The Los Angeles mansion that was the home to Howard Hughes during his rise to prominence as an aviation industry executive and Hollywood filmmaker has been listed for sale at $23 million.
The 0.69-acre property is adjacent to the Wilshire Country Club’s eighth hole, and its Spanish-style 10,179-square-foot mansion was designed in 1926 by the prominent architect Roland Coate. Hughes leased the Hancock Park house for $1,000 a month before buying it for $135,000 in 1929. While he lived in the house, Hughes founded Hughes Aircraft Corp. and began to buy a majority stake in Trans World Airlines (TWA). He also produced and directed the successful film “Hell’s Angels” (1930) and produced “The Front Page” (1931) and “Scarface” (1932). He also produced and directed the Western “The Outlaw” in 1941, but the film was tied up in censorship issues and did not get a full release until 1946.
Hughes moved out of the mansion in 1942 and claimed Texas residency in order avoid paying California’s property taxes. According to the Wall Street Journal, the property last changed in in 2012 when it was purchased for $6.3 million by Ash Shah, a former movie producer turned restaurateur, and his wife Niroupa Shah. The couple spend a year-and-a-half updating and renovating the property, which has eight bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, an outdoor swimming pool, an outdoor lounge with a custom-built stone pizza oven, a screening room, a 2,500-bottle temperature-controlled wine vault and an attached guest residence with a full kitchen and bath.
Property photo courtesy of Zillow; cover photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons showing Howard Hughes in 1938, when he was in residence at the now-listed property.
