219 Ocean Blvd, Golden Beach, Florida
For sale: $12.9 million
President Franklin D. Roosevelt spent winters in this spot on the ocean in Golden Beach outside Miami. The skinny town on a barrier reef, squeezed between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, is a beautiful location suited to presidents and celebrities. A home a few blocks away inspired Eric Clapton’s 1974 album “461 Ocean Boulevard.”
In 1994, the owners tore down Roosevelt’s so-called “Winter White House” and put on its foundation a custom-designed, ultramodern beach house.
The new home, with almost 8,000 square feet of living space, is an angular, modern design by famous architect Carlos Zapata. The stainless steel gate opens to a dramatic front entry flanked by two koi ponds. The open space has 20-foot ceilings and walls of glass, putting 100 feet of beach frontage right out the back windows.
“It was so ahead of its time,” said Jill Eber, one of the listing agents for the home. “The angles in the house, the designs, the doors. Everything about it is spectacular.”
The home, which has been featured in architectural magazines, includes a floating staircase that leads to a suspended, second-floor family room. The master bedroom has a curved wooden wall to hide two bathrooms and dressing rooms.
The listing agents are Eber and Jill Hertzberg, whose luxury arm of Coldwell Banker Previews International is called The Jills.
The monthly mortgage payment for this slice of Golden Beach real estate? An estimated $48,860, assuming 20 percent down on a 30-year fixed mortgage.
See more photos of the home on Zillow Blog.
More from Zillow:
Santa Barbara ‘Scarface’ Mansion Listed for $35M
House of the Week: ‘Blue Sky Home’ in Wine Country
Billy Joel’s Hamptons Estate for a Song
Emily Heffter, a reporter and writer for Zillow Blog, covers celebrity real estate, unusual properties and other real estate topics.