‘Court of Mysteries’ for sale: See iconic Santa Cruz home inspiring decades of folklore
An iconic Santa Cruz property called “Court of Mysteries” — which was bought by a former tech executive six years ago who restored the landmark at great cost to be used as a family compound — is for sale for $3.95 million.
Located just 1,600 feet from West Cliff Drive and the ocean, the unique and historic building has “inspired decades of local folklore,” according to the property listing. It’s the No. 1 best landmark in Santa Cruz, according to review site Yelp.
The property, which spans four residential lots, at 515 Fair Avenue most notably features an archway and two majestic brick towers inlaid with abalone at the gated entry. Behind the gateway is an expansive courtyard with a large fountain.
In the dead center of the property is a 1,400-square-foot structure modeled after a Hindu Yogi temple. That building is “uninhabitable,” but one of its garages is being used as a studio/workspace, according to the seller.
There’s a handsome new main residence on the property, too. Doug Harr, a retired executive who worked for the Bay Area big-data company Splunk, owns the house with his artist-wife Artina Morton.
Harr said he bought the abandoned property in 2016 for $1.58 million when it was “delapitated” and endeavored to fully rehabilitate the place, leaving the notable temple-like structure.
“We saw that property on Fair Avenue six-and-a-half years ago, when we were looking to buy a home in Santa Cruz, and we wanted it to be our forever home,” he said. “And, I just wanted a damn pool. I wanted to have a lap pool, which means you got to have a 70-foot stretch.”
Harr got his lap pool — and much more.
“I held back from a lot of (property), because a lot of the lots in Santa Cruz are 5,200 square feet,” Harr said. “But all the while for a year, we knew there was a 30,000 foot lot with these brick structures on it — that we didn’t understand. But finally, five-and-a-half years ago, I drove by when there was a real estate agent standing there, right at the archway that opens the property.
“I pulled over and he asked me to go inside,” Harr added, “and it was so compelling that we ended up talking to the city about it, to learn how we could restore and live there.”
At that point, a caretaker living in camper on top of a pickup truck was staying on the property to keep vagrants and loiterers out. Harr talked to city officials and got assurances that if he bought the place they would be supportive of his plan to build around the historic brick-and-abalone structure, which “we thought was really cool.”
So, to the left of the “temple,” he built a beautiful 3,000-square-foot, three-bedroom Spanish-style house with a 500-square-foot in-law unit. The new house “features high-end materials and artisan details throughout,” as well as a “beautifully appointed” kitchen with a nine-foot island that shares a fireplace with a large living/dining area and a vaulted, open-beam ceiling, according to the listing.
(See the video above.)
And tucked behind the restored brick-and-abalone temple is the 70-foot lap pool that Harr desired.
“We built a house on the left side of the temple,” he told the Sacramento Bee in an interview. “And then on the right side is ... they call it a temple, but it’s really a 1,400 square foot house in the middle of all these things. And so we figured that we would build something on the left and (renovate) on the right, and so began an arduous journey.”
Listing agent Kathleen Zeck of Coldwell Banker Realty told Lookout Santa Cruz that Harr and Morton “set out to save this place,”
After four years, Morton and Harr moved into the house right before COVID-19 struck. It turned out that the pandemic would alter their long-term plan to invite friends to come live with them with everybody staying in their own unit.
Now, they’re focusing on their next move, and have put the place up for sale. “My wife and I are rambling around in what is the equivalent of 4,900 square feet of building,” Harr said.
Harr’s “arduous journey” is certainly worthy of a blog — if not an HGTV show. In fact, Harr has chronicled the purchase, renovation and history of the place in a blog titled “Restoration of The Red Brick Castle” — one of the many names the property has been called over the years.
Harr, who now writes books on rock n’ roll music, estimated he spent $250,000 on all of the renovations, including the historical architectural work, restoring the abalone detail and making the structures earthquake proof.
Much of the history of the property is shrouded in mystery. It’s believed that sometime in the 1930s or 1940s, the residence was purchased by Kenneth Kitchen when he and his brother Raymond — a bricklayer and a stonemason — were reportedly buying up a lot of Santa Cruz property. Kenneth Kitchen raised goats there, and sold their dairy products. Then, he started building his unique home.
Kitchen left Santa Cruz in 1957, and there are no official records of his whereabouts since then, according to media reports.
The two towers and archway on the property is what has inspired so much curiosity around Santa Cruz. Even online magazine Atlas Obsura, which catalogs unusual travel destinations, published an article on the Court of Mysteries and its legendary former owner.
Morton emphasized that the property was never “a religious building.”
“I mean there have been religious elements, but it is not a religious building,” she said. “There’s always stories about the uses, but it’s not a church, but it’s not built, per se, as a temple.”
“The builder built a little bit of a homage to the Hindu temple,” Harr added. “And it had really changed his life to learn from (Indian yogi and monk Yogananda) Paramahansa how to meditate ... And it made a huge impact. But he lived a simple life. After he learned that, he built this thing, and built himself a little wood house as well, while he was working that.”
After Kitchen dropped out of the scene, Elias Karim, a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church, bought the property and wanted to establish a chapel on the site, according to Good Times. He was soon transferred to Oklahoma, and then Court of Mysteries eventually fell into neglect until Harr and Morton came along.
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 9:12 AM.
