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  • Built in 1926 on Lot 166 in Tract 8320
  • Original commissioner: building contractor Henry C. Walker
  • Architect: Eugene Ward of Long Beach
  • On June 1, 1926, the Department of Building and Safety issued Henry C. Walker permits for a two-story, nine-room residence and a one-story, 18-by-24-foot garage at 180 South McCadden Place
  • Henry Walker was listed at 180 South McCadden Place in the 1928 city directory, apparently in residence while he had it on the market
  • Mortgage banker Cecil La Verne Brewer was the owner of 180 South McCadden Place by 1929. Born in Danville, Illinois, on June 11, 1885, he married Lillian Teague, a Texan, in 1908. The couple was living in Los Angeles by 1911, south of Exposition Park, he going to work at the Los Angeles Title & Abstract Company. Cecil La Verne Brewer Jr. was born in February 1915, after which the family moved to 232 North Rampart Boulevard (a house still standing), from which they would move to Hancock Park. The Cecil La Verne Brewers would remain at 180 South McCadden Place until 1934
  • Judy Garland, having signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the fall of 1935, moved into 180 South McCadden Place by early 1936 with her mother and her sister Jimmie. Her father had died in November. It unclear as to whether the Garlands bought the house or whether they rented it from an unknown owner. In any case, their stay was brief, with plans being made to build a new house in Bel-Air. (Widely attributed to Wallace Neff, it is architect George S. Morlan, whose name appears on the original building permit—alongside that of "Miss Judy Garland," then 16 years old—issued for 1231 Stone Canyon Road in September 1938) 
  • Some sources have the Garlands moving out of 180 South McCadden Place after Judy completed filming on The Wizard of Oz in March 1939; per voter registrations, Donald Fox McGaffey, an accountant, was in residence at 180 South McCadden Place by mid 1938
  • The Donald McGaffeys remained at 180 South McCadden Place until moving to Beverly Hills by early 1940
  • Long-widowed attorney James Wiseman Macdonald succeeded the McGaffeys at 180 South MCCadden; the noted Catholic layman was moving from 2025 West Adams Boulevard. The West Adams district had been in decline since the 1920s; with Los Angeles having vast possibilities for expansion toward the Pacific, developers were adept at luring the affluent even from such established precincts to their many new subdivisions flanking Wilshire Boulevard, Hancock Park among them. Macdonald's stay at 180 was brief; he died at the age of 76 at St. Vincent's Hospital on November 21, 1942
  • Recently retired Chicago industrialist Joseph Hamilton Clark bought 180 South McCadden Place and was in residence by early 1945. Clark built a brick incinerator—once a common feature of Los Angeles houses in the pre-smog era—and added a bay window to the rear of the residence. His stay was almost as brief as J. W. Macdonald's; he died in Los Angeles at the age of 64 on October 7, 1948
  • Auto-salvage operator Irving I. Asher was living at 180 South McCadden Place by the spring of 1950, occupying the house with his wife Sara, sons Jerry and Michael, his brother Aaron, and father-in-law Sam Sholnek
  • 180 South MCadden Place was auctioned off, "with carpets and drapes," on October 12, 1952
  • Harold Milton Ruddick, a Carnation Milk executive, was the owner of 180 South McCadden Place by early 1953. Born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, Ruddick received an engineering degree from Cooper Union and attended law school in New York before moving to Los Angeles. in 1930 he became the assistant of Elbridge A. Stuart, founder of the Carnation Milk Company, who had lived in Hancock Park at 161 North June Street. Ruddick was an elder at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church and had served as president of the board of trustees of the Webb School. Ruddick and his family were moving from 537 North June Street in Hancock Park
  • On March 19, 1953, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit to H. M. Ruddick to add a 15-by-17-foot bedroom to the attic level of 180 South McCadden Place
  • Harold Ruddick died on March 27, 1960, at the age of 61. By mid 1961 his widow, Florence Tyrrel Ruddick, had 180 South McCadden Place on the market; she was moving to her daughter's house directly across the street at 179 South McCadden. Constance Ruddick was at the time married to Dr. Clifford D. Harrison, a dentist
  • 180 South McCadden Place was on the market during 1961 along with 537 North June Street, which the Ruddicks had apparently retained as rental property 
  • Robert G. Reed III, recently promoted to the position of marketing manager at the Tidewater Oil Company, occupied 180 South McCadden Place until 1964
  • 180 South McCadden Place was on the market in late 1964 asking $77,500
  • Attorney Robert  E. Victor, general counsel of Packard Bell, occupied 180 South McCadden Place during the 1960s
  • 180 South McCadden Place was on the market in the summer of 1970 asking $115,000, by mid-August being reduced to $98,500
  • Occupancy of 180 South McCadden Place during the 1970s is unclear; the family still in residence as of mid 2018 bought the property in July 1988 for $825,000


Illustration: Private Collection