The Robinson House from “The Graduate”

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A few weeks back fellow stalker Scott, from the Film in America website, asked me if I knew the location of the Robinson house and the Braddock house from the 1967 movie The Graduate.   He told me that he feared the locations of those homes were lost to history being that the movie was filmed over forty years ago and the addresses didn’t seem to be posted anywhere.   So I just had to get Mike from MovieShotsLA on the case – and sure enough he found the houses.  Well, the house, actually, but I’ll get to that later.  🙂  While doing some cyberstalking Mike came across this Wikipedia article stating that the Robinson home was located on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, and after a quick search of Google Maps he found the house, right where Wikipedia said it would be.  🙂

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The Robinson house looks much different today than it did back in 1967 when The Graduate was filmed.  At the time of filming, the home had an all white exterior while today it has a red brick facade.  My initial belief was that the brick exterior was added to the house sometime after filming had been completed, but after seeing the above screen capture, I realized that, in actuality, the home has always been brick. When The Graduate  was filmed the bricks were just painted white.  🙂

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Because the Robinson house looks so very different today than how it appeared onscreen forty years ago, I was shocked Mike was able to locate it.  But he found two “landmarks” of a sort on Mrs. Robinson’s house that he used while searching Palm Drive.  The first landmark was the wierd brown wooden design that appears to the left of the front door.  The second was the house’s small peaked roof area.  Both are pictured above.  But here’s where things get really weird!

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While looking at aerial images of the Palm Drive house, I realized that the pool area and backyard looked a whole lot like Benjamin Braddock’s backyard from the movie.  Armed with a pretty big hunch I grabbed my Graduate DVD and fast-forwarded through the entire thing.  And sure enough, my hunch was correct – the front of the Braddock house is never shown in the Graduate – only the backyard is shown.  And after looking at all of the Braddock backyard scenes one more time, I realized that the Braddock house and the Robinson house were one in the same!   LOL

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So last week I dragged my boyfriend out to Beverly Hills to stalk the (one and only) Graduate  house and while I was there taking photographs the owner happened to drive up.  So, of course, I just had to talk to her!  🙂   I asked her if she lived in the home at the time  The Graduate was filmed and her mouth pretty much just fell to the floor and she said “HOW did you know this was The Graduate  house?”  LOL  I told her that my friend Mike was a master stalker and that he had found the house by doing some cyber-stalking.  She confirmed that her home was indeed used in The Graduate, but said that she didn’t live in it at the time.  She said that when she purchased the house about twenty years ago, the real estate agent was marketing it as “the Robinson house”.  LOL  Then I asked her if her backyard was in fact Benjamin Braddock’s backyard and once again her mouth just hung open.  Apparently she didn’t realize who she was dealing with! LOL  She told me that, in actuality, Benjamin Braddock’s backyard existed only on a soundstage, but that his backyard and pool area were indeed modeled after hers. I’m not sure she’s entirely correct on that, though.  While I have no doubt that her backyard was re-created on a soundstage and that most of the filming probably took place there, if you watch some of the Graduate pool scenes closely it becomes obvious that at least some filming did actually take place at the Palm Drive home.

So, there you have it, the mystery of The Graduate  houses is finally solved.   🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Graduate  house is located at 607 North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills.

19 Replies to “The Robinson House from “The Graduate””

  1. Also very harrowing that scenes were shot at the Ambassador Hotel, where RFK was assassinated around the time the movie was released and has since been demolished.

  2. I have become fascinated with this location. I am a Limo driver in LA and have spent time in this neighborhood picking up high profile celebs and movie industry execs (the head of a major studio just lives down the street on Hill.) Also my daughter is a senior at Berkeley and we have stayed at the Durant Hotel which has Graduate posters in most of the rooms. This is really interesting info. One day I will work up the courage to knock on the door at 607!

  3. Check out the photos of the inside of 624 N Palm for sale. Same staircase as the Braddock house, same two unique closet doors with diamond design in Benjamin’s room, and if you’ll look closely as Benjamin is trying to leave the party at his parents house you’ll notice an archway in front of the door. 624 also has this. This has to be the home used for the interior shots of the Braddock home.

  4. I think the house looks like it is painted white ,It may have had the paint removed ,I think it’s a real shame the house was not left in orig. condition as it is so iconic from the movie . i googled the house address with for sale and found pic’s of it in side nothing looks the same :/ such a let down really .

  5. Does anyone know if this same house was used in Postcards from the Edge? It’s another Mike Nichols film that I’m right now watching on Netflix. It stood out so much that I’ve been on Google seeing if anything pops up. Thanks!
    delroycornick@gmail.com

  6. Lindsay, you’re almost right on everything. “The Graduate” Robinson house is indeed at 607 N. Palm for all the scenes in the front of the then white-painted brick house. A Mr. Robert Kramer owned the house at the time of filming. Of course the night scenes inside the downstairs bar area and all the upstairs scenes were on a soundstage at Paramount.

    However, here’s the true scoop on the Braddock house backyard and pool scenes:

    These were done a few houses away at 624 N. Palm!!!

    This is where the famous “plastics” line was spoken by actor Walter Brooke (“Mr. McGuire”) on June 27, 1967. Also all the day scenes with scuba gear. There was no pool built or used on a Hollywood soundstage for this movie. R.M. and Marilyn Kent were the owners. Mr. Kent owned the London Shops (men’s clothing store) inside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

    2 other houses, 1 at 627 Hillcrest and another at 615 N. Palm, were considered but ultimately rejected by director Mike Nichols and art director Dick Sylbert/

    Now if only I can find gas station location when Benjamin stops to make a phone call on the wedding date I’d be happy! It has been mistakenly reported to have been shot in Santa Barbara at the “Postman Always Rings Twice” location but it definitely did NOT shoot there… It filmed in Calabasas, an area which has been much developed over the past 40 years but I’ve not determined exactly where. Somewhere no doubt close to the Ventura Freeway……

    1. Google maps (satellite view) indicates that 624 N. Palm doesn’t have a swimming pool. 607 N. Palm still looks more promising as the Braddock backyard/pool . . . . . . and I suspect it might have also been the yard/pool used in a terrific Sally Field MoW called “Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring” (1971, ABC).

    2. Thanks for the info on this, interesting. In the movie when Ben is dressed in the scuba gear he’s standing in the kitchen. I also wonder if that was filmed in this same house at 624 N. Palm, would make sense!

  7. AWESOME! This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I always wondered where the house was. And even though I know where the famous church scene was filmed, I have yet to visit there either. My plan is to head down one day and make a pilgrimage to both! Thanks for solving the mystery of the Braddock house for me!

    1. 607N cant be the location where the pool scenes where filmed – look at google earth – the pool
      at the the back of 607n is on the left hand side – in the film when Ben walks out the back to the pool it is on the right hand side

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