The listing agent for the Northern California property where Jack London wrote two of his novels, including "White Fang," more than a century ago said the affiliation has helped lure potential buyers.
A tree stump where London supposedly wrote much of that book and “The Sea Wolf” is the only physical link to the famed author. But the lot's association with him is enough to interest many people who come to look at the current house on the site just outside the town of Glen Ellen in Sonoma County.
Priced at just under $5 million, the house at 4100 Wake Robin Drive sits on a 3-acre lot that is a five-minute drive from Jack London Historic State Park, where some of the author’s homes and workplaces are preserved. Maurice Tegelaar, who is marketing the Wake Robin property with business partner Matt Sevenau at Compass affiliate Tegelaar & Sevenau, said he is amazed at London’s attraction not just for potential U.S. buyers but sometimes even people from abroad.
“He’s still a big celebrity here,” Tegelaar said. “Just the name Jack London is great marketing in and of itself.”
The house that’s there today was renovated in 2014 and has plenty of contemporary features like a heated in-ground pool, wine cellar and state-of-the-art kitchen. A creek running through the property gives it additional allure.
Aside from that tree stump, what ties the property to London is the octagonal two-story section that forms the front entryway for the 4,311-square-foot house. That design closely mimics the check-in area for the Wake Robin Lodge, an inn that was on the property when London first came there in the early 1900s. The original structure burned down sometime after London moved on to a home within today’s historic park.
“When the whole home was redone, they wanted to keep that look and feel and also be respectful for what was there before,” Tegelaar said of the owners who conducted the renovations.
London and his wife, fellow author Charmian Kittredge, lived at the lodge property from roughly 1905 to 1910, according to “A History of Wake Robin Lodge,” prepared for the current owners in 2023 by Baseline Consulting, a historical research firm based in the Glen Ellen area. London’s biographer Russ Kingman described Kittredge as “Jack’s soul-mate, always at his side, and a perfect match,” according to the Glen Ellen Historical Society.
“She was a force in her own right,” Tegelaar said of Kittredge. “They were kind of a partnership. A lot of visitors are interested in her, she’s always incorporated into the story and the lure of the property.”
The most likely buyer for the Wake Robin property will be someone who wants it to be a secondary or vacation home, Tegelaar said, though the commute to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is roughly one hour. Some people who buy property in the Glen Ellen area are part of what Tegelaar jokingly calls the “Magic Triangle” because they also have homes in San Francisco and in Lake Tahoe to the northeast.