Doris Day’s Carmel home has her touches and is listed for $7.4 million
CARMEL – The place seems like an extension of the effervescent actress herself – airy, sunny, and welcoming of both people and animals. It is the home of singer, actress and animal activist Doris Day, placed on the market for $7.4 million a little more than a year after the screen legend died at age 97. The proceeds from the sale of her home will go to Day’s animal charity – the Doris Day Animal Foundation – which she founded in 1978.
Traveling along the two-lane roadway one might not notice the nondescript entrance to the Doris Day house at 6730 Carmel Valley Road in Carmel which belies the nearly 9-acres of established grounds and the private retreat that sits hidden behind rustic wooden fences, oak trees and a red, barn-like entryway.
But once inside, the lemon-yellow, two-story main house, a guest house and the caretaker’s quarters, are all connected by walkways, decks, and garden paths, with the main house perched about 80 feet above the 17th green and 18th fairway of Quail Lodge and Golf Course, commanding sweeping views of the Santa Lucia Mountains and parts of Carmel Valley.
The home’s listing agents are Doug and Lisa Steiny of Sotheby’s International Realty Carmel Rancho Brokerage.
Doug Steiny said there has been a lot of interest in the property since it hit the market a few weeks ago but it is hard to tell if people are more interested in what the property has to offer or the fact that it was once owned by a Hollywood legend.
Day is probably most associated with the song “Que Sera Sera” which she sang in the Alfred Hitchcock film “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” and starred alongside Jimmy Stewart. She also had a television series, “The Doris Day Show,” that aired from 1968 to 1973. In the opening credits for that program she descends a spiral staircase while “Que Sera Sera” plays over the sequence.
That recognizable spiral staircase is one characteristic of the home that reflects her loves and passions.
“She kept the staircase and had it built into the design,” said Doug Steiny.
The property was bought by Day and her fourth husband Barry Comden in 1980 and had “two small cabins” on it, according to Steiny, who said the living space was expanded with Day’s input working with prominent architect Charlie Rose who also worked on Quail Lodge.
Besides the spiral staircase, other Day touches include a large dog section complete with kitchen where Day would cook for her pooches – a favorite being turkey meatloaf — that could number 12 or more at any given time. There is also a large area dedicated for her cats. It has windows that allow pools of sunlight, perfect for feline sunbathing.
The centerpiece of the main living area is a fireplace built of Carmel stone quarried across from the house on Carmel Valley Road where there once was a working quarry that Steiny said closed about 1964.
The listing agent’s firs-hand knowledge of the site comes from being a life-long resident of the area, having lived next door to the property, and becoming friends with Day’s son Terry Melcher.
Doris Day, who passed away at the home she had lived in for almost 40 years, left a property of 8.62 acres with a combined living area of more than 12,000 square feet. It includes the two-story main house, the right side was Day’s area with the dog quarters, master bedroom, and spiral staircase up to the three lofts. The left side was for family and friends and includes a kitchen, living room, office space and two bedrooms, providing a total of 9,291 square feet of living space. The self-contained guest house of 1,236 square feet, and the caretakers building — with two apartment units and an office — of 1,873 square feet, complete the package.
Steiny said that with the recent surge in people working remotely from home, he expects to find “somebody who has a use for all of this,” and could be anyone with a penchant for space, agreeable climate, and unobstructed views.