PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Built in 1924 on Lot 163 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: lumber executive André Henri Cuenod
  • Contractor: William G. Holcomb (no architect indicated on original building permits)
  • On August 13, 1924, the Department of Buildings issued A. H. Cuenod a permit for a two-story, 10-room residence and a one-story, 18-by-18-foot garage at 644 South June Street
  • André Cuenod's stay at 644 South June Street was brief; the house was on the market by the spring of 1926. Classified ads read "A WONDERFUL HOME—The Best Buy in Hancock Park Proper," the "proper" indicating that the cachet of the subdivision from its earliest days was such that aspiring surrounding neighborhoods often claimed to be in Hancock Park, as remains the case today. Cuenod moved to Beverly Hills
  • Attorney Frank Cobb Hill rented rather than purchased 644 South June Street in 1926; his stay was as brief as that of his predecessor and he also moved to Beverly Hills
  • On July 5, 1928, the Department of Building and Safety issued André Cuenod a permit for the enlargement of a bathroom and a "front bedroom and roof over part of the present balcony"; it is unclear as to how this may have affected the appearance of the façade 
  • Purchasing 644 South June Street by 1929 was Meyer Lissner, an attorney who, per his obituary in the Evening Express, "was prominently identified with political affairs of his nation and state for many years." Lissner's stay was yet another brief one at 644; he died there at the age of 59 on July 28, 1930. His Evening Express obituary appearing the next day further noted that he "served on the United States Shipping Board from 1921 to 1926, having been appointed by President Harding. At the time of his death he was a member of the State Industrial Accident commission.... He was a man with a genius for organization and was recognized for his integrity and high character."
  • 644 South June Street was being advertised for rent, furnished, by early 1931
  • Dr. C. Lewis Gaulden, a Mississippi-born surgeon, may have rented 644 South June Street if he didn't buy it immediately from Meyer Lissner's widow Ermine; at any rate, he and his family were in residence by early 1933, moving from a one-story stucco cottage still standing at 1100 South St. Andrews Place in Country Club Heights. Interestingly, Mrs. Gaulden, born Sidney Branch in Louisiana, was the sister of Lily Cuenod, wife of the original commissioner of 644 South June. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gaulden were crack golfers, she winning championships at the Bel-Air Country Club and he noted in the press for having achieved a 105-yard hole-in-one at Bel-Air in October 1931 while playing in a foursome that included André Cuenod
  • The Gauldens had a son, Charles Lewis Gaulden, born in Louisiana in September 1917, and a daughter, Janet, born in Los Angeles in October 1922. When he was a teenager Charles got into some serious trouble that was treated lightly in the press; on February 19, 1935, the Evening Post-Record reported that he and his Hancock Park pal Bruce Hoffine of 435 South Rossmore Avenue had been placed on probation the day before by the court for having killed a bison with a bow and arrow on the previous Thanksgiving Day while camping on Catalina. Making light of the incident, the paper referred to Gaulden as "Cheyenne Charlie" and Hoffine as "Buffalo Bruce"
  • On July 16, 1936, the Department of Building and Safety issued Dr. Gaulden a permit to expand the garage     
  • The early 1940s would prove eventful for the Gauldens. Dr. Gaulden died suddenly at 644 South June on March 3, 1941, after suffering a heart attack. Selling the house by early 1942, his widow would be remarrying and moving to Beverly Hills; she became the wife of oil man Louis Henry Bering by the time her daughter married Willard Wilson Prewett, who'd recently been working at Douglas Aircraft, in the spring of 1943. On August 13 of that year, Charles Gaulden Jr., an aviation ordnance man in the Navy, was electrocuted in a blimp accident near Lompoc. (In another sad postscript to the Gaulden family story, Willard Prewett was arrested by the F.B.I. in July 1971 on charges of having attempted to extort more than $500,000 in total from three airlines—Pan American, American, and T.W.A.—by phoning in bomb threats to reservation offices. Prewett, who was at the time a supervisor of lifeguards at Cabrillo Beach, committed suicide near Saugus on July 27, the day his preliminary hearing was set)
  • San Francisco–born Felix Malcolm Juda, who was the 33-year-old resident manager of the Los Angeles office of the San Francisco stockbrokerage Sutro & Company, was the owner of 644 South June Street by early 1942. Juda and his wife, née Helen Samuels, and their 2½-year-old daughter Patsy Anne had been living nearby in a rented house at 964 South Keniston Avenue. Their son Tom was born on October 22, 1946. The Judas appear to have retained 644 South June for over 55 years


As lauded in the November 15, 1976, issue of New York magazine


  • On May 2, 1957, the Department of Building and Safety issued Felix Juda a permit to add an 18-by-36-foot pool and a 14-by-18-foot cabana to the back yard of 644 South June Street
  • Patsy Anne Juda was married to Arnold Palmer—not the golfer—in the garden of 644 South June on August 6, 1960. In November 1967, Tom Juda married Nancy Allen; their wedding also took place at 644
  • On December 1, 1964, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mr. and Mrs. Felix M. Juda a permit for a kitchen remodeling. A permit issued to Helen Juda on January 7, 1966, authorized the 16.5-by-22-foot addition of a bedroom and bath wing described unspecifically as being built "over the driveway." A permit issued to the Judas on May 10, 1968, authorized a 9-by-17-foot addition of a bath and two dressing rooms to the garage
  • Felix and Helen Juda were serious travelers; they started a collection of 20th-century Japanese woodcuts in 1961 on a first visit to Japan and the number of prints would grow over the years. Per the Times of April 3, 1998, the Judas "returned to Japan many times, visiting artists' studios and building a large holding of prints, some of which they donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They also made their collection available at their home to university classes and museum support groups. During 1971-77, the Judas published the Newsletter on Contemporary Japanese Prints "for worldwide distribution to collectors and scholars." In April 1998, after their deaths, over 1,000 of their prints were auctioned by Christie's in New York
  • Felix Juda had the ear of the country's leading institutional investors. New York magazine featured him in its November 15, 1976, issue, with Dan Dorfman in his "The Bottom Line" column referring to the upbeat Juda as a "wisecracking, fast-talking 67-year-old Californian who has become a legend as the country's most successful stockbroker."
  • By 1977, the Judas were spending half the week in Hancock Park and half in Newport Beach
  • Helen Juda died at the age of 80 on October 4, 1995
  • Felix Juda was 87 when he died on March 27, 1997. His surprisingly brief paid obituary in the Times appears to have run for one day, referring to him vaguely as the "long-acknowledged dean of West Coast stockbrokers... [who] leaves behind a legacy of the importance of involvement and intelligence."
  • William G. Wilson appears to have bought 644 South June Street from the Juda estate, apparently to flip; he was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety on November 9, 1998, for an interior remodeling and one on June 23, 1999, for chimney repairs
  • 644 South June Street was on the market by the spring of 2000 listed at $1,299,000
  • Owners of 644 South June Street since 2001 have expanded the garage-cabana among other improvements


Illustrations: Private Collection; Michael Dobo/New York