Home Sweet Home
Bing Crosby owned a vast amount of real estate during his lifetime, including several homes that served as primary residences and many vacation homes. Bing bought and sold homes like brokers buy and sell stocks. Here is a list of his primary residences beginning in 1933 followed by a list of vacation homes where Bing often stayed.
Primary Residences:
Toluca Lake home #1 1933-36
4326 Forman Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91602
Near Toluca Lake and Lakeside Golf Course
With the arrival of Bing and Dixie's first child they decided to build a home at the corner of Forman and Toluca Lake avenues. It's a 5,000-square-foot English Tudor.
Toluca Lake home #2 1936-43
10500 Camarillo Street, North Hollywood, CA
Colonial Villa near Toluca Lake and 5 miles from Lakeside Golf Club
Now with 3 children and more to come the Crosbys buy a 20 room home that includes 7 bathrooms. A fire from Christmas tree lights burned the home to the ground in January 1943 while Bing was golfing.
Holmby Hills 1944-64
594 South Mapleton Drive, Los Angeles CA
Built in 1932 next to Los Angeles Country Club
17 room Georgian Colonial home
Bing sold the home in 1963 without consulting his wife. The home was demolished in 1988 after it was purchased by TV producer Aaron Spelling.
Hillsborough #1 (1964-65)
101 Robin Road, Hillsborough, CA
The disaster that was his first family weighed heavily on Bing. He wanted to get his new family away from the Hollywood environment, so in 1963 he sold his Holmby residence and bought a new home in Hillsborough. Hillsborough is located between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Bing had just finished a round of golf in Hillsborough in 1963 when he was approached by the original owners and invited to tour the home. Bing agreed to buy it without consulting his wife, who preferred to remain in Los Angeles. When Kathryn toured the home she was aghast. Bing promised her that their stay would be brief.
Hillsborough #2 (1965-77)
1200 Jackling Drive, Hillsborough, CA
11-bedroom, 10-full bathroom, and five-half bathroom
Bing and Kathryn toured the home Oct. 1, 1964. Kathryn insisted that Bing buy it. He did, although they couldn't move in until late 1965. Following Bing's death Kathryn continued to occupy the home part-time. She died at the home in 2024, 47 years after Bing's death. Six months later the family sold the home for $25 million.
Vacation / Getaway Homes:
• Rancho Santa Fe (north of San Diego and near Del Marr race track)
• Rising River Ranch at Burney Falls, CA 1958-77. Sold to Clint Eastwood 1978.
• Cattle ranch in Elko, Nevada (1943-1958). There were 3 "Elko" ranches. Bing started small, sold then bought larger ranches in 1945 and 1947. (Wolfe, p324)
• Hayden Lake Idaho. Bing purchased his first lakeside home in 1949. He sold the home when he built a 6-room cedar log cabin at English Point in 1955. That home was later owned by Bing's son, Phillip.
• Pebble Beach Golf Course on the 13th fairway, Monterey County, CA (Built for Crosby in 1948, sold 1957.)
• Rancho Las Cruces (1960-77), Baja California, Mexico
• San Isidro Country Club in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Bing's Greater Palm Springs Area Homes:
Greater Palm Springs includes 9 cities, one of which is named "Palm Springs."
• 1011 East El Alameda, Palm Springs. Bing sold this home in 1957 when he built his Palm Desert home.
• Thunderbird Country Club, 70375 Calico Road, Rancho Mirage.
Rancho Mirage is located east of Palm Springs. It wasn't incorporated as a city until 1973. Bing purchased the land and built the home in 1951 when the 18-hole golf course opened. He sold the property after he completed building a new home at Palm Desert in 1957. Bing's Thunderbird home has been misrepresented as location of the JFK-Marilyn Monroe tryst. The home today looks nothing like the 1950s home pictured in "My Life with Bing" p.34. Apparently later owners extensively remodelled the home.
• Silver Spur Ranch, 49400 Della Robbia Lane, Palm Desert. Bing built this home in 1957 ostensibly as a present for his new wife in a residential community known as "Silver Spur Ranch." Bing and Kathryn spent their brief honeymoon here and stayed here each time they visited "Palm Springs." The Crosbys' isolated Palm Desert home -- now part of Ironwood Country Club -- is where President Kennedy thrice stayed. Mrs. Crosby confirms this in her book "My Life with Bing" (p205) where she reports helping to prepare it for the President's visit. Streets near the home are labeled "Crosby Lane" and "JFK Trail." Palm Desert was incorporated as a city in 1973.