The Playboy Mansion: Encyclopedia II - The Playboy Mansion - History

The Playboy Mansion - History

The 21,000 square foot (1,951 square meter) house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style by Forbes magazine, and sits on 5.3 acres. It was built in 1927 and acquired by Playboy in 1971 for about $1.2 million. It sits close to the extreme northwestern corner of the exclusive Los Angeles Country Club, near UCLA and the Bel-Air Country Club.

Some of the mansion's amenities include 22 bedrooms, a wine cellar, a game room, a private zoo and aviary (and related pet cemetery), tennis courts, a waterfall and a large swimming pool area (including a patio and barbecue area, the famous grotto, a sauna and a bathhouse) that is the frequent backdrop of catfights, both genuine and staged. These features and many others have been frequently showcased on television.

It became famous during the 1970s because of Hefner's lavish parties. According to Bridget Marquardt on an episode of The Girls Next Door the Mansion is the only private residence in the city of Los Angeles with a permit for fireworks displays.

The house next door is a mirror image of the Mansion layout, only writ smaller. Hef purchased the neighboring building in 1996 and it is currently home to ex-wife Kimberley Conrad and their children together.

The original Playboy Mansion was a 70-room residence in Chicago, Illinois at 1340 North State Parkway. It was built in 1899 and acquired by Hefner in 1959. For a period in the 1970s, Hugh Hefner Hefner divided his time between the Chicago mansion and the Mansion West, moving fulltime to the California mansion in 1974. The Chicago mansion boasted a brass plate on the door with the Latin inscription, Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare ("If you don't swing, don't ring").

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki