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Building History

Los Angeles architect Roland E. Coate, Sr., (1890-1958) designed the large, 30-room residence for Mrs. Fudger at 211 Muirfield Road. Coate created a Spanish Colonial hacienda for Mrs. Fudger, who soon after the building's completion, rented it and its furnishings to millionaire playboy and producer Howard Hughes (1905-1976). Hughes paid a remarkable $1,000 a month rent to her, who also required a $6,000 deposit, an astronomical sum at the time. Hughes later paid the Widow Fudger an equally astronomical $115,000 for the house and $35,000 for her furnishings on 12/02/1929. Hughes wanted the Hancock Park house because it adjoined the Wilshire Country Club, and he had an addiction to golf at the time. (See Darwin Porter, Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel, [New York : Blood Moon, 2005], p. 145.) Hughes left the house in 1942 "...to avoid paying property taxes." (See "The Legendary Howard Hughes, Jr., 211 Muirfield Road,"Accessed 02/09/2012.)

Building Notes

According to Los Angeles voting registration records for 1924, Eva K.J. Fudger (born 07/03/1881 in Riverside, CA-d. 10/20/1960 in Los Angeles, CA), lived at 212 Muirfield Road, across the street from her new residence being built. (She was a Republican, by the way.) She married Richard Barry Fudger (1880-1918), a prosperous department store manager c. 1906. In 1911, she lived at 77 Elm Avenue in Toronto, ON, Canada, with her husband, two daughters--Catherine A. (born 05/03/1908 in Los Angeles) and Patricia (born c. 1911 in Canada)--and three domestic servants. Richard died of pneumonia and heart disease on 09/19/1918 in Clarkson, ON, making Eva a wealthy widow, only 37 years old. Eva Fudger traveled a fair amount with her husband beginning with a 1906 trip abroad, and continued to journey abroad with her daughters.

PCAD id: 17560