEACH

Enjoy the pristine sands and breathtaking ocean views of this picturesque beach known for its tranquility.

VISIT THE SANTA BARBARA ZOO

Discover a diverse range of animals and participate in educational programs at this family-friendly zoo located nearby.

TAKE A SCENIC HIKE IN THE MONTECITO TRAILS

Experience the natural beauty of the area by exploring the scenic trails that offer breathtaking views of the coastline and mountains.

VISIT THE SANTA BARBARA POLO & RACQUET CLUB

Attend a polo match or event at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, an iconic venue known for its equestrian events and social gatherings.

INDULGE IN WINE TASTING

Discover local wineries and vineyards in the area, where you can savor fine wines amidst beautiful surroundings.

SHOP AT COAST VILLAGE ROAD

Explore the charming boutiques, art galleries, and exquisite dining options that line this vibrant street in Montecito.

VISIT THE SANTA BARBARA BOTANIC GARDEN

Immerse yourself in the serene beauty of this botanical garden, featuring native Californian plants and stunning landscapes.

These are just a few of the many wonderful experiences to enjoy in and around Montecito, which offer a blend of natural beauty, cultural attractions, and culinary delights for everyone.

EXPERIENCE THE MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST

Attend a concert or explore the beautiful campus of this prestigious music academy that hosts worldclass musicians.

ATTEND A LIVE THEATER PRODUCTION

Attend a fabulous live theater production of ETC at the New Vic, a member of the prestigious League of Regional Theaters (LORT).

Photography by VirTour Media

Deborah

helps elevate the positioning of her listings to a national market. When not selling homes, Deborah can be found at the Santa Barbara Harbor on her 1973 Grand Banks.

© 2024 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information. If your home is currently listed, this is not a solicitation for your listing. REALTOR® | Luxury Collection Specialist Senior Division SRES | Residential Remodel Specialist 805.570.6680 DeborahSamuel@bhhscalifornia.com DeborahSellsSB.com DRE# 02119798
represents sellers in the luxury market of Montecito, CA. She is highly skilled at assisting sellers with preparing a property for sale. Deborah also has a talented marketing team that
Deborah Samuel

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