Access Hollywood

Sandra Bullock's Childhood Home for Sale

By Patricia Kime
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, July 2, 2005; Page F01

The crystal People's Choice Award that sits on a low shelf in the family room doesn't come with the house.

Neither do the black-and-white photos of the three striking women who once lived in the house on N. 26th Street in Arlington.


Sandra Bullock's old house at 2925 26th St. North in Arlington, Virginia.
Sandra Bullock's old house at 2925 26th St. North in Arlington, Virginia. (Tetona Dunlap - Tetona Dunlap)



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But for an asking price of $1.195 million, you can buy a large, updated rambler "one stoplight from D.C." and the chance to say you own actress Sandra Bullock's childhood home.

Sandra Bullock's father, John, is selling the house he bought in 1966 for his wife, Helga, and toddler Sandra, or Sandy, as she was known back then. It was initially listed on the market in May for $1.3 million but dropped to its current asking price June 25.

The white brick house served as a U.S. base for the Bullock clan as they traveled in the late 1960s and early 1970s to Europe with mother Helga, an opera singer, and John, a Defense Department employee.

Sandra and sister, Gesine, attended school in Arlington but went with their German-born mother to shows during the summer and school breaks. They would fill in on stage as needed, depending on the production's need for children.

In between travel, school and stage, Sandra and Gesine grew up as suburban children in Arlington's Woodmont neighborhood, taking ballet and gymnastics and joining the Girl Scouts, albeit briefly.

"She wasn't too different from what you see on film," said Simone Acha of her former classmate. "She was full of life and fun. She also was naturally athletic, although was kind of clumsy as a kid, but her mother put her in ballet and that took care of that."

She said, "They were a very close-knit family. They traveled so much together -- her family was a big part of her life."

Many Arlingtonians fondly remember the family, especially stylish and beautiful Helga and sunny Sandra.

"Her mom was so glamorous. Most of our moms were like June Cleaver moms, but her mom, she was exotic, like 'Love, American Style,' " former classmate Mary Thomasson Yuhas said.

Bullock claims to have been a picked-on nerd in junior high school -- her words as told to A&E's "Biography" -- but ended up being voted "class clown" and "funniest" by her senior class at Washington-Lee High School.


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