The house where Shirley Temple married the love of her life has listed for US$2.45 million (AU$3.85 million) in Monterey, California.
Shirley married Charles Black in front of the fireplace at this adobe ranch home in 1950.
The property belonged to Black’s parents, who used it as a weekend retreat on what was then an open mesa above the city.
“The Black family cottage ‘Mesita’ was a white-washed hideaway,” Temple wrote in her 1988 autobiography, “Child Star.”
“Its architecture reflected the historical heritage of Monterey, a blend of Spanish mission fathers’ adobe brick and curved red-roof tiles, with the wooden slat shutters and mullioned window panes of New England.”
Built in 1940, the single-level home features a tile roof, white adobe walls and French doors opening to a loggia running the full length of the property.
According to Mansion Global, the house appeared on the cover of Sunset Magazine in June 1941.
The three-bedroom home spans 2,180 square feet and includes a formal dining room, original hardwood floors, wood-burning fireplaces and an enclosed garden with towering oak trees.
It’s now located on a residential block in the Aguajito Oaks neighbourhood near golf courses.
Charles’s father, James B. Black, was president and chairman of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
He reinforced the structure with concrete and steel – the reason the house hasn’t settled after all these years, which is unusual for adobe construction.
The current owners purchased the property in 2022 for US$1.81 million (AU$2.85 million) from the estate of its previous longtime owners.
According to the Los Angeles Times, they created plastic palm trees for theme parks and movie sets including “Jurassic Park.”
They have since replaced all doors and windows and upgraded electrical and plumbing systems.
Charles was a naval officer who met Shirley at a party in Hawaii in 1950.
They had to rush their marriage because he was being deployed to Korea just seven days after the finalisation of Shirley’s divorce from her previous husband.
Shirley had wanted a Gothic Catholic chapel near the cottage, but the reverend declined to marry them because of her divorce.
David O’Neil of Sotheby’s International Realty holds the listing.