Whitley Heights 101

2133 Fairfield Avenue

In 1926, 49 year old creamery proprietor Richard Eagan decided to build this Mediterranean style home and move his family from Beverly, Mass. With the assistance of architect, Harry H. Whiteley and contractor V.C. Vorhees, they constructed a two story home with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a detached two car garage. The home remained in the Eagan family until 1960. The residence sits on what is left of Fairfield Avenue and is one of three homes that were left on the street prior to the freeway construction and construction for a museum that never materialized.

Richard moved his wife of thirteen years, Norah (44), daughter Evelyn (18) and brother-in-law, John Kelleher (43), who had been living with them. Evelyn, of course, wanted to become an actress. Whether or not the Eagan’s had any issues with Evelyn prior to moving to Hollywood, were not known. However, she got caught up with the Hollywood lifestyle and as a result, caused havoc in the household. Richard and Norah opened the Ferncroft Inn, a cafe that was located at 670 S. Vicente Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The restaurant was a popular spot for celebrities in Beverly Hills as their autographed picture would appear on the walls once they ate there. Richard raised his own Rhode Island Red Chickens because he wanted each table to have fresh eggs along with the chicken dinners. The restaurant closed in 1942 as Richard was already in his 70s.

Evelyn, pictured above, was able to start acting with Christie Studios as part of the “beauty squad” in 1926. In 1927, she appeared in Dumb Belles and Queer Ducks as an uncredited actress. Although her career had just started, it appeared to be full of promise. On June, 9 1927, the car that she was driving, plowed into a parked steam shovel that was in the road. She had just had a fight with her married boyfriend, William Holman, treasurer of Christie’s Film Company where she worked. When she was found, she had lost and eye and her face was severely disfigured; she was also holding a letter addressed to Holman, pleading to end the fight. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition; some newspapers had erroneously reported her as being dead. Holman’s wife obviously found out about the affair and filed for divorce.

It was reported that Egan attempted to kill herself over a lover’s quarrel as police found letters in the vehicle. Holman went to visit her in the hospital calling her “sweetheart” and Egan responding, “Oh Bill, this is terrible”. One of the letters found in the car stated, “E.E.-I would like to take you to dinner at 7:30 this evening and see you for about 1 hour there. May I? We are going to make a definite decision about your future residence if I see you. B.” She wrote a letter to Holman wanting to know what she did to make him angry and that she valued their friendship. Evelyn survived the accident but lost one of her eyes and her face disfigured, and could no longer continue her acting career or her affair with Holman. Dr. William Balsinger performed plastic surgery by removing cartilage from behind her ears to put a new nose on her face. He placed an artificial eye where her left eye used to be. However, she would be permanently scarred on one side of her face.

In 1928, Evelyn tried to sue the Will Peck with the steam shovel company for over $50,000 claiming they were negligent for leaving equipment on the road without safety precautions. Peck informed the court that there were barricade warning lights near the equipment. It did not help that Evelyn was also speeding so she did not get very far with the lawsuit. Between 1929-1932, Evelyn became the casting director for Christie Studios. On July 15, 1930, Evelyn was pulled over for drunk driving near Highland Blvd. and Odin Street just around the corner from 2133 Fairfield Avenue. When the police pulled her over, she was wearing nothing but a robe; claiming she was coming from the beach and did not wanted to wear the wet bathing suit. She also had a patch over her eye from the previous accident. From this point, she took on the name, “Modern Lady Godiva”. Lady Godiva was an English nobleman who rode through the streets naked on a horse to oppose taxation in the late 1800s. As a result of the accident, Evelyn lost her driver’s license for a year.

In November of 1930, while working on a movie set in Yuma, Arizona Evelyn met a sound technician named Edward N. Murray and they secretly eloped in Yuma on November 17, 1930. The newlyweds decided to honeymoon in Honolulu but no record could be found of their trip. They moved to an apartment on Serrano Avenue but the marriage did not last and they divorced in 1935. Evelyn actually moved back to the Fairfield home circa 1934. During this time, she switched jobs moving from Christie Studios to Phil L. Ryan productions which she quit in 1934 and then became a secretary for Jack Wilson at Chaplin Studios. In 1938 the Eagan’s rented out the home for a few years while they lived in Malibu on what used to be called Roosevelt Highway (Pacific Coast Highway).

Still, Evelyn got arrested again in May of 1946, listed as Evelyn E. Murray, when she hit another car and both people were ejected from that vehicle. Then she hit a parked car that was occupied and sent that woman to the hospital too. It appears that Evelyn had difficulty keeping jobs and had a drinking problem. A few months later, on July 18, 1946, she was found dead in her bed at 2133 Fairfield Avenue. An autopsy was ordered and her parents indicated that she had just returned from an east coast trip and complained of being tired and the left part of her brain hurt. She had recently gotten a job at the Screen Actors Guild. There was no further information regarding the results of the autopsy. Her father, Richard, died a year later at the age of 71. Norah and her brother, John continued to live at 2133 Fairfield Avenue and John died in 1954. Norah continued to live in the house until 1960. She died in 1971 in Los Angeles. There was little work on on this home over the years as it changed ownership two more times. The house was bought in 2010 for $630,000 and was in poor condition as evidenced by the following photographs. The first two photographs are of the living room with the pink walls and ceiling.

The next two pictures are the dining room which is located to the right of the front door. The pink continues in the dining room.

Below is the master bedroom on the first floor located to the right of the dining room.

The bathroom on the first floor, also pink.

The kitchen, behind the dining room, in the back of the house with outdated wallpaper.

More pink walls that go up the stairway to the second floor. Notice the yellow tape on the balcony and the sign that says, “Do not lean on railing”.

Upstairs bedroom.

Upstairs bathroom.

The house was completely updated leaving the original charm of the house in tact and was put on the market a year later $1.039 million and reduced several times and eventually sold at $965,000. The new owners were going to move into this: