Brooklyn home built for legendary film titan lists for $3M — but she never actually lived there

Picture this: a grand neo-Tudor residence in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park, built for the silent film siren Mary Pickford — the “Queen of Movies” — who never even unpacked her bags.

Now, this storied slice of Hollywood history at 1320 Ditmas Ave. is up for grabs at $2.99 million, beckoning buyers with its vintage swagger and a whisper of Tinseltown glamour, The Post has learned.

Listed by Corcoran’s Karen Talbott, Kyle Talbott and Scott Sternberg, the 5,000-square-foot home is a love letter to Victorian Flatbush, blending old-school charm with modern pizzazz.

The six-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom residence, built in 1910 by Vitagraph Film Studios, was meant to house Pickford, dubbed “America’s Sweetheart” for her ingénue roles and unrivaled fame, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

“The seller believes, based on her research, that this home was originally built for Mary as part of a contract negotiation. However, she ultimately decided to move to California instead,” Karen Talbott told The Post.

Though she never moved in, neighborhood locals and film buffs still call it “Mary Pickford’s house.”

A co-founder of United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks (who became her second husband) and D.W. Griffith in 1919, Pickford redefined stardom and studio power.

“This is actually one case in which it’s very easy to say something that is pretty much inarguable, which is that she was the first female movie star,” Michael Cramer, a film history professor at Sarah Lawrence College, told The Post. “She’s the most famous woman, the most famous movie star in the world in the 1910s.”

Pickford died at the age of 87 in 1979. Despite the grandeur of her earlier years, she became a recluse in her later ones at Pickfair, the California estate she built with Fairbanks — staying there with her third husband.

Still, like her career, this Brooklyn home dazzles in its own right.

A sweeping foyer flows into a sprawling living room and an octagonal dining room, both boasting working fireplaces. Sunlight dances on original woodwork, leaded glass built-ins and hardwood floors.

“This property exudes the grandeur of Hollywood homes, featuring exceptionally high ceilings and basement ceilings, which were designed to accommodate [Fairbanks], who was very tall,” Talbott said. “The craftsmanship throughout the home reflects a sense of elegance and grace, clearly intended for someone very special.”

Upstairs, a plush landing connects to four bedrooms, three baths and two home offices with treetop views.

The basement boasts an entertainment room with a wood-paneled bar, another fireplace, a mirrored gym, laundry, wine storage and a workshop.

It was all built in a grand sense for a presence to match.

“I would definitely say without a doubt, Mary Pickford was the most powerful and influential woman ever in Hollywood history. And I would stand by that,” Elaina Friedrichsen, Director of Archive & Legacy at the Mary Pickford Foundation, and Head of Production at the Mary Pickford Company, told The Post.

“She created her own studio. She was one of the founding members of the Motion Picture, now today known as the Motion Pictures Television Fund. She broke ground at the Motion picture home in 1941. She also was one of the Founding Members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.”

The Vitagraph connection, however, is fuzzy.

Friedrichsen noted, “Although Mary never worked for Vitagraph Studios, she was with Biograph Studios from 1909 through 1912 with a brief stint traveling with the IMP Studios and then Majestic in Chicago in 1911.”

Pickford later joined Famous Players, which became Paramount Pictures, before launching United Artists. Vitagraph, a Midwood-based studio later absorbed by Warner Brothers, built the home as Ditmas Park bloomed, alongside an apartment building for stars like Pickford, Fairbanks and Fatty Arbuckle.

Contract talks with Vitagraph fizzled in 1916, and Pickford rejoined Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players, per Richard Alleman’s “New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide.”

Pickford also defined what it meant to be a self-made woman.

“While she loved to invest in real estate for financial reasons, some of her homes were havens for her to escape from it all,” Friedrichsen said. “She was the first woman to earn a million dollars in a year in this country. And was earning the equivalent today of two million dollars a year by 2017.”

Cramer added, “Sometimes you will see her be defined as the first millionaire in Hollywood. I suspect she’s the first millionaire performer.”

Born in Toronto to modest roots, Pickford’s rise was meteoric.

“From a very, very early age, she was supporting her family on the stage and had a magical quality about her that was unmatched,” Friedrichsen said.

By her teens, she was a sensation. “She played any kind of roles and was absolutely incredibly enchanting on the screen from day one. So her fame caught on pretty quickly by 1914, I think she was 13, 14,” Friedrichsen said.

“The other thing that’s really important is not only is she important as an actress, she is also really important as a producer,” Cramer said. “Once she becomes famous, she starts production companies to make her own films, which means that she’s in charge of everything: hiring the director, the screenwriter, which films to make.”

United Artists gave independent producers like her unprecedented control, fueling her fortune.

“She was ‘America’s sweetheart’ and stood for a notion of homespun delicacy. But she was also in the news for her financial success, her salary going astronomical in just a few years,” said Dana Polan, Martin Scorsese Professor of Cinema Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.