The remarkable 3.27-acre estate of Barney A. Ebsworth has been sold, and the price is somewhat below what the family members of the late industrialist and art collector were asking. The 9,420 square foot home located at 4053 Hunts Point Road sold for $37.5 million in a sale that closed on April 16th, 2019. The buyer was an entity named Hunts Point Properties Trust, a trust managed by Seattle-based Perkins Coie attorney Kristine Wilson. The asking price, according to reports from August 2018, when then property went on the market, was $45 million.
The seller listed in the public documents was the successor trustee of Ebsworth estate, Christiane Ebsworth Ladd of Chicago, who is Ebsworth’s daughter and only child. Ladd is married to Mark Jasper Ladd, formerly an appraisal coordinator at Sotheby’s in Chicago, a project manager at the architecture firm of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and a co-founder of LyteShot, an interactive augmented reality gaming platform.
Ebsworth passed away in April of 2018 at the age of 83. He was an innovator in the travel industry and credited as helping spearhead luxury travel around the world that included private jets and small luxury ship cruising. He was the founder of San Francisco-based Royal Cruise Line, which was eventually acquired by Kloster Cruise Ltd., an entity owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. Ebsworth also started the Clipper Cruise Line, which was acquired in 1999 by Germany’s Kuoni.
He is also known for his early investment in Build-A-Bear Workshop, which he made through his investment company, Windsor.
Throughout his life, Ebsworth collected art, and when he settled in Seattle following his retirement, he became one of most prolific collector and patron of arts, serving on numerous boards throughout the country.
Some of his art was supposed to stay in Seattle. Ebsworth had promised the Edward Hopper painting Chop Suey to the Seattle Art Museum, however following his death, the family backed out of the promise and instead put his art collection up for sale last fall. It is described at the time it went on the block as the finest collection of American modernism ever to come to market, featuring around 85 works valued at $300 million.
The Chop Suey painting alone sold for $92 million.
As a tribute to the former Stieglitz gallery, Ebsworth bestowed the name “An American Place” on his home in Seattle, according to a news release from Christie’s. The home was built in collaboration with architect Jim Olson and designed as a dialogue between art and architecture. Ebsworth’s credo in collecting was “quality, quality, quality,” and with that mindset, he amassed the most comprehensive collection of American Modernism in private hands, with many works having been loaned to leading institutions throughout his years of ownership, stated the release.
The lush waterfront estate faces west and sits on the eastern shore of Lake Washington. It is primarily a single story structure, except for the guest bedroom wing. The home was built in 2003, and according to Zillow it features 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.
