The “Mr. Deeds” House

One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has being dying to stalk for ages now is Winona Ryder’s red-doored childhood home from the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds.  Mike had asked for my help in tracking down this location a couple of months ago, but, for some reason, even our two heads working together couldn’t seem to find it.  So, this past week, I enlisted the help of fellow stalkers Chas and Owen, and, incredibly, it wasn’t more than a couple of hours later that I got a text from Chas saying he had found the house!  🙂   I’m telling you, there’s nothing he can’t find!!!  Thank you, Chas! 

Even though in the movie Winona says that she grew up in the fictional town of Westchestertonfieldville, Iowa, Mike and I were fairly certain that her childhood home was located somewhere in the Pasadena area.  And, sure enough, we were right!!  🙂    So, of course, once I had the address I immediately ran right out to stalk it.  And I am happy to report that, aside from a pretty big difference in paint color, the house is still very recognizable from the film.  The home is absolutely adorable in person and it’s not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as Winona’s idyllic, small town childhood home.

The Mr. Deeds  house only shows up in one very brief scene in the movie.  In the scene, Adam Sandler takes Winona, who is posing as school nurse Pam Dawson, to what he thinks is her former childhood home in what he thinks is her former hometown.  Pam had described her childhood home in Westchestertonfieldville as being “a big Victorian right off Main Street, with blue shutters and a big red door and a tire swing in the front yard.”   Adam spots the house pictured above and – even though it doesn’t look at all Victorian to me LOL – assumes it is the one she had described.

Adam then proceeds to knock on the home’s red door and tells the three children who currently live there that Winona grew up in their house.   Shocked, one of the kids says “My daddy built this house with his bare hands six years ago” to which Winona replies “Well, your daddy is a liar!”  LOL LOL LOL   Sadly, in real life the front door of the home is blue, not red, but I am guessing that the entire home was most likely repainted for the filming and then changed back to its original coloring after the production wrapped.   If I was the homewoner, I so would have left the filming paint on the house, as I think it looked a lot prettier in the movie than it does now.  🙂

The filmmakers actually “cheated” quite a bit in the filming of this scene.   When Adam and Winona first walk down her former street, they are supposedly walking on the sidewalk across the street from her childhood home.  In actuality, though, they are walking  in front of the home located directly next door to the Mr. Deeds  house.  While stalking the place, I immediately recognized the wooden fence pictured above, which actually surrounds the neighbor’s property.  LOL

Making matters even more complicated is the fact that the home Adam and Winona stop in front of in the scene, which supposedly stands directly across from the Mr. Deeds  house, is actually located about three houses down and across the street.    Confused yet?  So was I!  😉

Pictured above is the home that is actually located across the street from the Mr. Deeds  house.  I guess it didn’t have the look the producers were going for in the scene, but wow, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to go to to film one very brief scene that barely took up thirty seconds of the movie.  LOL   

 Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Mr. Deeds  house is located at 989 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.  The house that is supposedly located across the street from the Mr. Deeds house can be found at 1026 South Madison.  The home with the wooden fence that Adam and Winona walk in front of is located at 999 South Madison.