Millicent Rogers estate goes to undisclosed buyer
Asking price for 72-acre property and adobe style home was $2.9M
SANTA FE — A sale closed Friday on the Taos Valley estate of the late socialite and oil heiress Millicent Rogers.
The nearly 72-acre estate built in 1947, known as Turtle Walk, had an asking price of $2.9 million. Sotheby’s International Realty’s Santa Fe office did not disclose the final sale price or the names of the buyers.
The adobe style home has nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms, as well as a library. Outside the main home is a courtyard, pool, guest and caretaker houses and other small buildings, a horse facility, and a private acequia. The listing also mentions vigas painted by famous Taos artist Dorothy Brett.
Rogers was the granddaughter of Standard Oil Trust cofounder H.H. Rogers — alongside John D. Rockefeller — and was also a well-known fashion icon in the early 20th century. She reportedly moved to Taos after a breakup with film legend Clark Gable, and later become a collector of Native American and Hispanic art. Taos’ Millicent Rogers Museum was established after her 1953 death to showcase her collection.
Local Sotheby’s broker Aleka Moore, who represented the sellers, said that if the property were in a city such as Santa Fe, it would have a much higher asking price. The $2.9 million is indicative of the “depresssed” high-end real estate market in Taos, which she added is still recovering slowly from the 2008 crash. This is the county’s “highestpriced residential transaction” in more than five years, according to a Sotheby’s news release.
The property was purchased by an “international couple whose interests include historic preservation.” David Cordova, a Sotheby’s Santa Fe agent who represented the buyers, said they did not want their names disclosed for privacy reasons. The couple, who he said also own properties in New York and overseas, will live in the home but also plans to maintain the cultural and historical “integrity” of the estate.
“The family is really excited to be here, and it’s a very, very unique house ... you can’t compare this property to just Taos,” Cordova said. “This is one of those jewels in the desert.”
Members of Rogers’ family have owned and lived in the property after her death. Most recently, her son Arturo Peralta-Ramos Jr. and his wife lived there until their deaths in 2015 and 2016. It has since been watched by local caretakers, and the family was represented by an out-ofstate estate trustee when selling the property, Moore said, adding that it has never been outside the family until now.
The current museum property was not owned by Rogers. The home north of the city was donated after the death of its former owner, Taos resident Claude Anderson, according to the museum website.