Every year, it's overwhelming to go through the Modernism Week schedule and try to figure out which tours to take.
I'll admit, I get lazy and sometimes just choose based on a certain amount of star power. I haven't yet gone wrong with the Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, William Holden, or Gummo Marx estates.
But the Howard Hughes Residence in Palm Springs has a lot more to offer than just a celebrity pedigree of an eccentric aerospace engineer and movie mogul.
The relatively modest-looking (at least from the street), whitewashed brick home was built in 1957 and is located along Rim Road, right underneath the Bob Hope Estate in Araby Cove. And at 2,585 square feet, the multilevel house is much bigger—and more impressive—than it looks.
Howard Hughes owned it from 1957 until his death in 1976—the majority of that time spent married to actress Jean Peters (whom he divorced in 1971). Plenty of other celebrities were known to hang out there, too, including Jane Russell (who starred in the 1943 censored film The Outlaw, which Hughes produced).
The post-and-beam style living room is punctuated by a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass...
...which is pocked with a couple of bullet holes, possibly from when producer Robert Evans used it as a vacation rental.
The residence actually began in 1954 as a one-bedroom, one-bathroom casita for Eva Gabor, later owned by TV comedy writer Paul Keyes. An addition was built beginning in 1956.
There's a distinctly Hughesian absence of doors with handles, as with the accordion door that leads to the original of the bedrooms, now named after Gabor.
This is where Gabor would've slept.
Each of the current bedrooms features an ensuite bathroom, all with vintage cabinetry, showers...
...and streamline fixtures that look a bit like airplane parts.
The kitchen cabinetry and countertop tile are original, too...
...as are the Western Holly brand mint green-colored stovetop range and oven...
...the later with its characteristic porthole window.
The Smokey Robinson bedroom is so named because of the famed Motown singer, who was known to vacation in the home, but also because of the fireplace feature.
This bedroom and ensuite bathroom were part of the addition.
In fact, there was an entire downstairs added on—which you can now access via an outdoor patio that provides views of the entire valley floor below.
If you don't get distracted by the pool or hot tub...
...you can make your way to the "downstairs" bedroom, also accessible from a floating staircase that runs up near the front door on the "upstairs" level.
This is where Howard Hughes and his wife Jean would've slept when they were staying at the house...
...and where they would've showered...
...put a teakettle on...
...and gotten ready for the day (thanks in part to a vanity with a flip-up cabinet door).
Hughes was a notorious germaphobe, who infamously wore tissue boxes on his feet to protect them.
He hated touching anything with his bare hands and avoided it whenever possible—hence the bronze light switches embedded in the floor (formerly concrete, now new terrazzo). Theoretically, Hughes could just tap them with a (boxed?) foot to turn a light on or off.
Here's the thing, though: There's no proof that Hughes ever actually lived there. During the early years of his marriage to Jean Peters, he was mostly known to reside in Beverly Hills, including a stint at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
While Hughes and Peters may have visited Palm Springs while married, they were known to spend much of their married life separately.
And by 1966, Hughes was in full recluse mode and holed up on the top floors of the Desert Inn in Vegas.
So maybe the house's ties with infamy have been exaggerated somewhat. But the (tall?) tale was enough to help sell the house to the current owner for $1.35 million cash in 2018. And how he's operating it as a vacation rental dubbed "The Howard Palm Springs."
With so many Modernism Week tour stops typically being so heavily remodeled and redecorated, I thought this was a pretty fabulous addition to the itinerary. I appreciated seeing so many original details preserved after an award-winning restoration effort.
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