Take a look inside Las Vegas’ real-life castle — PHOTOS
When the new owners of the one-story house at 500 Rancho Circle closed escrow in October, they could literally lay claim to the old adage of “my home is my castle” because — well — they bought a home resembling a castle.
The five-bedroom, four-bath Tudor structure’s roofline is crowned with castlelike machicolations, which comes in handy if you want to hide and drop hot tar on unwanted quests laying siege to your property.
This 6,500-square-foot compound sits on 1.1 acres and has bragging rights to its own well, an expansive living room that King Arthur and Mrs. Arthur could easily fit a pretty good sized round table in, solarium, wood-paneled library, dry sauna, two fireplaces and an oversized white claw-footed bathtub to soak away the day’s aches and pains.
Upon entering the walled property through two stone pillars, an expansive circular driveway centered by lush green grass leads to a rustic dark wooden front door that looks like it was carved from ancient cypress trees. Hallways within are arched like any good castle should be and stained-glass windows ring several rooms throughout. The backyard features a freestanding pool house, adjacent to an expansive swimming pool with a 10-foot deep end and diving board. Also unique to the property is its own entrance to Alta Drive, a feature unavailable to other homes in the upscale guard-gated community off Rancho Drive.
The residence, built in 1945 as a 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom ranch house, acquired its current facelift in 1969 from the late Las Vegas gaming executive Donald Pettit, who founded the renowned smaller gaming properties Jolly Trolley, Money Tree and the Coin Castle in downtown Las Vegas. Pettit built the Rancho Circle medieval castle to mirror his Coin Castle theme. Before Rancho Circle was closed to the public and became a gated community, tour buses were said to have included this castle home on its regular point-of-interest Las Vegas route.
“This is exactly what I expected in Rancho Circle because it is such a quirky neighborhood,” said Luxe Estates and Lifestyles owner Zar Zanganeh, who recently sold the property for $690,000 to a couple that wishes to remain anonymous.
The home sold within 1½ weeks of being on the market, but previously had no offers when it was listed at nearly $5 million in 2008 and later reduced to $1.5 million in 2012.
The current owners also live in Rancho Circle, Zanganeh said, and plan to do some renovations and turn the residence into a guest house for visiting family and friends.
“I only know of two other castle homes in Las Vegas on Sunrise Mountain and on the water at Lake Sahara (in The Lakes),” Zanganeh said. “This is the kind of property that makes me excited. I love these houses that are a little different. Even though it was a challenge to sell, it spiced things up for me.”
Zanganeh would say only that the couple who bought this castle home are business owners in their 30s. He said he had quite a few offers within the first three weeks of it being listed and that the final sale price was paid in cash.
