Vintage SoCal: Menagerie kept La Cañada Flintridge estate a little wild

Bears, deer, a lone kangaroo. Fairhaven in La Cañada Flintridge kept an exotic menagerie in residence when it was the home of Academy Award-winning actor Victor McLaglen and his wife, horsewoman Enid Lamont McLaglen.

Built in 1927, the grand estate was practically self-sufficient in the early days, with orchards, a dairy, vegetable gardens, poultry, a smokehouse and a refrigerated curing house.

A 1940 article from the Los Angeles Times archives describes an “aviary for brilliantly colored peacocks, rows of gray stone kennels for dogs — even stables for several horses.”

Today the gated English Tudor Revival sits on nearly 2 acres with a swimming pool, a pool house and a horse barn in use as a storage facility. An arched porte cochère over the driveway connects the main house to a guesthouse.

Tudor-style archways, custom millwork and leaded and stained-glass windows are among the original details. The cathedral stairway was brought piece by piece from England.

Within the updated 5,023-square-foot main house are a decorative-tiled entry hall, formal living and dining rooms, a library, Batchelder tiled fireplaces, a kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a breakfast room, a powder room and three en suite bedrooms. The music room adjacent to the entry has padded fabric walls and stained-glass windows.

An additional 1,339 square feet of space in the finished basement contains two gyms, a temperature-controlled wine room, an office, a laundry room and a bathroom.

The two-bedroom guesthouse has another 2,032 square feet of living space. There are two bathrooms in the 530-square-foot pool house. The four-car garage has a workshop.

Two bridges, old-growth trees, statuary and manicured foliage complete the park-like grounds.

The property, at 1219 Journeys End Drive, is listed at $5.25 million with Podley Properties agent Jeannie Garr Roddy.

This occasional feature celebrates Southern California’s architectural heritage through homes built before 1950.

Submit candidates for Vintage SoCal to lauren.beale2@latimes.com.