Multimillion-Dollar Eagle Rock Manors are a Study in Contrasts

When Chateau Emanuel, Eagle Rock’s grandest mansion and the site of its centennial celebrations last year, first went on the market almost exactly two years ago, it had an asking price of $5.99 million. Since then, the price of the legendary three-acre estate on 1554 Hill Dr., which has had no more than three owners since it was built in 1935 and has a monthly mortgage payment of $24,000, has gone steadily down.

After a year of hoping to sell the 5,942 sq. ft. four-bedroom Tudor-style manor for close to $6 million, Chateau Emanuel's owner, Robert Kvassay, finally listed it at around $4 million. Recently, the “mansion on the hill,” as the chateau is popularly known, went on the market for $3.589 million.

While that might still be too much of an asking price in an economy that has yet to recover from the recession, the fantasy property on Hill Drive is $269,000 less than the listed price of another four-bedroom house across town.

Nearly 2,000 sq. ft. smaller and built on a piece of land less than a third in acreage, the house is located on 1572 Silverwood Dr., south of Colorado Boulevard. Priced at $3.858 million, the property is described by the real estate agent selling it as an “entertainer’s dream” perched on a private hilltop overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains, with views of downtown L.A. and the coast beyond. Built in 2012, the fully landscaped property is arguably less expensive to maintain than its older cousin to the north, not to mention that it has “an additional second lot waiting to be developed into your own private recreational area.”

Anyone with pockets deep enough to consider buying either of these two manors—one “major,” the other arguably “minor” and located on opposite ends of Eagle Rock—faces a choice between old and new, historic and contemporary. It would be interesting to see which “wins.”

Click here to read more and view photos of the Silverwood Drive estate.

Click here for more real estate information about Chateau Emanuel.