The roots of the Getty family’s immense fortune can be traced back over a century to patriarch George Getty’s success as a pioneer oilman. George’s many scions went on to grow the family’s wealth and influence over the four generations that followed; his son, industrialist J. Paul Getty, was at one time known as the richest man in America. Having leveraged an investment from his father into further success in the oil sector, J. Paul officially founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942. Forbes placed the family’s net worth at $4.5 billion in 2015. Like the Kennedys, the Getty family tree is laced with tragedies throughout—the most notorious of which remains the 1973 kidnapping for ransom of J. Paul’s grandson John Paul Getty III, which served as the inspiration for the FX series Trust.
With a history as public as any political dynasty’s and a number of iconic estates and museums bearing their name, the Getty family legacy is the stuff of American legend. Read on for a selection of some of the most impressive properties owned by the oil tycoon’s descendants across the US and overseas.
Pacific Heights, San Francisco, estate
Among the most famous of all the Getty family properties is a lavish five-story Italianate manse in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. Gordon Getty and his wife Ann, an arts collector, patron, and interior designer, were known for hosting sumptuous soirées at the house. The dwelling offers scenic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and also features the maximalist handiwork of Ann throughout, who applied her expertise as a decorator to the home’s palatial interiors. A combination of three separate estates that Gordon and Ann rolled into one mega-mansion over the years, the abode has hosted fundraisers for California political A-listers like Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, as well as the highly publicized wedding of Gordon and Ann Getty’s socialite granddaughter, Ivy Getty. The influencer and model’s 2021 ceremony was officiated by longtime democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
“When my beloved grandmother passed away, I knew I wanted to have the wedding in my house to honor her,” Ivy told Vogue in a November 2021 feature on her nuptials. “My grandmother interior designed each room of the house which allows me to feel as if she is there with me. I would be able to look around the room and see something that reminds me of her. Her presence is everywhere in that home. The theme of my entire wedding is the house and my grandmother.” The estate was outfitted with a trove of priceless art amassed by the family, which was the focus of a 2022 auction for charity that fetched over $150 million. “Growing up in that house and being around great parties my whole life, I never had to turn to Pinterest for inspiration,” Ivy said.
J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes
After establishing the J. Paul Getty Museum Trust in 1953, J. Paul Getty converted a part of his ranch in the Pacific Palisades area of Malibu, California, into a museum to share his valuable art collection with the public. He expanded the estate as his collection grew, beginning construction on a manse inspired by the Roman Villa dei Papyri, which debuted as Getty Villa in 1974.
Getty Villa’s sister museum, the Richard Meier–designed Getty Center, is situated on 110 acres across a hilltop in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. The museum’s campus is decked out in 1.2 million square feet of Italian travertine sourced from Bagni di Tivoli and boasts multiple gardens and interior spaces awash in natural light due to the many walls of glass incorporated into the structure’s design.
Wormsley Park
Approximately 40 miles from London in Buckinghamshire, England, is the private estate of Mark Getty, who is the grandson of J. Paul (and son of Sir John Paul Getty Jr.), as well as the founder of the prominent photo house Getty Images. Sir Paul purchased the 2,700-acre property in 1985 and launched an extensive restoration of the complex’s buildings, of which there are more than 30.
The renovation work established a number of new features on the grounds, including the library, a castellated space that houses some of the family’s vast book and manuscript collection, and a cricket field which has hosted many people of influence, such as the Queen Mother.
Sutton Place residence
J. Paul purchased the sprawling Tudor mansion, a 72-room estate approximately 30 miles southwest of London, in 1959. Per The New York Times, Sutton Place was constructed in the 1500s and boasts a royal lineage: It was built by a courtier of Henry VIII and was the residence of the Duke of Sutherland when J. Paul scooped it up for $840,000.
The 2018 FX series Trust, which dramatizes the 1973 kidnapping of 16-year-old heir J. Paul Getty III, is set partly in Sutton Place. The production aimed to capture the atmosphere of the stately home’s grand hallways and airy living spaces while shooting in another mansion, known as Audley End. Production designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb considered 75 different locations before landing on Audley, which she felt was an even better pick for the series than its source material: “Even if we had access to Sutton Place, it might not have been the place to do it for the series because it almost, proportionally, looks small,” she told AD in a 2018 interview. “It’s a certain kind of Tudor architecture that looked almost gingerbready.”
After J. Paul’s 1976 death, the property was sold for $17 million. The massive complex was subdivided in the early 2000s. Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov owns the main house.
William O. Jenkins House
American businessman William O. Jenkins broke ground on the Wilshire Boulevard estate in 1922, though it was another Los Angeles thoroughfare that the home would come to be more widely associated with: Sunset Boulevard (the name of a major road cutting through Beverly Hills and West Hollywood), a 1950 film which shot several iconic exterior scenes at the home. The abode was under Getty family ownership from J. Paul Getty’s 1936 acquisition until 1957, when it was sold to developers. The Thomas Beverley Keim Jr.–designed dwelling was known as the William O. Jenkins House as well as the The Phantom House, a moniker that is said to be derived from the stretch of time the house was vacant after Jenkins left the states behind for business in Mexico.
Getty House mayoral residence
The Tudor-style house has operated as the official residence of the mayor of Los Angeles ever since the city’s first Black mayor, Tom Bradley, moved in in 1977. It was built in LA’s Hancock Park neighborhood in 1921 by Swedish immigrants, who enlisted the architects behind the Egyptian and Chinese Theatres on Hollywood Boulevard. The home boasts 19 rooms and is often used as a venue for fundraisers and other events.
Ivy Getty’s NYC penthouse
In a 2021 interview with C Magazine, the lower Manhattan abode Ivy Getty shares with husband Toby Engel is described as having “a focus on eco-materials, low-key decor, and the comfort and sense of home required by the young jet-set pair.” The publication quotes the scion’s own interpretation of its style as “casual and versatile, respectful of the planet, [and] personal.” Ann Getty had already begun decorating the abode for her granddaughter before she died in 2020 at the age of 79. Also referenced in the feature is Ivy’s apartment in London, which the couple maintains in order to “stay close to the Getty and Engel clans across the pond.”
Aileen Getty’s Hollywood heritage properties
The heiress and philanthropist, who is J. Paul’s granddaughter, is tied to two California dwellings with showbiz connections. Aileen swapped mansions with Brad Pitt this summer, handing over the keys to her midcentury-modern Los Feliz home in exchange for the actor’s $33 million Hollywood Hills compound. She is also linked to Rancho Bizarro, an LA equestrian ranch formerly owned by the late Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze. According to Mansion Global, an LLC tied to Aileen purchased the property in 2015 for $2.9 million. It was listed in October for $4.5 million.
