Frank Sinatra’s Residences: Tracing the Fascinating Life of the Legendary Singer

Celebrities

Frank Sinatra: The Fascinating Life of the Singer Through His Homes

By Charlotte Collins

July 21, 2023

Frank Sinatra will always be an icon in every sense of the word. Few artists of the 20th century, alive or dead, can claim such a colossal impact on pop culture as Frank Sinatra. Known as the ‘Chairman of the Board’ or simply ‘The Voice’, the New Jersey-born singer enjoyed a decades-long career, from his rise to fame in the early 1940s to his final public performances in the mid-1990s. Throughout his reign, the singer of “My Way” amassed a long list of awards, including two Oscars and 11 Grammy Awards. With 150 million records sold worldwide, the vocalist and actor had more than enough in the bank to amass a luxurious portfolio of real estate properties from Palm Springs to New York. The songs he sang and the movies he starred in earned Sinatra his rightful status as an American icon, but beyond the art that marked a generation, Frank Sinatra’s legacy lives on in the homes he made his own over the years. Let’s take a look at the numerous residences of ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’.

Hoboken, New Jersey

In December 1915, Francis Albert Sinatra was born in the kitchen of his parents’ apartment in New Jersey. It was a traumatic birth: according to PBS, he was believed to be stillborn until his grandmother put him under a cold shower and gave him a slap on the back, after which he started breathing. Burned down in a fire in 1967 and demolished the following year, the Monroe Street house, as it was during Sinatra’s stay, no longer exists, but a plaque with a golden star adorns the building constructed in its place to commemorate the birthplace of the legend. The family moved several times to Hoboken during Sinatra’s childhood and adolescence, first to a five-story building on Park Avenue and later to 841 Garden Street.

Twin Palms Estate in Palm Springs, California

This mid-century modern house was the scene of star-studded parties, as well as highly-publicized domestic disputes between Sinatra and his wife Ava Gardner, one of which allegedly involved Sinatra throwing her possessions onto the driveway after Gardner attempted to catch the singer in a supposed affair with actress Lana Turner. Completed in 1947, this Palm Springs mansion was home to Sinatra and his wife Nancy Barbato until their divorce in 1951, after which actress Ava Gardner—who was married to Sinatra from 1951 to 1957—joined him as a resident in the modern mansion. The four-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion was designed by architect E. Stewart Williams and christened Twin Palms after two adjacent trees that lean together on the property. Legend has it that the singer of “Fly Me to the Moon” would hoist a Jack Daniels flag on the grounds to signal to the neighbors in the A-list enclave to come over for a cocktail.

“The House I Live In,” Palm Springs, California

AD entered Frank Sinatra’s house on Palm Springs’ Wonder Palms Road in 1998. The Grammy Award winner sought refuge in this desert home in the mid-1950s when he wanted to get away from the bustle where Twin Palms was located. “After securing privacy with a fence between his house and the golf course, he added a couple of two-bedroom cottages, one at each end of the pool. Each bedroom had its own bathroom for him and her,” David McClintick wrote of Sinatra’s work on the property, “and her bathrooms were equipped with professional salon hairdryers by Helene Curtis.” Frank also expanded the main house, adding a dining room for 24 people and a restaurant-sized kitchen with a commercial stove, a refrigerator and freezer, and a wine cabinet. The main house became known as “The House I Live In,” the name of a 1945 short film (and accompanying song) starring Sinatra with a message against anti-Semitism after World War II. When Sinatra married Barbara Marx in 1976, he teamed up with Beverly Hills interior designer Bernice Korshak and architect Ted Grenzbach to open up the central areas of the house and flood the space with natural light, as well as add a master suite with travertine floors, a whirlpool tub, and an exercise room.

Farralone, Los Angeles, California

The former mid-century mansion of Frank Sinatra, designed by William Pereira, has since served as a popular filming location for series like “Mad Men” and “Six Feet Under.” Also known as Byrdview, this 1951 construction in Los Angeles was rented by Sinatra for nearly a decade during his Rat Pack years in the 1950s, according to Forbes. The publication also notes that the house’s storied history, filled with Hollywood royalty, extends beyond Sinatra: the Chairman subleased the guest house to Marilyn Monroe, whose pool allegedly served as the location for one of her final photo shoots before her tragic death. It is said to be the meeting place of the blonde bombshell and President Kennedy during their affair. Sinatra leased the estate to Barbara Hutchinson, an heiress to Chase Bank and member of high society.

Villa Maggio, Palm Desert, California

This five-bedroom, six-bathroom house hit the market in January of this year. Sinatra commissioned this chalet-style house in 1967, named after his Oscar-winning role as Angelo Maggio in the film “From Here to Eternity” (1953). Situated atop a hill in a secluded suburb of Palm Desert, the house was built by architect Ross Patton. The 2.5-acre property features a pool, a helipad, a tennis court, a three-bedroom guest house, and a one-bedroom pool house.

New York, New York

Sinatra maintained at least two residences in Manhattan: an apartment on the Upper East Side and, later in his life, a penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria. Barbara and he paid a million-dollar annual fee for the unit until they moved out in 1987, engraving their names on the shower glass doors in honor of their stay there.

Published originally in AD US.

Keywords: Residences–franksinatra, residences, singer, legendary, life