Prince Albert Buys, Visits Grace Kelly's Childhood Home in Philadelphia
The royal reportedly bought the home for $754,000.
— -- A Philadelphia neighborhood had a brush with royalty Tuesday when Prince Albert II of Monaco paid a visit to a home he recently bought for a reported $754,000.
The home in Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood is a stately brick home that was the childhood home of Albert’s mother, Grace Kelly.
Kelly, an Oscar-winning actress, left Philadelphia for Hollywood as a young woman and became Princess Grace of Monaco when she wed Monaco’s Prince Rainier III in 1956. The home is where Grace accepted a marriage proposal from Prince Rainier in 1955, according to The Associated Press.
Albert, 58, is one of the couple’s three children.
Princess Grace's childhood home was built by her father, John B. Kelly, a businessman who won three Olympic gold medals for rowing. Grace died at age 52 in 1982 from injuries sustained in a car crash in France.
Albert told People magazine in an article posted Oct. 21 that he was “very happy” to have returned his mom’s six-bedroom, 2.5-story childhood home to his family.
“We’re still trying to figure out what we’re going to do with it,” Albert told the magazine. “We’re looking at having it contain some museum exhibit space and maybe use part of it for offices for some of our foundation work.”
Albert spent time during his childhood at his newly-purchased home. His cousin, John B. Kelly III, visited the home with him on Tuesday.
Kelly told ABC's Philadelphia station WPVI-TV the group spent some of their nearly one-hour visit to the home Tuesday reminiscing about parties and "hanging out in the garage."
"It's been his idea and he really wanted to do this to preserve his mother's house, so he's very happy right now," Kelly told WPVI-TV.
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