Del & Maria’s dream
The estate is named Del Mar after its original owners, Del Smith and his wife, Maria.[14][15] According to the 2019 auction listing, Smith bought a “historic 1906 fixer” on a large piece of Willamette Valley farmland. The listing says the project led him to meet and marry Maria, “of Adriatic Italian descent.” Together they finished the Victorian and reconfigured the acreage.[17] The date he bought the land and the date of the marriage are both not yet confirmed.
In 2002, Smith set out to build a Mediterranean-style mansion with five fireplaces, French doors, and hardwood floors throughout.[14][15] Press and listing accounts put the cost at about $18 million.[14][17] The completion date and the architect of the villa are not yet confirmed.
The villa
The villa has about 26,000 square feet of living space. The Oregonian compared it to Portland’s Pittock Mansion and the Oregon governor’s mansion combined.[14] It has a three-story central block with north and south wings. Twelve-foot cedar entry doors open onto a travertine foyer with a curving marble staircase that rises three stories.[14][17] An enclosed colonnade leads to a pool pavilion with arched, conservatory-style windows, and the floors are heated throughout.[14][17] The grounds include boxwood-edged garden “rooms,” hundreds of rose plantings, a wisteria-covered arbor, and a concrete-pillared grape arbor above the river.[14][17]
The J. D. Gordon house (1906)
North of the villa stands the original farmhouse, known as the J. D. Gordon house. The listing says it is described in the Yamhill County Cultural Resource Inventory as an example of the transition from Late Victorian to Colonial Revival style.[17] The house is about 4,800 square feet and keeps its original exterior siding, windows, oak floors, and staircase. Its interior was renovated around 1999.[14][17] Who J. D. Gordon was is not yet confirmed.
A copy of the Yamhill County Cultural Resources Survey and Inventory is in the collection, with a card noting it was purchased from the county planning department on October 1, 1999. Whether it includes the farmhouse’s entry is not yet confirmed. See it on The Collection page.
A timeline of the estate
- 1906The J. D. Gordon farmhouse is built.[14][17]
- c. 1999The farmhouse interior is remodeled.[17] (Year Del Smith acquired the property: not yet confirmed)
- 2002Del Smith begins the Mediterranean-style villa.[14][15]
- 2014Del Smith dies (Nov. 7).[1]
- 2017His heirs list the estate for about $6 million (April), then $5 million.[15][18]
- 2019The estate goes to a sealed-bid auction with bids due Aug. 21, and the sale closes Dec. 16 at $3,000,000.[15][16]
- 2021The new owners begin renting the estate as Del Mar Villa through Vrbo and Airbnb.[14]
- TodayDel Mar Villa is no longer open for rentals or events. The owners have closed the estate and keep it private.
Del Mar Villa today
Today Del Mar Villa is no longer open for rentals or events. The current owners have decided to close the estate and keep it private.
From 2021 the owners rented the estate as Del Mar Villa through Vrbo and Airbnb.[14] Its rental listings described eight suites plus a family suite, a ballroom, a chef’s kitchen, and sports courts.[19] In 2021 the estate manager told The Oregonian that some guests came because of Del Smith’s place in aviation history, and that guests sometimes arrived by helicopter.[14]
Del Mar Villa is private. Visits are by appointment only, with the owners’ approval. To ask about a tour, use the short form below or email April Dawn Buckner at [email protected].
Request a tour
Owner approval upon request prior to site visit. Private property. No unauthorized site visits.
This is a request, not a booking. April reads every request and replies by email, and a tour is only confirmed once the owners have approved it. Your details are used only to reply to you.
A walk through Del Mar
Photos by April Dawn Buckner unless noted. Captions describe only what is visible.
Five years at Del Mar
I was first presented with an opportunity to be an innkeeper for the new owners of the property as they opened a B&B business at the villa. My family and I moved into the old Victorian house and began our journey caring for this massive estate.
With the houses being empty for so long, there was a lot of cleaning and maintenance to get these places habitable for our family, as well as for use as a hosting facility for the B&B. The B&B quickly turned into Airbnb rentals, with non-stop turnovers of the house.
Many wonderful celebrations, such as weddings, reunions, collaborations, and a slew of other memorable experiences, happened over the next 4.5 years. Then it all came to a stop.
That left me, finally, with time to start looking at all the boxed-up memorabilia left behind by the Smith family, the trustees, and past employees. No one wanted these things left behind: items like Michael King Smith’s birth announcement, certificates, badges, and photos. Then there were the books, so many signed with a note addressed to Del or his sons.
The villa remains a living memory of Del and his larger-than-life personality. Inside Delford’s private book collection you see the hidden layers of a man who just wanted to be loved unconditionally, a boy’s scarred heart that never left him and returned again and again throughout his life. Del never gave up. Despite it all, he never surrendered.
— April Dawn Buckner, Innkeeper at Del Mar Villa, April 2021 to present