A secret garden in Windsor Square

Actress Drew Barrymore’s grandparents, legendary actor John Barrymore and his third wife, actress Dolores Costello, lived in this Windsor Square home in the 1930s.

They were having marital troubles at the time and soon divorced, but she stayed in the house with their two children until the early ‘50s, when she sold the property to bachelor attorney Odell McConnell.

He lived there until he died at 96, in May 1992. McConnell willed the home to Pepperdine University.

Rick McKnight, partner in charge of the Los Angeles office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, and his wife, Linda, bought the home later that year. Linda McKnight, whose maiden name is Strother, was queen of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses in 1968.

The house, Mediterranean in style, was built in 1918 and had a famous resident before Barrymore and Costello. Lawrence Tibbett, who starred at the Metropolitan Opera as a principal for 27 seasons, lived in the home with his uncle.

After the young baritone made his 1923 debut at the Met, his uncle sold the property.

About this property: The home has a secret garden off the breakfast room; a kitchen garden; a greenhouse; and the main garden, including a pool and a mosaic pond with a fountain. There is also a trellis on a terrace.

Asking price: $4,995,000

Size: There are six bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms in 6,276 square feet. The lot is 27,000 square feet.

Features: Original features include a spiral staircase, carved paneling, intricate friezes and the Batchelder tile floor. Newer features are an updated kitchen, a family room and a steam room.

Where: Windsor Square, four miles west of downtown L.A.

Listing agents: Gillian Rendle, Prudential John Aaroe, (323) 769-3333 and Robert Weiner, of the same firm, (310) 248-6434.

To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, please send color interior and exterior photos with caption information on a CD and a description of the house, including what makes the property unusual, to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate Section, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012. Questions can be sent to [email protected].