Where did Grace Kelly live? A deep dive into the life and houses of the actress-turned-princess
Grace Kelly won Hollywood’s top honour, an Academy Award, at just 25 years old. Only a year later, she entered another high-status strata: real-life royalty. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Kelly eventually made her way to the West Coast, where she became one of Tinseltown’s most iconic stars. With memorable roles in High Noon, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief, she captured the hearts of film audiences and accomplished directors alike. Her acting career came to a halt when she stepped into her role as a royal. Kelly met Prince Rainier III of Monaco at France’s Cannes Film Festival. Shortly thereafter, she starred in her final film, High Society, before leaving Hollywood behind in 1956 for her official duties as Princess Grace of Monaco.
The transition from her modest West Hollywood apartment to the grandeur of the Prince’s Palace in Monte Carlo was an interesting one. ‘I had always lived in big cities,’ Kelly recounts in a quote from the biography, High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto. ‘I had also spent nearly 10 years acting – so it was quite a change from an actor’s life to civilian life, so to speak. My real difficulty was to become a normal person after being an actress for so long. For me, at that time, a normal person was someone who made films!’
In Monaco, Kelly embraced a new life of elegance, tradition, and a regally refined design aesthetic. She worked hard to craft a home that offered tranquility and balance for herself and her family. As the former actor wrote in her 1980 book, My Book of Flowers, ‘there is more than enough to disturb our equilibrium in the outside world, so it is of great importance to find serenity and calm in one’s own milieu.’ In addition to Monaco and California, Kelly also lived in New York, New Jersey, France, and Switzerland. Below, we’ve gathered 15 images that offer a glimpse into the domestic world of the actor turned princess.
Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images1/15Not-so-humble beginnings
Kelly’s childhood home in Philadelphia was built by her father, John B. Kelly, Sr., who owned a construction business. According to High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, the property at 3901 Henry Avenue was a ‘mortgage-free’ 17-room brick mansion run by house staff. The grounds featured lavish lawns and a tennis court. In this 1935 family photo, Kelly is pictured with her father, her mother Margaret, and her siblings Margaret, John Jr., and Elizabeth.
Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images2/15A summer getaway
The Kelly family also owned a seaside summer home in Ocean City, New Jersey. In High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, the property is described as Kelly’s ‘favourite summer resort.’ Years later, she would go on to fashion her own version of a resort-like residential respite via the Monegasque royal family’s 125-acre countryside estate in Roc Agel. Kelly wrote about using the Roc Agel property to recapture that atmosphere of ‘a normal relaxed family life, away from the official one at the palace’ for her own growing brood in My Book of Flowers: ‘We looked around the countryside in the steep rocky mountains above Monte Carlo and found a promontory of rock and land where an old farmhouse had once stood. Here we built our villa.’ Though the plot was ‘bare and desolate,’ there was enough land for a farm with animals, a vegetable garden, a pool, and a tennis court.
Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images3/15West Hollywood life
As an aspiring young actor, Kelly’s ambition took her from the East Coast to California. In this 1954 photo, she’s pictured at her West Hollywood apartment, just as she was about to start filming To Catch a Thief. Kelly wasn’t a fan of living alone, so she shared the apartment with her friend and fellow actor Rita Gam. In High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, Gam is quoted describing the apartment on Sweetzer Avenue as ‘feminine and sentimental… filled with snapshots, sketches and souvenirs from [Kelly’s] films, and everywhere there were pictures of her family.’
Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images4/15A chic NYC abode
Like many actors, Kelly spent some time living in New York. In this 1956 photo, she’s pictured with her dog in her Manhattan apartment. Occupying the entire seventh floor of 988 Fifth Avenue, the residence featured four exposures, 10-foot ceilings, and original 1925 crown molding. A private elevator opened into a foyer that led to 4,000 square feet of living space, which included four bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, a kitchen, and a laundry room. The unit boasted a library, two maids’ rooms, and 12 closets. Per High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, the star moved in on February 1, 1955, paying $633.69 a month (the unit later sold for more than $24 million in 2006). To decorate the space, she enlisted the help of interior decorator George Stacey, who furnished it with French antiques.
Photo: New York Daily News Archive/Contributor/Getty Images5/15A royal engagement, announced in Philly
‘Home is here in Philadelphia. I never like to be away too long,’ Kelly once said to Hello Magazine. So it seemed only fitting that the star announced the happy news of her engagement to Prince Rainier III from her family estate. The affianced couple are seen here in 1956, an elaborate botanical toile providing a lively backdrop, upon revealing their plans to wed. The joyful print must’ve made the royal-to-be think of home for years after; she would go on to incorporate intricate nature-themed patterns into her personal abodes, such as the bedroom in her Paris home, where she opted for a floral-motif chintz along the curtains and bedspread.
Photo: AFP via Getty Images6/15Here comes the bride
Not long after moving into her Manhattan abode, Kelly left America for Monte Carlo and officially became the Princess of Monaco upon her April 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III. Of her union, Kelly recalled in High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, ‘I had to separate myself from what had been Grace Kelly, and that was very difficult for me. But I could not be two people—an American actress and the wife of the Prince of Monaco.’ She also revealed that ‘during those first years, I lost my identity. My husband and his life absorbed me until the children came, and it helped when I began service work in Monaco. Then, gradually, I joined up with myself again.’
Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images7/15Royal baby fever
Kelly had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert II, and Princess Stéphanie. In this 1958 snapshot, she’s shown with her newborn Prince Albert II in the balcony of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco. To the right, Prince Rainier holds Princess Caroline, the couple’s firstborn child. The family would welcome Princess Stéphanie in 1965.
Photo: Jack Tinney/Getty Images8/15Strolling down memory lane
In 1963, Kelly, Prince Rainier, Princess Caroline, and Prince Albert II traveled back to America to visit Kelly’s childhood home in Philadelphia. Here, they’re photographed in the family garden. In My Book of Flowers, Kelly reminisced about her life as a young girl at the estate. ‘We were encouraged during the World War II years to help grow vegetables in our own backyard,’ she wrote. ‘There is a picture in the Kelly family album of us young children all hoeing in the vegetable garden with our father.’ She added that each family member had their ‘own little corner in the garden’ and recalled that hers was mostly comprised of irises. Prince Albert II repurchased his mother’s beloved former house in 2016 for $754,000.
Photo: Jack Tinney/Getty Images9/15Finding balance at home
Kelly had deep feelings about the meaning of home. In My Book of Flowers, she wrote, ‘To create harmony in the home is the woman’s right and duty. The home must be the oasis for the family—husband, children, and others close to us. It should be a place where they can find a sense of well-being and strength, replenishment, and renewal.’ She also believed that ‘a home must reflect the personality and needs of the family.’ She advocated for ‘a sense of colour and balance to help counteract the tensions brought on by the hectic lives we lead,’ adding that ‘all our senses are continually affected, either consciously or unconsciously, by our environment.’
Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images10/15Kelly’s “real life”
In this 1966 photo, Kelly is pictured with her three children at the Kelly family’s New Jersey summer home. She cherished her life away from the spotlight and reflected on her retirement from Hollywood in High Society: ‘My real life began with my marriage. Sometimes, looking back after so many years, I think I really hated Hollywood without knowing it. I had lots of acquaintances there, and people I enjoyed working with and learned a lot from. But I found a great deal of fear among people in Hollywood—fear of not succeeding, and fear of succeeding but then losing the success. I’ve often said that it was a pitiless place, full of insecure people who had crippling problems. The unhappiness out there was like the smog—it covered everything.’
Photo: Art Selby/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images11/15A televised tour of the royal digs
In 1977, NBC visited the Prince’s Palace of Monaco to film the TV documentary special Once Upon a Time … Is Now the Story of Princess Grace. According to High Society, the palace featured 250 rooms; though, despite the estate’s sprawl, the family’s private quarters were described as ‘not much larger than a suburban apartment.’ Their residence included living and dining spaces, a library that doubled as Kelly’s office, three bedrooms and bathrooms, two dressing rooms, and a kitchen, where she often cooked. The nursery, which adjoined the bedrooms, was later converted into a family room after her daughter Princess Stéphanie got older.
Photo: Art Selby/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images12/15Design sensibilities of Monaco’s new nobility
In My Book of Flowers, Kelly shared details about the palace’s interior design. ‘In my bedroom in the palace, there are four panels, taken from an 18th-century silk screen, that have butterflies, birds, and flowers on them,’ she wrote. Regarding her ideal colour palette, Kelly’s preferences leaned toward tranquil, soft tones: ‘For bedrooms, I find that blues and greens are very restful and soothing… I like yellow too. I think it is a bright and happy colour to live with. I did my children’s nursery in pale yellow and it was always warm and cheerful.’
Photo: Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images13/15Host with the most
Kelly was known for her thoughtful and elegant hosting style, and she enjoyed entertaining at the palace as well as at the family’s properties abroad. She’s pictured serving guests in this 1977 photo taken at the family’s chalet in Schönried, Switzerland. Her meticulous attention to detail came through via her approach to table setting, which she recounted in My Book of Flowers. ‘I often cover the dinner table with a cloth of pink, green, or yellow that reaches the floor,’ she wrote. ‘On top of this I have a cream-coloured lace tablecloth and match the flowers to whatever petticoat the table is wearing that day.’
Photo: Jan Delden/Pressens Bild/AFP via Getty Images/Stringer14/15Garden party
In this 1981 photo, Kelly is pictured in the garden of her Paris home, a peaceful setting that reflected her love of nature. ‘Flowers have a language of their own that transcends international barriers,’ she wrote in My Book of Flowers. ‘As with music, there is also a timelessness about flowers and a sense of communication. They bring people together in the most enchanting ways, and isn’t this what life is all about?’ One of her favorite pastimes was pressing blooms to create keepsakes, often done at home and surrounded by family. ‘Having people around me when I make pressed flower pictures does not bother me, simply because I treat them as a form of relaxation and not serious art,’ she wrote. ‘I am fortunate in being able to concentrate no matter how much talk or noise is going on—one of the advantages of growing up in a large family.’
Photo: Jan Delden/Pressens Bild/AFP via Getty Images/Stringer15/15A blooming legacy
Kelly suffered a stroke while driving in 1982, which resulted in her fatal car accident at age 52. In the final interview she gave before her tragic passing, she was asked how she’d like to be remembered, to which she replied, ‘As a person who accomplished something, who was kind and loving. I would like to leave behind me the memory of a human being who behaved properly and tried to help others.’ Indeed, one of her enduring legacies was the Garden Club of Monaco, one of the many public acts of service she invested her time into after becoming Monaco’s princess. ‘I feel that every city, every town, every village should have a garden club…. It is as necessary for the lifeblood of a community as a library, art gallery, museum, and horticultural societies.’
