Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House

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While in Palm Springs this past weekend, I dragged my boyfriend – ahem, fiance (I swear, I’m never going to get used to saying that!) out to stalk Bob Hope’s former residence, which is located high up on a cliff at the very top of Southridge Drive.  I wasn’t so much interested in seeing the home because it had once belonged to Bob Hope, but rather because it was designed by famed architect John Lautner.  And I am absolutely obsessed with Lautner homes!  Once upon a time, I actually hated his designs – I thought they were just simply too weird.  But over the years they have really grown on me.  I love that all of his homes are so incredibly unique and recognizable.  One look at a poured concrete wall or a curving roof line and you know immediately if a house was designed by Lautner.  It’s no wonder that his homes have been used in countless Hollywood productions over the years including Charlie’s Angels, Diamonds Are Forever, The Big Lebowski, and Lethal Weapon 2.

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Not everyone is as big a fan of John Lautner as I am, though.  Legend has it that Bob Hope wasn’t exactly happy with the house that Lautner designed for him.   According to this article, Judith Lautner, John’s daughter, states that Bob “made life hell for my father.  He destroyed a lot of the thinking.  He just stepped in and said ‘No, no, no.'”   Legend also has it that Bob never even spent one night in the home, but instead used it solely for entertaining purposes.  The home, which was built in 1979 and was designed to look like the skirts of a volcano, measures 17,531 square feet, has 6 bedrooms and 9.75 bathrooms!

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Unfortunately, Bob’s former home is located in a private, gated community, so I wasn’t able to get very close to it.  🙁  And, judging from the signs pictured above, the neighborhood is not very stalker friendly!  When I saw the sign which read “Trespassers will be photographed and may be prosecuted”, I was pretty much outta there!   Bob’s former community is very exclusive and was once also home to actors Steve McQueen and William Holden.  Lautner also designed another home – the Elrod House – just down the road from Bob’s, but, unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after I got home, so I didn’t get any photographs of it!  Ugh, I am such a blond sometimes!

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Because I couldn’t get very close to the house while stalking it, I had to settle for doing some cyberstalking as soon as I got home.    It’s funny, but in aerial images the home actually appears to be rather small, but rumor has it that the open circle cut-out in the roof is so large that a helicopter could actually land there!!  I don’t know if that is true or not, but being that the home measures almost 18,000 square feet, it is definitely a possibility!  Another rumor floating around about the former Bob Hope residence is that the shape of the pool was loosely based on the comedian’s profile.  So cool!  You can see another amazing aerial view of the home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Bob Hope’s Palm Springs house is located at 2466 Southridge Drive.  The Elrod House is located just a few houses down at 2175 Southridge Drive.  Both are in a private, guard-gated community, so DO NOT trespass.  If you are into hiking, apparently the nearby Araby Trail offers some great views of both homes.

25 Replies to “Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House”

  1. Before Bob and Delores built the wonderful Lautner house, they had a very ordinary-looking ranch house in the unglamorous “Flats” of Palm Springs. I visited some people in the 80’s who were staying there while preparing for a big wedding at the new Hope house. I don’t know whether the Hopes had other Palm Springs houses.

    1. My wife’s uncle wally Niewiadomski was one of the builders of the Bob Hopes house in palm springs, he to worked for John Lautner, and I now have the plans for the house in which we would be more than willing to sell. The south ridge please feel free to contact us

      1. I worked with your uncle. Wally was a 2nd father to me. He was a great builder and had great stories of working with FLW. I last saw him just before his death in Hemit. I never new a gentler man.

  2. Nice report on Bob Hope’s house, NotaStalker. I’m an architect and I, too, am a great fan of John Lautner. I’ve followed so much of his work, including SilverTop in the Silver Lake area. (I worked for Richard Neutra, across the lake, in my first job — but that was before Silvertop.)
    The design of Hope’s house changed quite a bit from the first one that burned down. Looked more like SilverTop.
    Thanks for the great reporting.
    Lautner was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s first apprentices. It took him a while to become established. There are so many of his houses — lesser known ones — in the Silver Lake and Hollywood Hills.

  3. Hi! Diamonds are forever was filmed on the Elrod house down the road from Bob’s! He loved it so much he copied it NLT made it much bigger!

  4. YUUUP; drove from merced ca to see house. and like you saw the signs. took a photo from hwy. procedered driving and saw red skelton at stop light , waved he was in a silver cloud ROLLES. NOTE IF INTEREST the first house burned down , a welder, welding set it on fire.

  5. OMG, LMAO, read your article Lindsay and is totally hilarious. I totally love it, you are just too funny. I felt the same way about John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright’s. As time pass, I fell in love with their architect design. My ex-boyfriend got me into it, we did a lot of home tours in LA and Palm Springs and got to see their architectural design. Did you get a chance to stay at John Lautner’s Desert Hot Springs Motel? Totally beautiful.

  6. Me and my boyfriend were hiking on the Araby trail and went off the trail towards Bob Hope’s house. Of course, we didn’t know it was Bob Hope’s house at the time, we just wanted to get a closer look at it. We reached a dirt trail that led to the street and walked up to the gate. It looked deserted. The front of the house looked like something out of a 70’s sci-fi movie. We wanted to know the exact address so we could look it up later, so we stealthily took a look inside the mailbox. Just a bunch of coupons, etc. but a laminated name tag inside the box said “Hope.” We didn’t know it meant Bob Hope until after we got home and looked up the address. Anyway, we walked back down the mountain via Southdridge Drive and when we got to the gate, the security said, “Let me guess…you came off the hiking trail, didn’t you?” Then he gave us all this shit about how we could have been arrested and so forth. We just said we didn’t know and it wouldn’t happen again. And we didn’t know, really.
    If only we had known where we were at the time, we would have taken more time to marvel. Oh well.

  7. Hi anyone who knows a BIO of Bob Hope, i have here a number plate and logbook from a ’73 lincoln continental adressed to BOB R.HOPE, in 1973 lived in Palm Springs California Hope Dr. Anyone interested in authenticating this piece of memorabilia email me at tate253@gmail.com
    thanks

  8. You have the House right, but not the address. Bob’s house is the one above the tennis court on Southridge Circle. That house belongs to an old acquaintance named Ben Perry [or it did in the 90’s. When Ben built the Tennis court, it drove Bob Hope nuts. He was mad at the Night Court Lights.

  9. Hello there
    i was curious to know from which part of the road, does it starts the “gated community”
    having a look through the bing web site, there is a white gate , near the first Lautner house,
    in the middle of the road, so i guess it’s that one the right point, but maybe you know more
    thanks for your thread, nice blog
    ciao
    Gianni 🙂

  10. A few times a year in the winter there are charity functions held at the Lautner/Hope residence- do for $100-200 you can run around and get a good look.

  11. For any readers who don’t know, the nearby Elrod house IS the house from the end of “Diamonds are Forever.”

    Also, if you can’t get use to fiancé, imagine what it will be like to call your boyfriend your husband! 🙂

      1. Hello, I am sorry for the delay we were on vacation and just returned. Yes we do have the Bob hope plans in Palm springs for sale. My wife Peggy her uncle, Wally Niewiadomski was the original contractor who work under both John Lauther, and Frank lloyd Wright, built this house, and also signed the plans. But yes they are for sale.Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Thanks Sincerly Robert Adams.

        1. I do not need a signed set of plans I want to see if they will work for us. A copy to use for our purpose

          Do you have a copy like that for sale if so send me the price..

          Thanks’
          Ernie

          1. Hello Ernest, Sorry for the delay, we just came across your message. But yes we would very much like to sell the original signed copy

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