COLLECTORS OF movie memorabilia might like to add a Galwegian Georgian pile to their collection. Hollywood director John Huston’s former house, later a five-star hotel owned by US chat show host Merv Griffin, is on the market with Coldwell Banker Estates with a price tag of €3.7 million.
It seems like it’s been on the market forever. In fact, it’s only seven years since it was put up for sale by another agent for €4 million. Huston bought St Clerans Manor House in Craughwell, Co Galway, in 1954 for £5,000 after visiting Ireland a few times; he strengthened his connection with the country when he became an Irish citizen in 1964.
He sold the house in 1971 and it passed through a few hands before being bought in 1997 by Griffin, who died last year.
He converted St Clerans, built in 1784, into a 12-bedroom hotel with a separate octagonal lodge named the Angelica Suite, after Huston’s daughter, who spent much of her childhood here. Griffin died two years ago and the hotel closed its doors last year.
Visitors to the house in Huston’s day included Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, John Steinbeck, Jean Paul Sartre and Arthur Miller. What more could a movie fan want?
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