Nixon's 'Western White House' for sale: $75 million

SAN CLEMENTE , Calif., April 2 (UPI) -- The San Clemente, Calif., home used by President Richard Nixon as his "Western White House" is for sale, listed at $75 million.

The 15,000 square-feet group of structures, on a 5.45-acre estate, was built the 1926 on a secluded bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Nixon purchased it in 1969, and put it to use during his administration, 1969-1975, and later to write his memoirs. He sold the home in 1980, after moving to New York, to Gavin S. Herbert, CEO of Allergan Pharmaceuticals.

Herbert, 83, put the home up for sale. It includes a 9,000 square-feet main residence, a swimming pool installed while Nixon resided there, expansive lawns and a large garden which Herbert himself maintained as its "volunteer head gardener" during the Nixon administration.

In the Nixon era, 17 heads of state visited the property. Anecdotal history notes Hamilton Cotton, a local Democratic Party supporter who built the home, played poker there with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1920s.