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
In March 1933 Bing and his wife, Dixie, leave New York for California where a movie career beckons. Dixie is pregnant with their first child, Gary, and the couple decide to build a home at the corner of Forman and Toluca Lake avenues. It's a 5,000-square-foot English Tudor. Bing, Dixie and Gary move into the home in the fall.
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 needed a larger home. In September, 1935, Bing buys 7 acres of land near Toluca Lake and Lakeside Golf Course and builds a 20-room home that includes 7 bathrooms, swimming pool and tennis court. The Crosby family moves into the new home in June, 1936. On Jan. 3, 1943, a fire from Christmas tree lights burned the home to the ground while Bing was away golfing and dining at the Brown Derby. The family lost nearly everything, including the family dog and Bing's collection of transcription discs of the Kraft Music Hall. Bing was able to salvage a large amount of cash he had stashed inside a pair of shoes. The shortage of building materials during the War prevented Bing from rebuilding, so he sold the lot for $15,000 and moved into a Beverly Hills hotel.
Holmby Hills 1943-64
594 South Mapleton Drive, Los Angeles CA
Built in 1932 next to Los Angeles Country Club
17 room Georgian Colonial home
Within 2 weeks of the fire that destroyed Bing's Toluca Lake home Bing bought a vacant home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles near the 14th fairway of the Los Angeles Country Club. To escape Los Angeles 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 December 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). Bing sold his interest in the race track in 1946 and the home in 1947.
• 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 in 1962 after he built a 6-room cedar log cabin at English Point in 1955. The latter 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. A home with a view of the ocean.
• San Isidro Country Club near Guadalajara, Mexico. Bing bought a 3-bedroom home in 1973 overlooking the golf course where he hosted women's professional golf tournaments in 1974 and 1975. Visitors described the home as "simple, tasteful, nothing ostentatious."
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 when he built 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's first visit to the then unfinished home was 24 Oct. 1957, when he took the new Mrs. Crosby there for their honeymoon. The couple 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 first visit. Streets near the home are labeled "Crosby Lane" and "JFK Trail." Palm Desert was incorporated as a city in 1973.