Cujo is regularly hailed as one of the best cult horror movies of all time. I never actually saw the 1983 flick until just prior to writing this post, but I came across some information about the main house – or, more accurately, houses – used in it while researching filming locations in Sonoma County in preparation for my recent trip up north. What I read fascinated me and I became obsessed with tracking the residences down. Thanks to a major assist from my aunt Lea, who lives in the area, I was able to do so!
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The article that piqued my interest was originally published by Fort Bragg Advocate-News in 1982 and was then reprinted by the newspaper as part of a “Glance at the Past” series in 2012. According to the blurb, a façade based upon a real life home in Santa Rosa was constructed around a mansion in Mendocino for the Cujo shoot. As you can imagine, this information had me practically foaming at the mouth (see what I did there?) to locate both properties.
I headed right on over to Netflix to scan through Cujo and fairly quickly discerned that the façade referenced in the newspaper article was built to represent the sprawling home where the Trenton family – Donna (Dee Wallace), Vic (Daniel Hugh Kelly), and their son, Tad (Danny Pintauro, in his first movie role) – lived in the flick. Yes, as shocking as it may seem, the dwelling pictured below is not real, but a false front constructed around an actual residence!
My first move was to track down the Mendocino property where the façade was built. Fort Bragg Advocate-News had referenced the home as the “Mullner Mansion” and noted that it overlooked Mendocino Bay. A Google search of “Mullner Mansion” and “Mendocino” did not yield as much as I had expected in the way of information, but it did kick back a PDF of a pamphlet published by the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce titled Mendocino Coast & Beyond. The pamphlet contained a four-page section on films made in the area and Cujo was one of the movies detailed. In it, the Mullner Mansion was said to be located on Crestwood Drive. Thank you, Chamber of Commerce!
I immediately opened up Google Street View and was thankful to see that Crestwood Drive was a short road with only a few residences situated on it. After lining up the houses visible across the street from the Trenton home in Cujo (those houses are pictured below via Street View), I quickly discerned that the façade was constructed around the property located at 44777 Crestwood Drive.
A view of the real home (via Google Street View) as compared to the Cujo façade is pictured below.
I was thrilled to see that the fencing visible in Cujo is still intact today, more than three decades after filming took place!
I was also thrilled to spot what I believe is the top of the actual home’s turret in a shot. You can check out some additional photos of the real life dwelling here.
Next up, I was desperate to locate the property that the façade was based upon, which is also where interiors were filmed. That hunt proved easier said than done. As noted in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News article, the Santa Rosa pad was known as the “Nielson Mansion.” A Google search of “Nielson Mansion” and “Santa Rosa” yielded nothing, though. At what seemed to be a dead end, I called for reinforcements! My aunt Lea lives in the Santa Rosa area and I asked if she wouldn’t mind going to her local library to search through some 1980s phone books to see if there was a listing for a Nielson family. She did me one better and called the library to inquire if they had any information on Cujo filming in the area. A very nice woman ended up returning Lea’s call and provided her with a wealth of info! As it turns out, Fort Bragg Advocate-News made an error in their reporting. The librarian explained to my aunt that filming had actually taken place at the Nielsen (not Nielson) Mansion located at 3415 Nielsen Road. The 1933 dwelling was named for Mrs. Francis Nielsen, who lived on the premises until her death in 1980.
While the librarian was not sure if the home was still standing, Lea ran right out to stalk the place for me and reported back that it was, indeed, still intact. I then headed over to stalk it for myself during my trip up north earlier this month. Unfortunately, as you can see below, the residence is gated and not much is visible from the road.
Though some portions of it can be seen through the fencing.
Thankfully, aerial views provide us with much better imagery. As you can see below, the property is an exact match to the Trenton home from Cujo.
In real life, the pad boasts 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4,438 square feet of living space, a 2.03-acre lot, and a 600-square-foot attached garage.
As mentioned in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News article, most scenes involving the interior of the Trenton home were shot at the property.
The story behind the Trenton house begs the question, if producers liked the look of the Nielsen Mansion exterior (not to mention the interior) that much, then why not just film at the home? Why did they instead go to all of the trouble of building an exact replica of the place around another residence in a different city? My guess is that they wanted to make use of the fabulous views the Mullner Mansion had to offer. But yikes, it sure does seem like a heck of a lot of effort to go to just to showcase a pretty view. Either way, I cannot imagine how cool it must have been for the Nielsen family. I would absolutely love it if an exact replica of the exterior of my home was re-created in another location for a movie shoot!
A big THANK YOU to my aunt Lea for tracking down this location for me! 
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Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The façade of the Trenton family home from Cujo was built at 44777 Crestwood Drive in Mendocino. The façade was modeled after the Nielsen Mansion located at 3415 Nielsen Road in Santa Rosa, where interiors were also filmed.
I’m about a year and a half late. Sorry that I didn’t see this sooner. In case you return to Sonoma County, the ranch house where Dee Wallace’s character is trapped in the car with her son is on Keiser Rd. which is a a very short rd. From Penngrove take Old Adobe Rd. east and go a few miles until you get to Lynch Rd where you’ll turn left. Go about a mile (very approximate) until the road turns right and becomes Hardin. Right at that corner Keiser Rd branches off but I don’t think there’s a sign. Just a few hundred feet up the rode is the house, but it looks different because the barn is gone. Hope that helps.
Oh thank you so much, ive been searching for this farm from the movie for a long time now!!
The Camber Farm…
Scott Ranch
D St, Petaluma, California
coordinates:
38.213550, -122.648723
Where were the other sites used for Cujo?
The Camber Home ?
The Camber farm is the one a lot of us are curious about. The Petaluma area is the closest we know so far.
Just watched the movie and used to live in Petaluma. My wife and I were wondering about the homes. I had guessed Mendocino from the view. This site is exactly what I was looking for. I also figured the mechanic’s barn and house was in Petaluma based on the background scenery as she is driving there to get her car fixed. If you look closely there is a street sign when she turns from the road towards the house and it looks like it says “sugar maple”. I don’t remember a street with that name and nothing comes up in a map search. But the scenery on the horizon looks like the hills near Petaluma.
I spent days on that set!
Information here!
I spent days on that set. Please ask me questions.
Hello mark, so what’s the address to the farm where Cujo leaves at? Thanks!
*Lives
Mark, Please if you know the address of the Camber farm filming location, could you please send me that info. I am planning trip to Mendocino and Petaluma to photograph the filming locations. I have scoured google street view and can’t find anything that resembles it. I found article talking about Scott Ranch Hills near Petaluma but can’t find the actual address when I look up Scott Ranch or Scott Ranch Hills. I am leaving next week so if you have any information, it would be appreciated. Thanks.
I love this post because I recently went through the same exact same process you did to find where this Cujo house is for 2 reasons. One is that I love that movie and two, because I have spent a lot of time in and around Mendocino. I highly recommend visiting Mendocino as I consider it the most beautiful section of the California coast. And if you go, visit the Mendocino Gift Company on Kasten Street because they sell a book that documents all the movies and TV shows that have been filmed there.
John, do you happen to remember the name of the book about filming in Mendocino. When I look up Mendocino Gift Company on Kasten St, it says they are permanently closed. Probably due to COVID. Thanks in advance for any info.
I grew up in Petaluma & remember them filming parts of Cujo when I was a kid. We drove by the set up on Lynch Road off Adobe Rd. Don’t know the exact address…it has been awhile since I lived there.
So Neat!
Wow, weird movie making decisions at their finest! 😉 Of course it’s forever been reported that the house in Santa Rosa is right by Casey’s house from Scream. But unless I’m misunderstanding something, the houses are actually nowhere near each other?!
There’s another house that was supposedly used that is right next to Casey’s. That’s the house where the homeowner let us on the property and she did confirm that her property was in “Cujo.” I need to compare images, but I believe that residence is where Gary Pervier lived in the movie. And then there’s the mechanic’s barn and house, another major location, that was supposedly located on a farm in Petaluma, but I haven’t been able to find it yet.
Ahh ok, typical case of information being twisted a bit 🙂