Major Fresh Prince of Bel Air fan Bryan posted a comment on my original Fresh Prince post asking me to please, please, please find the actual location of the mansion used as the Banks’ house on the 90s show. Bryan told me he had been looking for this location for years and every tour book seemed to have gotten it wrong. Being that I know the feeling of complete desperation in not being able to find a location, I made it my mission to find the house for him! I am sad to say it took me a really long time! I have literally stopped to take a picture of every single colonial style mansion I have driven by over the past month to compare to a picture Bryan had sent me of the Fresh Prince house. I was absolutely convinced I had located the right house on two separate occasions, but after coming home to compare pictures, I found I was completely wrong.
Then the other night, a lightbulb went off in my head. I decided to look at a filming locations website – the same one where I located the Shark House. Why I didn’t think of this sooner, I have no idea, because in a matter of minutes I was pretty sure I had found the house! I immediately emailed a picture of the house to Bryan and he confirmed it for me, as did the location company. Then I set off to Brentwood (NOT Bel Air) to stalk the house.
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Unfortunately my pictures came out absolutely horrible!! There are many trees in front of the Banks’ mansion and I could not get my camera to focus correctly on the house through the trees. My dad, who has a much better camera than I do, has promised to stalk the house with me later to take some better pics. The good news, though, is that if you drive by the house, you can definitely see it clearly through the trees and I am so happy to report that it looks EXACTLY the same as it did back in the Fresh Prince days. I was just standing there waiting for a taxi cab to drive up with dice in the mirror. 🙂
An ironic side note – I randomly watched the pilot episode of 90210 the other night and featured on that episode, big as life, was the incorrectly identified Fresh Prince house from my first post! It was used as the location of the Beverly Hills mansion where Brandon and Brenda attend their first West Beverly High party. Since both the pilot episodes of 90210 and Fresh Prince were filmed around the same time back in 1990, my thought is that people and neighbors saw 90210 being filmed at the house and since neither show was well-known at all at that time, heard it was a show about “Beverly Hills” and got it confused when a show about “Bel Air” premiered. Through incorrect word of mouth and communication error, the location wound up in tour books as the Fresh Prince house. That’s my theory anyway. 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The Fresh Prince house is located at 251 N. Bristol Avenue, at the corner of Bristol Avenue and Parkyns Street, in Brentwood. Katherine Heigl’s sister’s house from the movie Knocked Up is located just up the road at 531 N. Bristol, but unfortunately that home is now gated and not much can be seen at all from the street. The incorrectly identified Fresh Prince house, where the Walsh twins went to their first Beverly Hills party, is located in Bel Air, at 417 Amapola Lane.
This appears to be the same house that was also used in the 1979 comedy sitcom “Benson.” Does anyone know if they are, in fact, the same house? Thank you!
The mansions are similar, but they’re not the same place. The “Benson” house is in Pasadena. I wrote about it here.
im so glad that i found this house, haha my favorite scene jazz flying from house ooooooooo,this house is not in bel air?in brentwood
I’m so disappointed! We were in LA in July and the tour guide told us that the house at 417 Amapola Lane was the Fresh Prince house so I took loads of pictures. I guess this means I’ll need to find the one in Brentwood when I am there again 🙂 Thanks!
My great aunt and uncle built that home when they moved to Brentwood in the late 30’s. I have their photo album of the home from when it was completed. She named the house “Joygia” in honor of our home state, Georgia. She told my uncle that the only way she’d move to California was if he built her a Georgia Mansion. He obliged.
John, my parents own that house and we have lived there since 1979. Do you any pictures from the original house. Message me if you do!
Can we see some pictures? Maybe from inside the house? I’m a big fan
its real, i saw it! awesome!
if you notice in the long version of the opening credits he pulls threw a gate just like this in the cab this is definately the house
cant wait for more pics of this location!
I think you’re right on both houses. The Brentwood one is definitely in the intro, but the one in Bel Air is the facade they used in the establishing shots of the house.
Thank you for this. I had featured the Amapola house on my website until I received a communique from somebody who pointed me to this house on Bristol. A google search led me to this blog and I believe you nailed it! Good Work.
o.m.g i knew it wasnt the house everybody tells me it was, it kinda looked like the real one but but then it didnt. im glad u found the real one! no one else has ever found it b4. im glad the owners have kept it just like it was in the 1990s
thats awesome !!
whats the address?
just woundering when you were going back to the house
You are awesome, by liking at the house in goggle maps you can see from the top the circular colum around the door, this is definatley the house, i cant thank you enough
You are a savior, seriously i knew it wasnt the one on amapola or whatever. Thanks to you will try to visist next time i come out!!!!
THANK YOU!!
Thank You! I’ve looked everywhere online for the location and everyone had the old house posted, and I knew it was not the same house.