Planning a trip to Tuscany? Cancel those reservations and stay home. Just buy your Valentine the home with the blue-tiled roof on Turtle Creek for Valentine’s Day and you can live in a lush Italianate environment 24 hours a day, mere minutes from downtown Dallas. (And pizza!) What could be more romantic? No need to send flowers, there are plenty in the lush gardens surrounding 3828 Turtle Creek Drive.
Who needs roses? Smell the live lavender, rose, and hydrangea.
Your gift is a landmark estate owned and lovingly restored by Robert Edsel, a remarkable Dallas oil man turned prolific writer, historian, and now filmmaker, notorious for helping hunt down artifacts and art from World War II. He has produced one documentary on the preservation efforts, The Rape of Europa, and written several books. Edsel’s first book, Rescuing DaVinci, details the many soldiers who helped save art in the chaotic days following World War II and the liberation of Germany. His third book, Saving Italy, was released last May and details the artifacts in Italy and how they were saved. His second book, The Monuments Men, was snapped up by Hollywood for a feature film starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and John Goodman. The movie opened in theaters last week.
Well lovers, Tuesday night was the film’s premiere in London. That’s why Alan Peppard tells us that Robert Edsel was spotted not on the banks of Turtle Creek but in London at the Claridge hotel, by Dallas art dealer Kristy Stubbs, along with Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman and hearthrob Valentine George Clooney. It seems everyone was in L-town for last night’s premiere.
Edsel’s 6,717 square foot home is named Bellosguardo. With the brilliantly talented Ike Isenhour by his side, Edsel unearthed and excavated the historic treasure of this home, restoring it to its 1926 glory.
The home has three bedrooms, four baths and two half baths. The living room has a twenty five foot high beamed ceiling, a dining room-library combination because Mr. Edsel likes to read sometimes when he dines alone, a den/study, gym, 1,500-bottle wine cellar, spa, unbelievable master suite and bathrooms with a private terrace off the master with a wood-burning fireplace and incredible views of the Bisazza glass mosaic tiled saltwater pool. The incredible gardens, in any other season than the current, are so fragrantly pungent you carry the scent hours after departing the banks of Turtle Creek.
Bellosguarda is on 2.17 acres, and is one of the most remarkable homes in Dallas. Why is it so unique? It’s elegant and gracious, one of a few historical Dallas homes left in good enough shape to remind us of the past, teach us the past, lest we forget. The home is listed for $15,900,000 with Madeline Jobst at Dave Perry-Miller & Associates, an Ebby Halliday Company.
Oh, and don’t fret over the price. The good folks at Inwood Mortgage appreciate a vintage home like fine wine. And they actually like jumbo loans — the bigger, the better. After all, this is Bellosguardo — priceless.
