Today’s location is one of the most interesting that I’ve ever uncovered! As I mentioned in Friday’s post about O.J. Simpson’s mansion from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (which proved to be rather timely considering the “buried knife” story that was released that same day), the Grim Cheaper and I are hooked on the new FX series. Once I tracked down O.J.’s pad from the show, I set out to find the site that stood in for Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo. And what I discovered turned out to be pretty intriguing.
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Nicole’s former Brentwood condo was located at 875 South Bundy Drive (the address has since been changed, but more on that in a bit). It was there that her body and the body of her friend Ronald Goldman were found just after midnight on June 13th, 1994. The site became an instant macabre tourist attraction and though put up for sale in October of that same year, just a few months after the murders, it lingered on the market until finally being sold in 1997 for around $590,000 ($200,000 under the asking price). The new owner immediately set about remodeling the exterior of the 3,400-square-foot, three-story dwelling, which, according to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article, boasted 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, several patios, and a rooftop sun deck. (The same article also states that Nicole put the property up for lease just days before her death, a factoid that was new to me.) In an effort to detract tourists, the front gate, walkway and entrance were drastically altered and the address was renumbered from 875 to 879. The condo was once again put up for sale in 2006 and sold for a whopping $1.7 million.
You can see a photo of what the exterior of Nicole’s condo previously looked like here. The residence is largely unrecognizable today, not to mention that the entryway is entirely covered over with foliage.
The GC and I visited the site way back in 2006 (it was for sale at the time, as you can see below) and the entryway was much more visible, though we did not take many photos of it.
The door to the neighboring unit, which was also altered after the murders and matches the layout of Nicole’s, is currently visible. You can see what it looks like below.
Not only was the condo’s address changed and the front entrance remodeled, but the walkway (where Nicole’s body was found) was actually moved. Comparison images taken of the walkway shortly after the murders in 1994 as compared to 2016 are pictured below.
More close-up comparison images are pictured below.
As you can see, the walkway was formerly situated just to the right of the large palm tree that stands in front of Nicole’s home. Today, the walkway is located to the left of that tree. The blue box in the lower photo denotes the previous site of the walkway. As you can also see below, the drainage pipe and utility access panel are still located in the same spot in relation to the tree, which helps give a bearing as to the walkway’s prior positioning.
A close-up view of the walkway’s former location is pictured below.
Nicole’s rear gate, which is reached via an alley off of Dorothy Street and is where the killer supposedly entered and exited the property the night of the murders, has also been altered.
The rear gate of the neighboring unit (pictured below) does not appear to have been changed, though, and remains, I believe, in the same state that it was back in 1994.
I am guessing that the reason The People v. O.J. Simpson did not film at the actual condo was two-fold, due to both the alterations and the reticence of the current owners.
So where did filming take place? Thanks to a February The Hollywood Reporter article, I learned that “a house a block away from Nicole Brown Simpson’s home was used as a stand-in” on the series. The walkway and entrance shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson were an exact match to those of Nicole’s former condo, though. Being that the chances of producers finding a walkway/front gate so closely resembling Nicole’s less than a block away from her former home were most likely slim to none, I figured they had heavily altered an existing walkway/front gate to look like hers. When I started looking along Bundy Drive, though, I could not find anything even remotely resembling what appeared onscreen. So I instead started searching for the homes that were visible across the street from Nicole’s in the pilot episode and wound up finding them right away – in the exact spot where The Hollywood Reporter said I would, a block away from Nicole’s condo.
Those houses can be found at 918 and 922 South Bundy Drive.
When I looked at what was across the street from those homes, though, I did not find a Mediterranean-style condominium complex as expected, but a non-descript, one-story single-family residence addressed 917 South Bundy. It wasn’t until I really started scouring Street View images of the property that I realized the entire walkway shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson was a fabrication constructed in the home’s driveway.
Yes, you read that right – from what I have been able to gather, Nicole’s walkway on the series was built entirely from scratch in the area pictured below.
Some heavy CGI and set dressing were employed to achieve the effect. As you can see below, not only was the image of a tall condominium building digitally added to the property, but a front wall, gate, walkway, lamp post, and large amount of foliage were also brought in.
In the images below, I’ve denoted the few things that were not altered. The large palm tree located in front of the home is a direct match to what appeared onscreen (it’s marked with the blue arrow below). The large pine tree behind the palm is also a direct match to what appeared onscreen (yellow arrow). The tall skinny palm located towards the rear of the property also parallels what was shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson (purple arrow). And you can even see where the dip of the driveway was temporarily filled in for the shoot (pink arrow).
A clean view of those same two images is pictured below. The whole thing is absolutely fascinating to me! I cannot even imagine what it would have been like to see it all in person.
I’ve got to give the production designer major props because the faux walkway is an exact replica of Nicole’s, which you can see an image of here.
The street in front of 917 South Bundy got a lot of screen time, too.
You can check out some interior photographs of the 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,154-square-foot home here.
All interior filming took place at a building located just a couple of blocks away.
That building can be found at 11978 Mayfield Avenue and it does bear a striking resemblance to Nicole’s actual former home.
The interior of Nicole’s condo was shown in two episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson, “From the Ashes of Tragedy” and “The Race Card.” You can see photos of the inside of one of the Mayfield Avenue units here.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The exterior of Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo was recreated in the driveway of the house at 917 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood for the filming of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Interior scenes were filmed at 11978 Mayfield Avenue in Brentwood. Nicole’s real life former condo is located at 879 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood.
What an amazing read! Keep up the great work.
Whilst watching the OJ trial on YT at the moment I often think the same. A few of her neighbours came to court to testify !!!!
I agree but as long as people bless a house where bad ju ju has occured then hopefully the bad ju ju will go, but how many people think of things like that in our ever increasing secular western societies ?
Hi, I was in law enforcement for 30 years. Listened to the whole trial and wanted to create the scene in my mind. I wanted to see if I could draw my own conclusion. One day my friends and I went to that location. I was pregnant with my 2 nd child at that time. It was a few days after. Police were still there preserving the scene. Tape still in place we talked to the female officer. Very nice gal. At the time, lots of people would be driving up getting out of their cars. As we walked backed to our car..the man that lived at the corner said,” I don’t understand you people, 2 people died here”. I can understand how he felt. I just got in my car and left . I did apologize to him. Unless you see this site, you wouldn’t be able to find the location. The address has been changed and the look. My conclusion was at the time..if he didn’t do it. He knows who did. But now with timeline and everything..I think he did.
I lived in Brentwood a couple blocks away from Nicole’s condo & I went over to her condo after all the cops & people left I walked up the walkway and I could still see some blood in between the stones of the walkway where the cement was (they tried to clean it up – but hard to get all the blood out. The next Sunday night at the same time it happened. I drove from the back of Nicole’s condo (in the alley) and drove to OJ’s house on Rockingham – & it took 6 minutes (stopping at stoplights on Bundy & going down San Vicente blvd). I also did it again a couple of other times and it also took about 6 minutes (very close and doesn’t take long (no traffic) Sunday night.
WOW, this is fascinating. Have you ever considered becoming a private Investigator? I love your webpage. 👍
Wow. Just happened upon this while doing a search for something totally unrelated. I had a job interview at Mt St Mary’s College not far from there several years ago and took a drive by the location. Of course it looked nothing like the photos of the crime scene, and I realized that the numbers were changed, but it gave me the creeps just driving by it. Just alot of bad juju in that spot. I can’t imagine anyone owning that property…or any property where a violent murder occurred. But that’s just me.
This will give you all the insight on how they transformed the location:
http://www.robtokarz.com/american-crime-story/
This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing it.
About a month after the murders, there was still yellow crime scene tape up on the condo. I took my family to Disneyland, so we naturally wanted to see the murder scene. It was then I realized how close her condo was from a road much traveled. I got the feeling at that time that there were more witnesses than a dog, I am sure more than one person heard, or saw something. About that time, an SUV pulled up, stopped at a lady starting yelling at us for being disrespectful. Well we left and later I realized it was Nicole Browns sister. Tragic events, and I sure wish the dead could speak…..
Hi! I loved reading this, excellent work! It brought me back to when 2 of my girlfriends and I spent 2 weeks in LA during March of 1995. A friend of ours had recently moved to Santa Monica so we stayed with him while exploring the city. Since this was less than a year after the murders had occured, we decided to drive over to Bundy Drive . I remember it was cold and rainy that day and the neighborhood was quiet . We pulled into the alley behind Nicole’s condo and then came around front and parked a few houses down the road. There was still police tape all around her house, and we were able to pretty much walk right up to the walkway. We discreetly took a few pictures but didn’t want to hang around too long . We thought there would be more weirdo tourists like us in the area but we were the only ones . Anyway, just wanted to share that with you ! If I can manage to find the pics we took that day, I will send them to you 🙂
I was working in LA in 94. After a dinner with friends I walked around the Bundy neighborhood and Nicole’s condo. It was eerie. Plants blocked the front gate.
I had to take a leak so drove to a dark area on Amhest (parallel to Bundy). Went into a gap between buildings and did my business.
I realized that it led to the alley behind Bundy so took the alley and walked behind Nicole’s condo.
A week later a news story came out of an acquaintance of OJ’s that said OJ told him of a secret way to sneak up on Nicole’s condo without being seen.
I realized that I parked on Amherst under a tree to avoid the street lights and it was dark to walk between the buildings to the alley behind Nicole’s condo.
Weirded me out.
Thank-you so much for posting this! I am obsessed with case. I have Googled mapped the condo a few time before, but never noticed they actually moved the walkway/murder site. Great catch!
I just got back from LA and because I am obssessed with the case, I drove by the condo. It looks way different in the front. The new owners remodeled the front by the gate. I expected it to be more plush looking but it wasn’t. The front yard was overgrown. Not impressed at all.
You nailed it. Well done on noticing the differences between the 1994 design and the post remodel. I was thinking they took out a palm tree and put in a new one but clearly they move the entrance.
Like to point out that late actress Gloria Stuart used to live right across the street from Nicole’s actual condo on Bundy. She had to move and live in a hotel after the murders. Gloria’s former house is located at 884 S Bundy Drive. Here’s the Zillow listing for it. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/884-S-Bundy-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90049/20469109_zpid/
That’s the amazing part of movie/tv magic for me. Turning nothing into something amazing. I like the behind the scenes stuff. I love seeing locations and seeing how it was manipulated into what they wanted. So neat!
Wow this was pretty amazing to see! I really have to give props to them for caring enough to get it right, that seems unusual!
I’m really surprised they went through the trouble of recreating the front of her condo in the same neighborhood when it probably would have been easier to use a studio set, or another front yard that more closely resembled hers to begin with.
Amazing! I have always been fascinated by the OJ case – I know it inside and out – I was amazed how accurate the crime scene was on the show and I couldn’t figure out how they managed it. Now I know!
I am so obsessed with this case as well! They did portray it perfectly on the TV show. I have watched countless documentaries about the actual OJ case-oh to be a fly on the wall on June 12, 1994! I remember watching the bronco chase when I was 12 years old.
I’ve been obsessed with the case since the morning after it happened, too, and I watched the Bronco chase at the kitchen table when I was 13 years old. I’ve studied Nicole’s condo a million and one times, so seeing this post was really cool – I appreciate all the hard work that goes into tracking down these locations, so it was a fascinating read. Thank you!