Literary Great Jack London’s Former California Home Hits the Market for Nearly $5 Million

Source: Mansion Global 

A historic home in California wine country where literary great Jack London lived, wrote and fell in love has hit the market asking $4.95 million. 

Wake Robin Lodge was initially built to host visitors to Sonoma County town Glen Ellen in the late 19th century, when the area experienced a growth spurt following the arrival of two railroads and a trout fishing hatchery. The building was later converted to a single-family residence, which underwent an extensive renovation in 2014. 

Today, the 4,111-square foot home on Wake Robin Drive includes three bedrooms, a central pool and a distinctive octagonal living room that once served as the lobby of the lodge, with reclaimed wood ceilings and a floating staircase. The home is located near the Jack London State Historic Park and several other structures related to the author, including his final home. It hit the market last week with Matt Sevenau of Compass. 

London, a novelist and journalist best known for his novella “The Call of The Wild,” first visited the Wake Robin Lodge in 1902, and it became the setting and inspiration for some of his bestselling novels, including “The Sea Wolf” and “White Fang,” published in 1904 and 1906, respectively, according to a historic report commissioned by the current owners.

It’s also where he met his second wife and partner, Charmian Kittredge. When London first stayed at Wake Robin, it was leased and managed by Ninetta Eames, a journalist and writer for the Overland Monthly magazine who attracted a collection of artists and writers to the retreat. Eames introduced London to Kittredge, her niece, also a frequent visitor to Wake Robin, with whom he fell in love and had an affair.

By the following summer, London had asked his wife to separate, and he spent more time at Wake Robin, where Kittredge, herself a writer, helped type and edit his books. The lovers married in 1905 and lived at Wake Robin permanently for the next six years. 

In 1909, after health complications ended a planned global voyage, London and Kittredge purchased a lot on the nearby Kohler Ranch, and moved into a remodeled cottage on the land in 1911. London died while living at the Kohler cottage in 1916. 

Netta Eames, now London’s family through marriage, ended up purchasing Wake Robin lodge, and it stayed in the family until 1936, when portions of the original 11 acres were sold to the developers of Jack London Country Club Estates. 

In more recent history, the current owners purchased the home for $4.5 million in 2020 after it had undergone an extensive renovation. 

“While we love living in Glen Ellen, our work has us frequently in Sonoma,” the sellers, Malcolm Walter and Elizabeth Fisher, said in a statement. “We have found a home in Sonoma with many of the same amenities, but not the rich history that 4100 Wake Robin offers. This is a bittersweet move.”