"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

Manderley is the exquisite estate by the sea made famous in the opening line of "Rebecca," a classic 1938 romantic thriller by British author Daphne Du Maurier. And when I first drove up the country lane toward La Selva Beach last weekend, through the eucalyptus groves and farm fields, and laid eyes on the gleaming white estate perched alone on a hilltop overlooking the sea, that famous line coursed through my brain.

Even the name of the lane _ Sanderling Hill _ has a Manderley ring to it. It might not look like Du Maurier’s Manderley, but to me it feels like it _ a house that was as much a character in the book as Rebecca herself. In the novel, Manderley holds dark secrets. On Sanderling Hill, the setting sun envelopes it in a golden glow, but it still has a sense of mystery around it. It’s a house that has the bearing of a building that has withstood the fog and the wind and the sun and the salt for generations. It is an 1872 Italianate Victorian and has stories of its own, including the fact that it was literally quartered and moved from its original site in Watsonville just a decade ago to its present location down the road from Seascape and closer to Santa Cruz.

In all its 136 years, it has only been owned by three families: the Palmtags who owned a Watsonville brewery and built the house, the Muzzios who held great parties there since the 1920s, and the Bowens who rescued it in 1998. And perhaps soon, a fourth family may own it. The house is for sale, along with the four acres of farmland and a newly-built carriage house.

My friend, Maria, first spotted the house returning from a camping trip to the beach. She grabbed a flier and, like me, has been obsessing ever since. It’s listed by Sotheby’s for nearly $2.7 million, a lower price than either of us expected, but still the stuff of fantasy.

"I want to have my family for Thanksgiving dinner in that dining room," she said.

Now I dream of it, too.

The house had been condemned after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. And as much as Marina Muzzio hated to leave the house she grew up in, the plaster was crumbling off the walls and the brick fireplaces had been reduced to rubble. The neighborhood along the banks of the Pajaro River had also deteriorated and investing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more to restore it didn’t seem to make sense. The city of Watsonville acquired it and offered it up for $1 to the family with the best proposal to relocate and restore it.

Julie and Dayle Bowen, who had two young sons and already restored a Victorian in Santa Cruz, were awarded the Palmtag-Muzzio Mansion.

They purchased four acres of farmland in La Selva beach, hired a house mover, and replanted it on the hilltop with its handsome balcony facing the lights of Santa Cruz across Monterey Bay. The kitchen and huge dining room look out to the ocean. The living room parlour looks down the sloping hillside over the organic row crops. The exterior of the house remains at is did in the 19th century, although the interior was relatively unadorned at the time. The Bowens assume the Palmtags might have run out of money to do the finishing touches. So when the Bowens stripped down the crumbling plaster walls to move the house, there was little ornamentation to preserve. When they put the house back together, they added picture rails and crown molding and widened the entrance to the living room. A fifth bedroom upstairs was converted to a bathroom, and the master bedroom was downsized a bit to include a master bath. The floors upstairs are original. Many of the windows still have the old wavy glass.

Julie Bowen restored the old house as a project. Now, she’s itching to do another one. Maybe she will look back and dream again of Sanderling Hill. Maybe the next family will buy it to live in for the next 100 years. No matter who comes to live here and what stories they will bring, this much is certain: this house has a character of its own.

(Photos by Marty Forsyth)

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