UC San Diego sold the late Theodor and Audrey Geisel’s home at 7301 Encelia Dr after a sealed bidding process.
A piece of the Dr Seuss legacy has been sold: 7301 Encelia Dr has closed for $9 million.
UC San Diego sold the former home of Theodor Geisel, the renowned, prolific author better known as Dr Seuss, on May 29 to a local La Jolla resident, Jason Barry of The Jason Barry Team told lajolla.ca.
The new owner “plans to keep the integrity of the house and property intact, which made UCSD very happy,” Barry added.
The Encelia Drive home, which Geisel and his first wife, Helen, bought after their move to La Jolla in 1948, is a 5,004-square-foot, four-bedroom home overlooking the La Jolla coastline containing the observation tower and Geisel’s office/study, which must remain intact as the structures are both considered historic by the city of San Diego’s Historic Resource Board.
During his time in La Jolla, Geisel wrote dozens of books, including “Horton Hears a Who” (1954), “The Cat in the Hat” (1957) and “Green Eggs and Ham” (1960).
After Helen’s death in 1967, Geisel married his second wife, Audrey, and continued to write and engage in philanthropy projects, donating to many La Jolla institutions, a tradition Audrey continued past Geisel’s death in 1991 until her own death in 2018.
After Audrey died, UCSD received the Encelia property from the Geisel trust; the estate was listed for similar sealed bid auction in 2022 as four separate, legal parcels but the listing was canceled.
In 2025, three of the parcels – unbuilt land only – were sold for $9 million.
