If homes could talk

Do you recognize this home?

I'll give you a hint. It's not in Sicily where "women are more dangerous than shotguns."

Stumped?

How about this? It is a Tudor-style home with eight bedrooms, three baths, two fireplaces and a den, spacious enough for a group to discuss the family business.

Still stumped? Here's another hint. This family estate on Staten Island was once the site of a big Italian wedding, where hundreds of people were entertained by a crooner named Johnny Fontane. "Some people (would) pay a lot of money for that information; but then your daughter would lose a father, instead of gaining a husband."

If that one didn't give it away, this one surely will.

You can buy this home if you give the agent an offer he can't refuse.

"Si lei ha ragione, fantastico," as Don Vito Corleone would say. 

You are right; it is the house where they shot "The Godfather." That is, shot as in filmed the movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola (a Detroit native) and starring Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, the aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty.

Oh, and I wasn't kidding when I said you can make the agent an offer. Start with the asking price, which is $2.9 million.

The home was featured by Top Ten Real Estate Deals, an interesting site, which includes a weekly list of historical homes for sale, along with intriguing stories about the architecture and former residents. 

The "Duke's" den.

Other listings have featured California mansions formerly owned by John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe,
and an insider's look at President Obama's "Winter White House" at Paradise Point Plantation Estates in lovely Kailua. 

 

The "Winter White House" pool area at dusk.

As for the fictitious home of Don Corleone, if you take the tour remember, "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."