Dolly Parton’s former California retreat is still on the market having gone up for sale in April, offering a glimpse into the quieter life the country music icon maintained away from the spotlight.
Where Dolly Lived
The 1920s-era farmhouse in Solvang, California, is listed for $1.995 million. Parton owned the property from 2004 to 2014 through Dolly Parton Enterprises, using it as a getaway in the Santa Ynez Valley before selling it for $940,000 in 2014, according to real estate records cited by Realtor.com.
The property, at the corner of Alisal Road and Maple Avenue near downtown Solvang, is considerably more modest than the image associated with Parton, who died Aug. 25 at 80. The compound now includes a main house and two accessory dwelling units, with seven bedrooms and five or six bathrooms reported in current listings. It sits on about 0.26 acres and is being marketed as an income-producing property with about $116,000 in annual gross rental income.
Parton’s connection to the property remains visible. The home retains features associated with her ownership, including an original “wig room,” while a stained-glass window bearing her name was added above the front door. A plaque outside identifies it as the former home of the singer, actress and “American icon.”
The current owner, Cris Lapp, bought the property in 2022 for about $1.3 million and later turned it into a three-unit rental property. The listing describes the compound as a combination of a three-bedroom main residence and two detached units.
The Solvang property was only one of several homes Parton owned during her decades-long career. In Tennessee, she and her husband, Carl Dean, built a 23-room home on a large property in Brentwood outside Nashville. Parton wrote in her 1994 memoir that the couple had bought the land for privacy before her fame reached its peak; the house was completed in 1972.
Parton also previously owned a Nashville home, a California mountain cabin in Idyllwild and a two-bedroom, two-bath home in West Hollywood. The Idyllwild property was later donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities, while the West Hollywood house, purchased by Parton in 2007, was listed for rent this year for $12,000 a month.
Her longtime Brentwood estate, meanwhile, remained a central part of her private life with Dean, whom she married in 1966. The couple maintained the property for decades as a secluded home away from the demands of Parton’s career.
The Solvang listing offers a different view of Parton’s relationship with real estate: not the sprawling Tennessee estate associated with her later years, but a relatively small California retreat that allowed one of the world’s most recognizable performers to step out of view.
