PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Built in 1929 on Lot 7 in Tract 3819
  • Original commissioner: oilman George H. Johnson
  • Architect: G. Vincent Palmer
  • On July 23, 1929, the Department of Building and Safety issued George H. Johnson a permit for a 19-room house at the southeast corner of Muirfield Road and Fourth Street; unusual for houses of the era, the garage was incorporated into the building, in this case one for four cars in a two-story rear wing
  • George Hartt Johnson was a vice-president of the simply named Petroleum Company. The firm's president was Martin H. Mosier, who lived nearby at 55 Fremont Place. Illinois-born Johnson had been prospecting for oil in Texas and Iowa before moving to Los Angeles from St. Louis after he and Mosier, and Mosier's son Earl, incorporated the Petroleum Company in September 1910, and after Johnson's son Paul George Johnson was born in Missouri in April 1911. Johnson, his wife Grace Lord Johnson, their daughter Gracia Louise, and Paul lived at 3973 Budlong Avenue—a 1909 house demolished in 2021—which the family occupied until their move to 400 Muirfield Road
  • Vincent Palmer, the architect of 400, had been living with his parents in the residence he designed for them at 427 Muirfield Road in 1923, a house demolished by the owner of 401 Muirfield in 2002. Palmer also designed his uncle Ralph Hamlin's residence at 656 South Hudson Avenue as well as, in a specualtive venture with his father Dr. George L. Palmer, 514 Muirfield Road. Interestingly, Vincent Palmer married Gracia Johnson at 400 Muirfield Road on the evening of December 4, 1935; while Palmer was in the process of building a house for them in the hills above the Sunset Strip, the marriage fell apart almost immediately. Gracia moved home to 400 and resumed her maiden name
  • George H. Johnson was still living at 400 Muirfield Road when he died at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital at the age of 90 on September 17, 1960. Grace and Gracia soon made plans to sell their home of 30 years
  • Edward Fleming Call, the youngest son of Asa V. Call, the politically powerful chairman of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, his wife Nancy, and their three children were in residence at 400 Muirfield Road by 1963; they were moving east, rather than west in the usual Los Angeles pattern, from Beverly Hills. Edward Call was a founding partner in 1960 of the Argus Investigation and Security Agency
  • On March 22, 1963, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mr. and Mrs. Call a permit for a 25-by-37-foot swimming pool
  • The Calls were last listed at 400 Muirfield in the city directory of 1967; it appears that the couple was in the process of divorcing when Edward 
    Call died of a heart attack at the age of 42 in December 1970
  • George V. R. Mulligan Jr., a management consultant, was listed as living at 400 Muirfield Road in city directories of 1968 and 1969
  • Norwegian-born Ragnar C. Qvale, an actor turned architect who designed the original Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and who was later known as a preservationist, owned 400 Muirfield Road by late 1970. Coming to the U.S. with his family at the age of 13, he studied architecture at the University of Washington; working as a ski instructor in Sun Valley, he was spotted by Darryl Zanuck and brought to Los Angeles for a screen test. Signed as a contract player at 20th Century–Fox, his brief career in films included an uncredited appearance with Sonja Heniein Sun Valley Serenade. Ater World War II, Qvale pursued architecture and opened his own firm. Among his projects was the rebuilding of Hancock Park's Wilshire Country Club and the restoration of the Title Insurance & Trust Building downtown. Qvale and his wife Mollie restored 400 Muirfield Road, moving on to 56 Fremont Place within a few years
  • Sergio and Joyce Maddox Morandi, who were married in 1967, became the owners of 400 Muirfield Road by the mid 1970s; their family is still in possession as of 2021