The house happens to be on my (aesthetically) favorite street in Hancock Park- Muirfield Road. More about Muirfield later...
This 7 bedroom, 9 bath 10,000 square foot Tudor estate sits overlooking the golf course of the Wilshire Country Club and is also only a short walk from Larchmont Village. Having been in the hands of very few owners since it was built (in 1933) the perfect, expansive layout has not been tampered with.
There are superb public rooms spanning the first floor including the living room with a wall of glass overlooking the eighth fairway and a panelled library-the perfect spot to think profound (or even mundane) thoughts, pay bills or smoke cigars. Much of the original detail has been preserved throughout and the kitchen has been well renovated to both serve a family's daily needs and work perfectly for large scale entertaining. All of the main bedrooms are spacious, light and have their own baths. There's an adjoining wing that's perfect for guests, more children (if you're truly prolific) or help (especially useful if you are that prolific). There's even a fully finished basement in which the stagers have placed gym equipment and two massage tables. Why is that even good stagers (i.e. stagers who make it appear that real people live in the house) always tip their hand with details like this? Even worse, in a lovely game room on the first floor, there is an open Monopoly board with Monopoly money, deeds and markers spread about as if 4 people had been in the middle of a game but were suddenly called away by more pressing matters like...life.
The 30,000 foot lot offers gardens, patios, fountains, a pool for people who actually swim and a view of, in addition to the golf course, the Hollywood Hills. The size of the lot and the siting of the house give likely assurance that you won't be bothered by overshot, misdirected golf balls. Then again, the median age of the members of the Wilshire Country Club probably protects you from this as well.
It is truly one of those homes that you walk through and think, "This is where I would love to raise a family." Of course if the truth be told, not that long ago many people, including the current owners, would not have been able to purchase this house. For many years, Hancock Park was totally Restricted; in other words, those used in the original deeds, Negroes and Hebrews were not welcome.
It was in 1948 when Nat King Cole purchased a house on this very same Muirfield Road that things began to change. Of course it would be difficult to say the entire neighborhood welcomed the Coles with open arms. They indured years of racial slurs left in their yard, their dog was poisoned and some lovely neighbors even began to circulate a petition in an attempt to keep "undesirables" out of the neighborhood. Nat King Cole-was he not the simple definition of cool?-simply responded by saying that "if he saw anyone undesirable, he would let them know," according to his daughter.
Of course if the Negroes had been let it, could the Hebrews and Orientals be far behind? I'm happy to say, first hand, that the neighborhood is now a big, happy and beautiful melting pot.
Tell your lucky friends to call me and for a link to Nat King Cole singing "On the Street Where You Live," click at the bottom.
Tell your lucky friends to call me and for a link to Nat King Cole singing "On the Street Where You Live," click at the bottom.
Jamie
