CASAMAR: Art-deco Avalon House Overlooking the Pacific Ocean

CASAMAR - Avalon Home
Welcome to your sabbatical home or writer's retreat!
Monthly rentals only (30-night minimum)

"Casamar" is a dreamy four-bedroom art-deco home, overlooking the Pacific Ocean on Santa Catalina Island. The home includes four beautifully furnished bedrooms, three full bathrooms, private in-home clothes washer/dryer, a gorgeous back yard with fruit trees, an open plan living-dining space with panoramic ocean views, and a gorgeous chef's kitchen covered in Talavera Mission/Deco tiles. The home includes a second-story circular writing studio, with wrap-around bay windows.

Catalina island rises out of the sea, just an hour ferry-boat ride or 15-minute helicopter jaunt from LA or Long Beach or San Diego. Catalina feels like a Greek Island, a world away from the hustle and bustle of Southern California. The place has been a retreat for novelists and academics, as well as actors and artists.

This home was first owned and decorated by Lena Schwab, who ran Schwab's Drug Store, the glamorous Hollywood hub and place where stars were "discovered" in the 1930s. Since the 1940s, the house passed on to my great-grandmother who was Lena's best buddy and was married to the president of the Port of Long Beach. Many of the art-deco furniture pieces, in perfect condition, date back to this period. The home was designed by William Kesling, the Bauhaus influenced "Streamline Moderne" architectural master of Southern California whose style adorns many Noir films. The home's kitchen appliances, plumbing and electrical, were thoroughly modernized in 2007.

The beautiful small town of Avalon, where the house is located, includes a wonderful fish market, great seafood, a high-end Vons supermarket, unparalleled dolphin and whale watching, a scuba dive park, kayaking, beaches, and golf. All within five minutes walking distance of the house. 99% of the island is a park -- the Conservancy -- for fantastic hiking, running, cycling and camping. Wild buffalo roam there, and bald eagles are easy to spot. The quiet, and the natural beauty are perfectly conducive to writing. Of course, the house also has high-speed wireless internet, and Netflix, etc.

Maximum Occupancy: 6 people / Sleeping Arrangements: Bedroom 1: Queen Bed | Bedroom 2: 2 Twin Beds | Bedroom 3: Queen Bed | Bedroom 4: 2 Twin Beds | Extra Bedding Downstairs: King Bed