Pasadena houses – Page 2

January 5, 2011January 6, 2011

The Chase House from the Pilot Episode of “My So-Called Life”

Ever since fellow stalker Andrew tracked down the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from the “So-Called Angels” episode of fave show My So-Called Life, I have been itching to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end as I have not seen it in years. So, I immediately went out and purchased the most recently-released boxed set of the show and finally sat down to start watching it last night. While doing so, I became a bit obsessed with locating the house where the Chase family – Graham (aka Tom Irwin), Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), Angela (aka Claire Danes), and Danielle (aka Lisa Wilhoit) – lived, because, as an astute fellow stalker named Somerset pointed out to me a while back, it was not the same property that was used for the other 18 episodes of the show.

Unfortunately though, there was virtually nothing for me to go on for this particular stalk – no house number, no visible street signs, not even a full view of the exterior of the property. But then, all of a sudden, like a lightning bolt from the sky, I spotted a clue – a very important clue. In the scene in which Angela waits for Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz) to pick her up to go to Let’s Bolt nightclub, I noticed that the streetlights on Angela’s street were round. And while I had seen those streetlights (pictured above) before, I had only ever seen them in one place – in one very small section of Pasadena. The trees that lined Angela’s street also looked very familiar to me and I had an inkling that they might be the very trees that are located along Pasadena’s oft-filmed Madison Avenue.

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So, I began my search for the Chase home on Madison Avenue and, using Google Street View, found the property almost immediately! YAY! And I ran right out to stalk the place first thing yesterday morning.

And while the full exterior of the house is never actually shown in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the location of the window to the right of the front door and the roof lines of the front porch match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen.

The house across the street matches up perfectly, as well.

As does the house that is located at the end of Angela’s street.

The tree that is visible in the background of the scene in which Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) and Angela are shown arguing also looks exactly the same today as it did onscreen.

And amazingly enough, the tree that Brian sits in at the end of the episode is actually there in real life and still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in March of 1993 when the pilot was filmed! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

When Angela gets dropped off by the police at the end of the episode, instead of going directly home, she and Brian walk north on Madison Avenue to the corner of Madison and Alpine Street, where Angela spots her father talking to a woman who is not her mother. That area also looks much the same today as it did during the filming.

And, according to the DVD commentary by series creator Winnie Holzman, director Scott Winant, and executive producer Marshall Hershkovitz, the interior of the property was also used in the filming of the episode. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house!

After the Grim Cheaper got off work yesterday evening, I dragged him back out to the house so that he could snap a picture of me reenacting that famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street. Oh, I cannot tell you how long I have wanted to take that picture! I was literally skipping to the car on the way there. Sigh!

On a side note – the creators of My So-Called Life, whose production company is named “The Bedford Falls Company”, threw in quite a few references to their favorite film It’s A Wonderful Life in the pilot episode of the series – including the scene in which Angela changes her clothes behind a bush a la Mary Hatch (aka Donna Reed) and a scene in which Brian wears a shirt with the number “3” on it, a la George Bailey (aka James Stewart). Love it, love it, love it!

It’s A Wonderful Life is also playing in the background of the scene in which Angela apologizes to her mother.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Chase house from the pilot episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1025 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena. The tree Brian sat in at the end of the episode is located in front of the house at 1014 South Madison Avenue. Angela spots her father talking to the mysterious woman at the southeast corner of South Madison Avenue and Alpine Street. And, finally, the famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street was filmed in front of 1014 and 1025 South Madison Avenue with the camera looking north on Madison towards Alpine Street. The Mr. Deeds house is located just three doors down from the MSCL pilot house at 989 South Madison Avenue. The house that was used as the Chase home in the other 18 episodes of the series is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena.

August 11, 2010August 11, 2010

The “Date Night” House

Last night, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch the movie Date Night which FINALLY came out on DVD this week. We somehow missed seeing the flick in theatres when it first came out in April and I have been not-so-patiently waiting for it to be released on DVD ever since. Especially since Mike, from MovieShotsLA, tracked down the house which belonged to Phil and Claire Foster (played by Steve Carell and Tina Fey, respectively) in it over four months ago. Because I suffer from the need for immediate gratification, I actually stalked the place immediately after Mike told me its location and, as you can imagine, have been ABSOLUTELY DYING to see the movie ever since – even though the previews didn’t look especially promising. I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised while watching it, too – despite what the reviews said, Date Night is a really cute movie! It’s heartwarming and sweet and laugh-out-loud funny. Not to mention the fact that Tina Fey and Steve Carell are exceptional in it! Loved it, loved it, loved it! But I digress!

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Mike tracked down the Date Night house pretty much immediately after seeing the movie in theatres. He knew from the get-go that the supposed New Jersey-area home was actually located somewhere in Pasadena thanks to these JFX Online paparazzi photos taken of Tina Fey and Leighton Meester during the filming. He also spotted an address number of “620” while watching the movie and from there used Google Street View to search all of the 600 blocks in the Pasadena area until he found the right residence. Thank you, Mike!

The Foster house actually shows up only a few times in Date Night, most notably in the ending scene in which Phil and Claire return home after their disastrous date in New York City.

And I am very happy to report that not only does the home look exactly the same in person as it did in the movie, but it is also ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE. In fact, it is almost too adorable. Had Mike not found the property’s real life location and had I not seen the place with my own two eyes, I would have been absolutely convinced that it was a fake house located on a studio backlot somewhere in Hollywood. The residence has that “studio” feel to it even in person and looks like it belongs on Wisteria Lane and not in the real world. 😉

As you can see in these photographs of the inside of the home, the real life interior of the property was also used in the filming.

And, ironically enough, the “Byzantine/Mediterranean” house that Claire tries to sell at the beginning of Date Night is located right next door to the Foster home, which makes things convenient for us stalkers.

On a Date Night side note – If you haven’t yet watched the bloopers reel featured at the end of the flick, you REALLY need to and can do so by clicking above. They are absolutely hilarious and really show how much fun the movie must have been to work on. It was actually watching stuff like this that first made me want to be an actor. Yes, the hours are long and the work is tedious, but in what other kind of career does one get to laugh as much as this??? 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding these locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Phil and Claire Foster’s house from Date Night is located at 620 Vallombrosa Drive in Pasadena. The home that Claire tries to sell at the beginning of the movie is located right next door at 608 Vallombrosa Drive.

June 15, 2010January 17, 2012

Amanda’s House from “The Holiday”

I thought I’d mix it up a bit today by forgoing blogging about one of the many Pacific Northwest locations that I stalked while in Vancouver and Seattle two weeks ago, in order to write about a residence that can be found right here in the San Gabriel Valley – the mansion which belonged to Amanda (aka Cameron Diaz) in the 2006 romantic comedy The Holiday. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Nick, who had done some research on the subject and had managed to discern that the home featured in the movie was located somewhere in San Marino and had been designed in 1928 by legendary Los Angeles architect Wallace Neff. According to Nick, Neff, along with his family, had even lived in the property at one point during the 1930’s. So, I immediately headed over to my friend, and fellow stalker, E.J.’s website – The Movieland Directory – which has an entire page dedicated to Wallace Neff-designed homes in the L.A. area. The Movieland Directory listed a total of three San Marino residences that the famed architect had once called home. Because I had never seen The Holiday, I sent all three addresses to Nick to see if one of them was the mansion featured in the movie and, sure enough, one was! YAY! So, I immediately ran right out to stalk it and, then yesterday, finally sat down to watch The Holiday for the first time. And I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it!!! I have NO idea how I missed it when it first came out four years ago. But I digress.

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In person, The Holiday mansion is absolutely beautiful and absolutely humongous! The Tuscan-style villa boasts 9 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and a whopping 10,324 square feet of living space!

The residence pops up quite a few times in The Holiday, especially the front entrance and second story balcony areas.

And while, for the most part, the mansion looks much the same as it did in the movie, there have been quite a few changes, including the front gate, which is now wrought-iron instead of wood . . .

. . . the front door which is now recessed . . .

. . . and the driveway area, to which a fountain had since been added.

And while I was fairly certain that the real life interior of the mansion had been used in the filming, according to IMDB’s trivia page for The Holiday, all of the interiors of the house were actually just sets that had been built on a soundstage and had cost a whopping $1 million to construct!

But as you can see in the above screen captures and aerial view, the home’s real life backyard and pool were actually used in the flick.

On a side note – Sadly, the picturesque English cottage which belonged to Iris (aka Kate Winslet) in The Holiday does not actually exist in real life. Both the interiors and the exteriors of the adorable little home were built solely for the filming of the movie. You can see photographs of the construction of Iris’ cottage on fave website Hooked on Houses here.

Big THANK YOU to Nick for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cameron Diaz’s mansion from The Holiday is located at 1883 Orlando Road in San Marino.

April 28, 2010April 27, 2010

Viola’s Mansion from “Monster-in-Law”

The second Monster-in-Law location that I set my sights on tracking down this past weekend was the gargantuan mansion owned by Viola Fields (aka Jane Fonda) in the flick. Once again, fellow stalker Nick had done most of the legwork on this one by discerning that the house was located in Pasadena and had been built in 1927 by famed Los Angeles-area architect Wallace Neff, the very same man who was responsible for designing King Gillette Ranch (aka the Biggest Loser Ranch) and the dwelling where Brad and Jen lived during most of their five year marriage. But even though Nick had provided me with that wealth of information, for some reason, I had a very difficult time finding this particular residence. As fate would have it, not only did Wallace Neff design quite a few homes in the Pasadena area, but the vast majority of them were Mediterranean in style and extremely similar in appearance to the Monster-in-Law mansion. So, I once again headed over to fave bookstore Vroman’s with the hope that it could provide me with some Wallace Neff insight. And, sure enough, it did! As was the case with Kevin’s house from Monster-in-Law, which I blogged about yesterday, Viola’s mansion was chronicled in the very first book in which I looked – Wallace Neff: Architect of California’s Golden Age.

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In real life, the Monster-in-Law mansion is known as the “George O. Noble House” and, as I mentioned above, it was designed by Wallace Neff in 1927. The Spanish Revival-style abode boasts six bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a whopping 8,971 square feet of living space. And, while it once sat on over three acres of land, much of the parcel was subdivided in later years and the property currently encompasses “only” 1.2 acres. Sadly, though, not much of the residence is visible from the street.

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial maps! 😉 As you can see in the above image, the George O. Noble House is not only stunning, but absolutely ginormous!

The mansion was featured quite a few times in Monster-in-Law . . .

. . . most notably in the scene in which Charlie Cantilini (aka Jennifer Lopez) and Kevin Fields (aka Michael Vartan) get married.

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And, thanks to a photograph provided in the book Architectural Realism, you can see that the mansion’s real life interior was also used in the flick.

The George O. Noble House also appeared in the 2009 horror flick Drag Me to Hell as the residence belonging to Clay Dalton’s (aka Justin Long’s) parents. And, as was the case with Monster-in-Law, the real life interior of the residence was also used in the movie.

A few other Monster-in-Law locations can also be found in the Pasadena area, including the Ross House, which I blogged about yesterday, and the Bundy House, aka the Governor’s mansion from Benson, which was used as the home of one of Charlie’s dog walking employers (pictured above). And, yes, I did also find Charlie’s apartment building from Monster-in-Law. Tune in tomorrow for that location. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Nick for helping me find this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The George O. Noble house, aka Viola’s mansion from Monster-in-Law, is located at 675 Burleigh Drive in Pasadena. The Governor’s Mansion from Benson is located at 1365 South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena.

April 6, 2010May 12, 2010

Wayne Manor From the “Batman” Television Series

Just up the street from the Just Married mansion which I blogged about yesterday is the residence which stood in for Wayne Manor, aka Batman’s abode, in the 1966 television series and movie of the same name. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Batman mansion and the Just Married mansion are quite often mistaken for each other due to a myriad of reasons. So, to set the record straight – and since we already were in the area a couple of weeks ago doing some Just Married stalking- I decided to drag my fiancé a few hundreds yards up the road to also stalk Bruce Wayne’s pad. Sadly, though, not very much of it is visible from the street.

According to Zillow, the residence, which was built in 1928, boasts ten bedrooms, six bathrooms, a whopping 16,599 square feet of living space, and sits on over five acres of land! And if you look at the above photographs, it is very easy to see why the property is often confused with the Just Married mansion that burned down in October of 2005. Not only are both houses gargantuan, set far back from the road, and Tudor/Gothic Revival in style, but both were constructed almost entirely out of brick by the very same architect, Paul Revere Williams, and bear a striking resemblance to each other. Further adding to the confusion between the properties is the fact that they are located within blocks of each other on the very same street, San Rafael Avenue, in Pasadena and have both been featured in countless productions over the years.

Because the location rumors about the two mansions have been running rampant for so very long, this weekend I decided to try to get my hands on as many of the productions filmed on the premises as I could to try to set the record straight once and for all. And I didn’t do too bad – the only movies I wasn’t able to track down were Topper, Three Men and a Little Lady, Executive Action, The Gumball Rally, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, and True Confessions. If anyone has those movies or has seen them in the past, can you let me know which, if either, of the San Rafael mansions was featured in them?

As I mentioned above, the mansion’s most famous appearance was as Wayne Manor in the 1966 television series Batman and the subsequent movie of the same name that was made that very same year. But its resume hardly ends there.

The residence was also used as both the St. Audrey’s Home for Boys where Grace (aka Emma Thompson) was taken in by a nun . . .

. . . and as Roman Strauss’ (aka Kenneth Branagh’s) home in 1991’s Dead Again.

In the first Rush Hour movie, the mansion stood in for Los Angeles’ Chinese Consulate.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, though, the exterior gate which appears in that movie is not the home’s real life gate.

In 1999’s Bowfinger, the mansion was used as the residence of action star Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy).

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And in that flick the home’s real life gate does actually appear and was the site of one of the movie’s funniest scenes.

In Scary Movie 2, the mansion stood in for Hell House/Kane Manor where most of the film’s action takes place.

In X-Files: Fight The Future, it was used as the Somerset, England home of the Well-Manicured Man (aka John Neville).

According to some reports that I found online, the mansion was also featured in 1986’s Stand By Me, which seemed a bit odd being that I had always heard that Stand By Me was filmed almost in its entirety in the state of Oregon. After re-watching the flick earlier today, though, I believe that the mansion did appear once at the very end of the movie as the residence of “The Writer” (aka Richard Dreyfuss). As you can see in the above screen captures, the front driveway area does match that of the Batman mansion. Why would they come all the way to Pasadena to film this one brief scene, though, when the rest of the movie was filmed hundreds of miles away in Oregon, you ask? Well, according to IMDB’s Stand By Me trivia page, an actor named David Dukes was originally cast in the role of “The Writer”. After his scenes were shot, though, and filming had wrapped, they re-cast the role with actor Richard Dreyfuss and re-shot all of his character’s scenes. So, since the Richard Dreyfuss scenes were filmed at a later date – I am guessing after principal photography in Oregon had already wrapped – it makes sense that they would have been shot somewhere in the L.A. area, closer to where the film was being edited.

And if you’ll notice in the above screen captures, which were taken from the movie Dead Again, the mansion’s front window and the view from it does sort of match that which appeared in Stand By Me, which makes me think that the property was actually used in the movie, although I don’t have any concrete proof to back that up.

Fellow stalker Ivan just sent me the above screen captures from the television series Land of Giants, in which Wayne Manor stood in for the residence belonging to Uncle Trojar in the episode entitled “Collector’s Item”. And, yes, the mansion was blown up t the end of that episode. Thank you, Ivan! 🙂

According to fave website OnLocationVacations, the mansion was also the site of some filming from the upcoming Dinner For Schmucks movie starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Zach Galifianikis. Besides being a filming location, the mansion was also the Pasadena Showcase House of Design in 1997. So, I hope that at least partially puts to rest some of the locations rumors about the two landmark San Rafael Avenue mansions. If I come across any further information, I will post it here! And please let me know, dear readers, if you come across any information yourselves!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Wayne Manor from the Batman television series is located at 380 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Unfortunately, the residence is not very visible from the street. To see the best views of the home, drive just a bit north of where the main gates are located.

April 5, 2010April 6, 2010

The “Just Married” Mansion

Since we are currently knee-deep in the middle of wedding planning, a few weeks ago my fiancé and I decided to sit down and finally watch the 2003 movie Just Married for the very first time. And I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it! While watching it, though, I became obsessed with finding the gargantuan, red brick, Tudor-style mansion where Sarah (aka Brittany Murphy) and her family lived in the flick, which as luck would have it, wasn’t too hard to track down. Thanks to IMDB’s Just Married filming locations page, I discovered that the mansion was located at 160 South San Rafael Avenue right here in Pasadena. So, I immediately dragged my fiancé right over there the following morning. We had a sad surprise awaiting us when we arrived at the front gates, though – the mansion was no longer there. It had completely burned to the ground in a massive fire back in October of 2005. SO SAD.

All that currently remains of the once massive mansion are its front gate, guard house, and red brick retaining wall. I can’t tell you how depressing this was to discover, being that the now-fallen house was something of a historic landmark in Pasadena. The residence which once stood on the property was originally built in 1929 for British thoroughbred horse breeder Jack Pease Atkin for $500,000. The home was designed by famed celebrity architect Paul Revere Williams, who is best known for being the very first African American member of the American Institute of Architects and for designing the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Jet-Age Theme Building, aka Encounter Restaurant, at LAX. He also built Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli’s house, but I digress. The three-story mansion boasted 21 rooms, three stories, a 1,200 square foot gate house, over 12,000 square feet of living space, and sat on a lot measuring 3.3 acres. The house’s love affair with the movies began early on, in the 1930s, when Atkins decided to rent his property out to film crews in order to raise money to fund soup kitchens for the downtrodden in Depression-era L.A. And the filming never stopped. In 2004, the home was purchased by Michael Armand Hammer, the grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, who also founded the famed Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture in Westwood. Hammer immediately set about completely restoring the entire property. Sadly, though, a massive fire broke out at approximately 9:20 p.m. on the night of October 5, 2005, one month before he was set to move in. Over 80 firefighters were called in from neighboring cities to fight the blaze and it took them over three hours to even contain it. Flames were still burning the following morning and ended up causing over $20 million worth of damage and completely gutting the property. According to some neighbors that I spoke with while stalking the place, rumor has it that the fire was started due to a dispute between contractors. What a complete and total shame! No charges were ever filed in the case and the 3.3 acre vacant lot is currently for sale for a whopping $10 million. You can see some great aerial views of the mansion before and after it was burned on Zillow.

Hollywood rumors about the mansion have been circling around Pasadena pretty much since the time the house was built, the two most prevalent of which being that it was owned at one time by former Beatle Paul McCartney and that it was used as Bruce Wayne’s manor in the 1960s television series Batman. Both of those rumors are completely false. And while I am not sure how the Paul McCartney story came to be, the Batman rumor is easy enough to figure out. The real Wayne Manor is located just a few houses up the road at 380 S. San Rafael Avenue and looks extremely similar in appearance to the Just Married mansion. Batman and Paul McCartney aside, though, the Atkin’s house has a Hollywood resume any actor would envy.

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In Just Married, the mansion, which was supposedly located in Beverly Hills, belonged to Sarah’s extremely wealthy father, who co-owned both the Dodgers and the Lakers in the flick. For whatever reason, though, the exterior of the house was never shown in its entirety, but the front gate area did appear quite a bit.

As did the front door/front porch . . .

. . . and the intercom outside of the main gate, which was used as a running joke throughout the movie. And, even though it wasn’t the same exact intercom which appeared in Just Married, I just had to pose for a pic with it. 😉

Thankfully, the area where Sam (aka Ashton Kutcher) played flag football with Sarah’s family is still intact and is visible through the front gate.

The mansion also stood in for the Carlton Hotel in several episodes of TV’s Dynasty.

The residence was also featured in the 1985 movie Clue, but as you can see in the above screen capture, some movie magic was definitely employed in the production.

According to some reports that I read online, while the real life driveway, retaining wall, front porch and bottom half of the mansion’s exterior were used in Clue . . .

. . . producers had a matte painting added to the top portion of the house to make it appear larger and more sinister than it actually was.

In the 1991 movie Mobsters, the mansion belonged to Arnold Rothstein (aka F. Murray Abraham), but only the interior of it was ever shown.

In 2003’s Hollywood Homicide, it belonged to Jerry Duran (aka Martin Landau) who gave part time real estate agent Sergeant Joe Gavilan (aka Harrison Ford) 72 hours to sell it.

I am fairly certain that the real inside of the home was used in the movie, as well.

According to several books, the mansion also stood in for the home of Rocky Balboa in Rocky V, but as you can see in the above screen captures, while the two properties resemble each other, they are not in fact the same. There are also reports which state that the mansion was featured in the 1979 Peter Sellers’ movie Being There, but I just re-watched that film last night and did not see it anywhere. I am guessing that it was either not in fact used in the movie or that it was used solely for interior shots.

The mansion also supposedly appeared in The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, Three Men and a Little Lady, True Confessions, an episode of Murder, She Wrote, and in both the movie Topper and the subsequent television series of the same name, but because I don’t own any of those productions I have not been able to verify that information.

UPDATE – Fellow blogger Petrea from the Pasadena Daily Photo website just sent me this amazing photograph that a friend of hers named Dave Thompson took of the Just Married mansion shortly after it was destroyed in the 2005 fire. Thanks, Petrea!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Just Married mansion was formerly located at 160 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Sadly, the area is currently just a vacant lot.

May 22, 2009May 21, 2009

The Starsky & Hutch Mansion

A few weeks ago, my mom drove me by what has to be one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my entire life! The property spans almost an entire city block! When you drive by it literally just keeps on going and going and going! LOL My mom showed me the absolutely ginormous Tudor style mansion to see if I recognized it from any movies or television shows. She had an inkling that, because of its massive size, it was probably used as a filming location at some point in history. And she was right, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

Then, last week, as I was scanning through Starsky & Hutch, making screen captures for my post about Rae’s Restaurant, I saw the house and almost fell out of my chair! In the 2004 comedy, the mega-mansion was featured as the home of Vince Vaughn’s character, Reese Feldman.

The mansion appears twice in Starsky & Hutch. We first see it when the detectives show up there to interrogate Vince Vaughn about a dead body they have just discovered.

Later on in the movie, Vince Vaughn throws his daughter a bat mitzvah party in a large tent in the home’s backyard.

During the party, Ben Stiller accidentally shoots a pony in front of all of the party guests just outside of the mansion’s large garage.

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This same house was also used in the short lived Rebecca Romijn series Pepper Dennis. As you can see in this Movieland Directory link, Arden Road is no stranger to the silver screen. Numerous houses on Arden have been featured in productions over the years, most notably the “Carrington Mansion” from television’s Dynasty, which is located just a few houses down from the Starsky & Hutch manse. Unfortunately, though, it is not at all visible from the street. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Reese Feldman (aka Vince Vaughn’s) mansion from Starsky & Hutch is located at 1050 Arden Road in Pasadena. The “Carrington Mansion” is located just a few houses away from it at 1145 Arden Road.

September 25, 2008February 11, 2009

Doc Brown’s House

Back to the Future has always been one of my very favorite movies, so when I found out that the interiors of Doc Brown’s house were filmed at a home in Pasadena, I had to run right out to stalk it. The exteriors of Doc’s house were also filmed at a home in Pasadena, a very famous Craftsman style home named the Gamble House. The Gamble House was built by the famous Greene & Greene architecture firm for the Gamble Family (of Proctor and Gamble). Formerly the Gamble family’s summer home, the Gamble House is now a museum which is open daily to the public. But I’ll save the history of the Gamble House for another post. Being that no filming is allowed to take place on the inside of the Gamble home, producers had to find a similar home to shoot the interiors of Doc’s house. The home they chose is called the Robert R. Blacker Home and it is considered by many to be the finest example of Craftsman architecture ever built by the Greene Brothers.

Built in 1907 for more than $100,000, the Blacker House was originally situated on over seven acres of land and included a seperate garage and a caretaker’s home. Originally built for Robert Rowe Blacker and his wife Nellie, sadly the home and its land was parceled off and sold after their death. While the caretaker’s house and the seven acres of land are now gone, the Blacker House still sits on a significant amount of property and it is absolutely breathtaking to view in person. Besides being featured in Back to the Future, the Blacker House also shows up in a deleted scene from the movie Armageddon, as the location where Bruce Willis says goodbye to his father before going off to save the world. I highly recommend stalking the Blacker House if you are at all a fan of Back to the Future or architecture in general. The house is absolutely striking in person and pictures simply do not do it justice.

On a side note, last summer, while vacationing in San Diego with my family, we stopped in at the Lodge at Torrey Pines for a bite to eat. I could not believe my eyes as we drove up to the resort as the exterior is the spitting image of the Blacker House. The concierge was shocked when I asked him if the hotel was modeled after the Blacker House – he said that no guest he’d ever talked to in the two years he’d been working at the hotel had ever even heard of the Blacker House. Apparently he didn’t realize he was talking to a stalker. 🙂 LOL The Lodge at Torrey Pines is a beautiful hotel and another breathtaking example of Craftsman architecture. Although no movies have been filmed there, I highly recommend stalking the hotel if you find yourself in the area.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Gamble House is located at 4 Westmoreland Place in Pasadena. The R. R. Blacker House is located at 1177 Hillcrest Avenue, at the corner of Hillcrest and Wentworth Ave., also in Pasadena. The Lodge at Torrey Pines can be found at 11480 North Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla.