An iconic estate in La Jolla long owned by the late Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel has returned to market almost 35 years after the beloved children’s author and illustrator died at age 87. The current owner, UC San Diego, is asking a dash under $10 million for the entire spread in a sealed-bid process that ends April 15. Jason Barry and Ryan McGovern of Barry Estates hold the listing.

The author and his first wife, Helen, enlisted architect Tom Shepherd to build the pink stucco and terracotta-roof structure in 1948 around a Spanish Revival observation tower that was constructed in the 1920s by the original developers of the Country Club Heights subdivision. Upon Helen’s death in 1967, Geisel married Audrey Dimond, and the couple lived there until Geisel died in September 1991.

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Audrey passed away in 2018, and the Geisel Trust subsequently gifted the property to UCSD, which put it up for sale in 2022 for around $19 million for the first time in 70 years but did not accept any bids.

Perched on a hillside parcel spanning over one and a half acres, just north of Mount Soledad, the Mediterranean-style compound was completed in 1950. Featured is a nearly 5,000-square-foot main house with four bedrooms and an equal number of bathrooms mostly across a single level, plus a swimming pool and a separate pool house, all offering sweeping coastline views.

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Among the highlights is an unaltered office/study with the original corkboard walls, situated below the upper level of the house’s tower, where Geisel wrote and illustrated more than 40 books, from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! to Green Eggs and Ham, under his pen name. Formally recognized for designation under the city of San Diego’s Historical Resources Board for their cultural significance, both the observation tower and the office/study must be preserved and remain intact.  

Rounding it all off: a front door etching depicting a hat tip from The Cat in the Hat, as well as the famed feline’s signature bow tie on display at the bottom of the renovated pool.

Click here for more photos of the La Jolla residence.