- Anne Rice owned several mansions in her native New Orleans.
- Rice’s former 55,000 sqft New Orleans home has now been transformed into luxury condos.
- Anne Rice relocated to California in 2005 to be closer to her son following her husband’s death.
- Anne’s 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom residence in La Quinta, CA was sold for $750k in 2022.
- Anne Rice passed away from a stroke on Dec 11, 2021 at age 80.
Born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien, Anne Rice was an iconic American author that wrote some of the greatest vampire fiction and gothic fiction of our generation. Rice was the creative mind behind a wide array of different titles and book series, including The Vampire Chronicles. In addition to her vampire-themed works, Anne also published everything from erotica to non-fiction literature and even some religious book titles throughout her long, illustrious career. As a means to honor one of the greatest authors of our time, Velvet Ropes is giving you an inside look at Anne Rice’s career, life, and the Anne Rice house below. Keep reading for more!
Where Does Anne Rice Live?
So, where did Anne Rice live? According to property records, Anne Rice lived in a 3,400 square foot home in La Quinta, California! The author relocated to CA a few years after her husband’s passing in 2002 in order to be closer to her son, Christopher. Below are her five homes – you can scroll or click the link below to scroll to each home.
- Palm Desert, California | Her Final Home
- Rancho Mirage, California | Her Longtime CA Home
- New Orleans, Louisiana | St. Elizabeth’s | Backdrop of Mayfair Witches
- New Orleans, Louisiana | Longtime Garden District Home
- New Orleans, Louisiana | Rosegate Mansion | Backdrop of Mayfair Witches
- American Horror Story: Coven House (not actually Anne’s)
Anne Rice House California | Palm Desert – Her Final Home
Constructed in 1990 and located in the La Quinta Del Oro area, Anne’s former California home boasted 5-bedroom and 4-bathrooms as well as 3,400 square feet of living space.
While it’s not quite the grand, gothic estates she owned back in New Orleans, Rice’s former California home is nothing to scoff at!
The spacious kitchen features stainless steel appliances and more than enough space to cook up some tasty dishes! As part of a recent upgrade, the old countertops were actually switched out for quartz and plantation shutters were added.
Elsewhere in the sizable home is the bonus room that comes with its own kitchenette, home theater, and bathroom.
The master suite features a wall of mirrors that gives the illusion of a much larger space!
Sliding glass doors off the master lead out onto the screened-in porch, where Anne’s gorgeous stone fountain sits just outside as something plucked directly from one of her novels.
If you want to enjoy some sunshine without actually braving the California heat, you’ll really love this air-conditioned sunroom!
Outside, citrus trees, towering palms, and colorful flowers add lushness and beauty to the grounds. The backyard features a swimming pool & spa as well as ample covered and uncovered entertainment space.
Anne Rice’s La Quinta home was listed for $699k on November 27, 2021, and sold for $750k on December 17, 2021, only 6 days after her death.
Anne Rice House Rancho Mirage
Located in the highly desirable Thunderbird Country Club, this was Anne’s home from December 2005 to June 2011. This isn’t just any neighborhood, this has long been a playground for superstars, including Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. Not to mention seven US presidents who have played the course.
The home was designed for entertaining and has a stunning patio and pool. There’s also a detached two-bedroom guesthouse that has a fully set up kitchen and a living room.
Back in 2010, Anne told the LA Times – “The house has been a marvelous place to write, to entertain, to do interviews, and many reporters and camera crews have been in and out for various programs,” Rice said. She reveals that her novels “Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana,” her thriller “Angel Time” and her memoir, “Called Out of Darkness” here at this home.
Anne paid $3,600,000 for the 9,156 square foot, 6 bedroom, 9 bathroom, cliffside home. Sadly, she lost a fortune when she sold it for $2,700,000.
Anne Rice House New Orleans | St. Elizabeth’s
Originally the site of St Elizabeth’s boarding school, this massive 55,000 square foot building is the former residence of Anne and Stan Rice in the decadent city of New Orleans. Built in 1865, the 3-story structure is comprised of 3 buildings and was purchased by the Rice family in 1993.
The main residence is 5,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.
Now a luxury condo, the stunning Second Empire-style building boasts incredibly detailed stained glass windows as well as stone angels (added by Anne herself), and a swimming pool.
It also acted as the backdrop for some parts of Anne’s Mayfair Witches book series. Looking at these photos, you can definitely see why she would choose this place as a location for her book!
One of the building’s wings on the second level was formally a chapel prior to being made into a sprawling condo in 2005. Below, you can see what the space looked like in its former life when Rice called it home.
In addition to being Anne’s private residence, the estate also played host to some of Anne’s 2000+ porcelain doll collection. In fact, the writer had an entire room dedicated to her gorgeous dolls!
In her spare time, when she wasn’t working away on her next big novel, you could easily imagine Anne and Stan spending time in their billiards room. This space gives us yet another sneak peek into what St Elizabeth’s looked like when the Rice’s lived there.
In its former life as the Rice estate, the building also featured a huge ballroom complete with a stage, ample space for seating, gorgeous crystal chandeliers, and hardwood floors.
Finally, no gothic mansion would be complete without a posh formal dining room – and this one definitely fits the criteria! More elegant chandeliers, grand floor-to-ceiling windows, and a fireplace create a decadent space fit for any occasion, even a vampire dinner party!
A lot has changed with this place since Anne sold it following Stan’s death, but fortunately, the new owners seem to be taking good care of it and keeping it preserved. Below are some photos of what the building’s interior looks like today!
Anne Rice Garden District House | New Orleans
Located at 3711 St Charles Avenue, Anne’s former 5-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom New Orleans Garden District home is estimated to be worth $4.6 million as of 2022! The author reportedly purchased the mansion in 1989 and lived here until 2004.
Boasting 8,747 square feet of living space and built in 1888, this breathtaking Victorian gothic features actual stained glass from the 1800s as well as polished mahogany floors throughout, a mahogany & cypress staircase, and beautiful antique light fixtures.
Literally, every part of this home is real estate eye candy – from the fireplaces to the swanky elaborate moldings and everything in between, you can see why Anne wanted to live here!
It’s not difficult to see that the home has been painstakingly restored and preserved over the years, with every room making you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time to the 1800s.
While most of the home has been kept the same, there have been a few pretty nice upgrades to the residence that help it stay functional in the present day. The gourmet kitchen, for example, features all the shiny modern amenities you could ask for.
Upstairs, you’ll find the massive master suite and en-suite, which features a gorgeous mashup of marble, crown molding, and a cozy fireplace to stay warm when you’re soaking in the bath or enjoying a shower.
Also in the master is the mother of all walk-in closets. Comfy benches, drawers, cabinets, and lots of hanging spaces ensure you could literally never run out of space here!
In the backyard, you’ll find a spacious patio as well as an equally large covered entertainment space with its own fireplace.
If property records are correct, Anne sold the home in 2015 for $2.1 million.
Anne Rice House New Orleans | Rosegate Mansion
Where Is The Carriage House Where Anne Rice? Known as Rosegate Mansion and located at 1239 First Street in New Orleans, only 11 minutes from the French Quarter, this Greek Revival was not only the former home of Anne Rice – it was also the location where some of her Mayfair Witches novels were meant to take place!
The residence was built in 1857 and it was purchased by the Rice family in 1989. Anne actually did some of her earlier writing here. The place was in rough condition when the Rice family decided to buy the home, but newer photos make it clear that it’s undergone some renovation and restoration since their time there.
The kitchen is slightly more contemporary than much of the first floor, featuring updated cabinetry, recessed lighting, and stainless-steel appliances. The wall of glass doorways and windows that overlook the backyard provides plenty of natural lighting and creates a warm, inviting space overall.
In the formal dining space just past the kitchen, you’ll find a beautiful hand-painted mural and fireplace, all of which is illuminated by a stunning antique chandelier!
Some amenities to the historic home include an elevator, beautiful lush gardens, a heated pool, and a cabana!
Anne Rice House American Horror Story
While Anne Rice’s former Rosegate mansion does look similar to the house on the FX series American Horror Story: Coven, it is not the same place and has no affiliation to Coven house.
In reality, the exterior shots for Coven were taken at Buckner Mansion – which is literally 0.3 miles from Rosegate! So, if you find yourself on a tour of Anne’s old abodes, why stop by the real coven house around the corner and snap some selfies!
Interview with the Vampire House
Now, if you ever watched the film adaptation of Anne’s novel Interview with the Vampire, you’ll remember that Louie lived on a huge plantation in New Orleans.
In reality, that estate is actually Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, LA!
The sprawling mansion is a major attraction in the area and offers tours for a minor fee. If you’re a fan of Anne Rice’s work and are visiting the area, this is a must-see for you!
Anne Rice Books
To cover every single piece of literature that Anne Rice provided us over the span of her career would take almost an entire article in itself to cover, so we’ll be going over her most famous works here instead!
Anne Rice wrote her first novel, Interview with the Vampire, in the span of only 5 weeks in 1976. At the time, many couldn’t help but notice the similarities between her fictional child vampire Claudia and her real-life daughter, Michelle, that had passed due to Leukemia in 72.
Interview with the Vampire was only the first of many novels in Rice’s vampire chronicles, which also included The Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned (1988), The Tale of the Body Thief (1992), Memnoch the Devil (1995), The Vampire Armand (1998), Merrick (2000), Blood and Gold (2001), Blackwood Farm (2002), Blood Canticle (2003), Prince Lestat (2014), Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016), and Blood Communion (2018).
In addition to The Vampire Chronicles, Anne also wrote 3 novels about the Mayfair Witches as well as a 4-part Sleeping Beauty erotic book series, the New Tales of the Vampires series, The Wolf Gift Chronicles, Ramses the Damned, Christ the Lord, and several standalone works.
New Orleans Vampires
While Anne Rice is one of the primary reasons we think of vampires in New Orleans today, she wasn’t the first to connect these creatures of the night to the area. In fact, there’s actually a very real reason people once thought vampires roamed the streets of New Orleans!
In the 1930s, two brothers named John and Wayne Carter were put to death after committing over a dozen murders and draining their victims’ blood. They were eventually caught after one of the women they had taken managed to escape their apartment.
Despite being long dead, people still occasionally report sightings of the pair to this day. To add a touch of mystery to this legend, both bodies of the brothers mysteriously vanished from their family’s funeral vault long ago.
Anne Rice School
Following her graduation from Richardson High in 1959, Anne went on to complete her freshman year at Texas Woman’s University before transferring to North Texas State College for her sophomore year.
Due to financial strains, Anne was forced to drop out of college and relocate to San Francisco, where she stayed with a friend until finding stable work as an insurance claims processor.
After a convincing friend and former schoolmate, Ginny Mathis, to join her in San Francisco, the pair moved in together and both attended the University of San Francisco – a men’s Jesuit school that offered night courses for women.
Anne Rice Net Worth
At the time of her death, Anne was estimated to be worth about $60 million.
How Did Anne Rice Die?
Anne Rice passed away on December 11, 2021, at age 80 due to a stroke. She joined her lifelong love and late husband, poet Stan Rice, at the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, LA on Jan 15, 2022.
Much like her vampires, Anne Rice has reached an immortal status in the hearts and minds of those that enjoyed her work. She fostered the dark imaginations of so many throughout the years and helped create the modern vampires in fiction that we see today.
In addition to providing us with some of the greatest gothic literature of our time, Rice inspired so many others, this writer included, to pursue their dreams of becoming writers. Without her, many of us wouldn’t be here right now doing what we love.
Thank you for all that you gave us, Anne.
Sources
https://www.trytoscare.me/legend/carter-brothers-new-orleans-la-2/
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/ryan-murphy-most-iconic-sets