“You are off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so … get on your way!”
That quote from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Theodor Seuss Geisel — also known as the great Dr. Seuss — is fitting, considering his sprawling California estate has hit the market for the first time in nearly 75 years.
Located in La Jolla, the home where Dr. Seuss thought up the whimsical worlds of “The Grinch” and “The Cat in the Hat” has been owned by the University of California San Diego over the last few years.
The property was gifted to the university in 2019 by Dr. Seuss’ late wife, Audrey Stone Diamond.
Proceeds from the sale are expected to go into the newly created Geisel Fund of the UC San Diego Foundation to be used for campus projects determined by the university chancellor, a spokesperson said.
Comprised of four parcels totaling more than 4 acres, the private hillside compound boasts 270-degree ocean, coastline and mountain views of Southern California, the listing explains.
Any potential buyer has the option to purchase all four sites for $19 million or independently, ranging from $4 million to $12 million.
Jason Barry of the Jason Barry Team at Barry Estates holds the listing.
“This is arguably one of the most spectacular 4+ acre sites on the West coast boasting breathtaking 270 degree coastline and Mountain views,” Barry told The Post. “Ted Geisel could have chosen anywhere in the world to live and he chose this hilltop estate in La Jolla. This is a once-in-a-generation property; it has not been available in 75 years and when it is gone, it is gone.”
Interested buyers should submit their bids by Wednesday, Aug. 17, by 5 p.m. and are expected to pay all cash, the listing states.
Dr. Seuss and his first wife, Helen, built the four-bedroom, four-bath home atop Mount Soledad on an old observation tower on Encelia Drive in 1948. Following Helen’s death in 1967, he married Audrey and the two lived together in the home until his death in 1991.
Audrey died in the home in 2018. Having been an avid supporter of UC San Diego, she donated $20 million to the campus for the school’s library, later named Geisel Library after Dr. Seuss.
The library now houses the also-donated Dr. Seuss Collection of sketches and drawings and other Seuss memorabilia.
In recent months, “cancel culture” has tampered the legacy of Dr. Seuss. Six of his children’s books were yanked from publication because of what some referred to as racism.
The company that oversees the publishing of Dr. Seuss’s works said it scrapped the six books — “If I Ran the Zoo,” “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “The Cat’s Quizzer’,” “On Beyond Zebra!” and “Scrambled Eggs Super!” — because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
“We believed that it was time to take action,” DSE told The Post in a statement.
“We listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field, too, as part of the review process.”
Additionally, it was announced that a series of unseen sketches drawn by Dr. Seuss will be edited by an “inclusive” group of writers and artists from “diverse racial backgrounds” before they are published for the first time.
