Hollywood A-lister John Travolta appears to be having some difficulty with a listing of his own — a real estate listing, that is. His Maine compound — which the late actress Kirstie Alley found for him — has been on the market for nearly two years, and no one has been willing to cough up the $5 million the “Grease” actor is asking for it.
Travolta and his late wife, actress Kelly Preston, designed the massive Isleboro estate in 1991, shortly after they were married — and Travolta put the property on the market less than a year after Preston passed away following a secret battle with breast cancer.
The 20-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion sprawls over 10,830 square feet — and required a massive transformative effort. Travolta and Preston described how Alley had led them to the property and the work they put into the home — when they first renovated the space — during a 1999 interview with Architectural Digest.
“Kirstie had a big Kennedy-compound-style house on the water and wanted everyone to move there. So we looked at all these blue-blood homes. I loved them but knew they wouldn’t cut it size-wise for my whole family,” Travolta said, explaining that his lifelong dream had been to have enough space to host his 50-person family for Christmas.
“She said, ‘Well, there is another,’ and we came to this house. When I saw it, I said to Kirstie, ‘Why did you withhold this? It’s a fairy-tale house,’” he continued.
Travolta went on to explain that he and Preston had enlisted the help of interior decorator Sister Parish — who he said was “wonderful.”
“This house has always been a masterpiece, so Sister Parish knew what it was like before—very dark and somber,” he continued, and Preston added, “Almost spooky. And John and I came in and redid everything—carpets, furniture—in cream and eggshell. If you need to do it quickly, go white.”
The couple closed on the 1903 home in September of that year — and immediately invited 55 family members to spend Christmas with them, dramatically shortening the deadline for having the space livable. “It was madness — but so much fun,” Preston said of the marathon redecorating process.
Preston, who was pregnant with son Jett at the time, designed the entire third floor of the home with kids in mind. It included four themed bedrooms, a school room, a library, a stage, and even a diner.
Other features included a private sun porch, a square tower, a fieldstone fireplace in the living room, a walk-in refrigerator, and boat access.