House fetches $17.6 million
Mediterranean-style Palm Beach home was landmarked in 1985.
Built in 1921 for a dimestore executive, a landmarked oceanfront house at 101 El Brillo Way has changed hands for a recorded $17.6 million in an off-market deal.
The recorded deed lists the Palm Trust as the buyer, with real estate attorney Maura Ziska acting as trustee. No other information about the trust was immediately available.
The five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style house in the Estate Section was owned for more than 30 years by Jean van Waveren, who died in October at 90. She paid $1.7 million for the property in 1983, and it was owned by a revocable trust in her name, property records show.
The two-story house has about 10,500 square feet of living space, inside and out, including an expansive Moroccan-style loggia facing a courtyard and pool that served as a focal point for several of the main rooms. The property also features a broad front lawn stretching toward the sea.
“My mother loved the house,” said van Waveren’s daughter, Mieke van Waveren, of Boise, Idaho. “She always called it a ‘small-large’ house. It had such as cozy feeling for being such a sprawling house.”
Although some sources erroneously attribute the house to Addison Mizner, another noted society architect, Marion Sims Wyeth designed the house, known as Qui Si Sana (“Here Is the Cure”). Sources familiar with the property said it is ripe for renovation and restoration, although its exterior walls are protected because of the landmark status the town granted in 1985.
Brown Harris Stevens agent Liza Pulitzer confirmed she handled both sides of the sale but declined further comment.
The property is part of El Bravo Park, one of the first subdivisions platted in the town’s Estate Section.
The house’s first owner was Earle Perry Charlton, vice president of F.W. Woolworth & Co.
Built around a courtyard, the house has two main wings, with one stretching along South Ocean Boulevard. The motor court and main entrance face El Brillo Way, where a prominent cartouche distinguishes the front facade. The architecture features signature Mediterranean-style elements, including cast-stone decorations, ornamental brackets, wrought-iron details and a red-clay barrel-tile roof.
A garage and service wing have been added.
Jean van Waveren, who was divorced, died Oct. 5. Her father founded Tecumseh Products, a manufacturer of small engines and compressors that grew to be an international company. She also had homes in New York; Nantucket, Mass.; and Greenwich, Conn.
Van Waveren’s children were listed on the deed as successor co-trustees of the revocable trust. Mieke van Waveren and her brothers, Thymon van Waveren, of Clark Fork, Idaho, and Peik van Waveren, of Highlands, N.C., each held an interest of 14.82 percent. The trust had a 55.44 percent ownership interest in the property, the deed shows.