Pioneering Black architect Paul R. Williams — a favorite of Golden Age Hollywood elite and other assorted jetsetters — designed this stately 1930s manor for opera singer-actress Grace Moore and her husband, Spanish actor Valentín Parera. But the couple ultimately became disenchanted with Hollywood, fled the city and never actually lived in the Brentwood house — legendary actor Tyrone Power and his French wife Annabella were its first occupants, having bought the place soon after it was built, according to the Paul R. Williams Project. This is one of two Williams-designed houses owned by Power; the actor apparently loved the Brentwood digs so much that he commissioned the architect to design him a custom Bel Air residence in the late 1940s.

This property was eventually sold to a non-famous family, who held onto the place for decades. In recent years, the Georgian Colonial Revival mansion was leased out to Michael S. Smith, Barack Obama’s White House decorator,...