Laughlin Park, the gated enclave tucked into the hills above Los Feliz, contains roughly 60 homes and ranks among the oldest planned luxury communities in Southern California. Trophy estates within its boundaries seldom reach the open market, and when they do, they tend to trade quietly among a narrow pool of pre-qualified buyers. Now, Angelina Jolie has listed her compound at 2000 DeMille Drive for $29.85 million, returning one of the most historically significant residential properties in Los Angeles to the market for the first time since she acquired it in 2017 for $24.5 million.
A Beaux-Arts estate dating to 1913 listed by Ernie Carswell Sotheby’s International Realty – Beverly Hills Brokerage offers a rare window into the provenance, architectural heritage, and pricing benchmarks defining the top of the Los Feliz market.
A Century of Hollywood, Contained in a Single Address
The property’s significance extends well beyond its current owner. The original residence dates to 1913, making it one of the earliest homes built within Laughlin Park, a planned luxury enclave that developer Homer Laughlin began grading in the early 1900s. Three years later, in 1916, pioneering filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille purchased the estate for $28,000 and would go on to live there for more than four decades, transforming the grounds into both a family compound and a working center of cinematic life during Hollywood’s formative era.
DeMille’s tenure on the property reshaped its footprint. During the 1920s, he acquired the neighboring residence, formerly rented by Charlie Chaplin, and is believed to have commissioned architect Julia Morgan to unite the two houses via a glass-enclosed corridor. The DeMille family maintained the estate into the late 1980s, after which it passed through a small number of hands, including novelist Richard Grossman and art consultant Lisa Lyons, before Jolie’s acquisition.
The Estate
Set at the highest elevation within Laughlin Park, the compound spans approximately 11,000 square feet of interior living space across multiple structures. The main house, an Italianate Revival mansion of roughly 7,500 square feet, anchors the property. Its Beaux-Arts facade and original curved staircase speak to the period craftsmanship that defined early-20th-century residential design in Los Angeles.
Beyond the main residence, the estate includes a guest house with its own private gated entry, a pool house, a fitness studio, a tea house, and a detached garage with an integrated security station. A hidden treehouse sits among the property’s mature specimen trees. The grounds encompass nearly two acres of rolling lawns, century-old plantings, and rose gardens, all elevated above the surrounding neighborhood with sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Observatory.
The estate underwent a lengthy renovation before Jolie’s purchase, and the property reflects a balance between period restoration and contemporary functionality. A state-of-the-art gym, a library with custom floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and an expansive patio extend the livable footprint beyond the formal interiors.
Laughlin Park: The Enclave Within the Enclave
The gates were formally installed between 1987 and 1988, but the enclave’s exclusivity predates them by decades. Trophy estates within its boundaries rarely surface publicly, and when they do, they tend to trade on provenance and discretion rather than open-house marketing.
The enclave has drawn generations of entertainment industry figures. Past and present residents include Natalie Portman, Kristen Stewart, Gwen Stefani, David Fincher, Ellen Pompeo, and Lauren Graham, among others. The combination of mature tree cover, hillside elevation, and proximity to both the Griffith Park corridor and the walkable streets of Los Feliz Village gives Laughlin Park a character distinct from other gated communities in the Los Angeles luxury market.
Market Context
The listing arrives at an inflection point for Los Feliz’s upper tier. Median list prices across the broader neighborhood have softened roughly 11% year over year, and trophy-level inventory has been taking longer to clear. At an asking price of $29.85 million, or approximately $2,700 per square foot before accounting for land value or provenance, the DeMille estate sits well above the neighborhood’s overall average of around $1,089 per square foot.
That premium reflects multiple layers: the Laughlin Park location, the property’s historical weight, and the structural scarcity of large compounds within the enclave. How this listing performs will serve as a benchmark for the rest of Los Feliz’s luxury segment through the second half of 2026.
The property has changed hands just once per generation. Its return to market represents a genuinely rare opportunity to acquire not only a significant residential compound, but a tangible piece of Hollywood history.
Explore luxury homes in Los Angeles
