Bad TV reception meant famous actor Jack Nicholson couldn’t watch his beloved Lakers from his Aspen home, according to a 2008 book written by Hollywood reporter Dennis McDougal. Fellow Aspen dignitary and American record producer Lou Adler had the same exact problem. So, Nicholson and Adler teamed up to purchase what’s called the Newberry House near downtown Aspen, a Victorian wooden structure built in 1895 — which, to help their pro basketball needs, has better TV reception.
This was 1980. The purchase price was $555,000, according to Pitkin County property records. Factoring in inflation, this purchase price equates to about $2.
1 million in today’s standards. Property records show Nicholson eventually sold the house in 2013 for $11 million to Ellen Bronfman Hauptman, heiress to the Seagram’s liquor brand. But on Tuesday this week, Nicholson’s one-time Lakers haven was sold to former National Hockey League goalie Patrick Dovigi for $59.
75 million, property records show. The West End property, added to the National Register in 1987, underwent significant renovations in 2015, property records show. It is also adjacent to Hallam Lake toward Red Mountain, while it neighbors properties owned by the Lewis family.
Jonathan Lewis, son of the late former chairman of Progressive Insurance Company Peter Lewis, infamously once purchased and tore down the former home of modern Aspen founders Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke to build anew in the area. “Regarding the age of the h.