To paraphrase a line from the Bard of Avon, a $98M Lake Tahoe compound by any other name would smell just as sweet. Though it is dubbed the Shakespeare Ranch, after a nearby outcropping that is somehow said to resemble the playwright, this Glenbrook, Nevada holding doesn't abound with actual connections to his work. The "To Be" and "Not To Be" guesthouses, for example, don't quite capture the emotional subtleties of Hamlet's soliloquy.
A few of the buildings are, however, somewhat reminiscent of New England, according to Architectural Digest. Owners Larry and Camille Ruvo, who started off with a condo in Glenbrook and went on to acquire the 133 acres on offer today, had architect Marc Appleton build for them a white-clapboard Cape Cod style main house, in keeping with many other structures in town that were built with a similar look.
The listing author also treats the locale as if everything about it is worth comparing to something else. It has "vistas as grand as Montana and Wyoming, nearby ski resorts with Olympic heritage to rival Aspen and Vail, a lakeside golf course more intimate than Pebble Beach, and a yachting paradise on par with the Caribbean." All good to know, lest someone get to thinking that Lake Tahoe is nice on its own.
Also included in this fall extension of the Summer of Insane Asking Prices are "17 guest homes and cabins," "423 feet of sandy shoreline," a 397-foot shared pier, an "historic entertainment barn built in 1873," horse stables, and a "grand pool house" with an "art loft" and a gym. Of ye olde carousal shed, noted outsider artist and wordsmith George Walker Bush apparently said during a visit that "they don't make Barns like this in Texas."
Mr. Ruvo tells the Wall Street Journal that he and his wife will be keeping a property adjacent to the ranch; "hopefully they'll let us come back," he says of the next owners. Hopefully, they'll also throw summertime jamborees that are as good as the Ruvo's.
· Lake Tahoe's Shakespeare Ranch to Ask $98 Million [WSJ]
· 1949 Glenbrook Road [Sotheby's International]