Though all of the homes featured on Pretty Little Liars are pretty darn amazing design-wise, my personal favorite, hands-down, is the farm-like residence where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) and her family live. So when I began tracking down the locales used in the pilot, which was shot in Vancouver, Spencer’s pad was at the top of my list of places to find. And find it, I did. While not much of the dwelling is visible from the street, sadly, I still had my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry drop by to snap some pics of it for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.
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Spencer’s house played a pivotal role in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. Not only was the home shown repeatedly throughout the episode (though never in a full exterior shot) . . .
. . . but the Hastings’ family’s large barn was the site of the Liars’ slumber party, from which Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) mysteriously disappeared.
The real life interior of the residence, including the kitchen . . .
. . . and one of the bedrooms, was also used in the filming.
I spent so many hours searching for Spencer’s house that I honestly no longer remember the exact story of how I ended up finding it. What I do remember is scouring Google and Bing aerial views for Vancouver neighborhoods with large plots of land and eventually coming across the Southlands area. While perusing that region, I spotted a large home with a barn in the backyard and, voila, it matched what appeared on PLL.
Spencer’s house sits on an absolutely massive corner plot of land. So massive, in fact, that it has two addresses – 3275 Celtic Avenue and 7376 Blenheim Street.
As I mentioned, very little of the main house can be seen from the street due to the fact that it is surrounded by a huge wall of foliage.
But there is good news! Spencer’s barn is located on the Blenheim Street side of the property and it is visible from the road, though the area that can be seen is not the area that appeared on Pretty Little Liars. In the pilot, the only portion of the barn shown was the eastern portion, while the western side is the side that is visible from the street. Sadly, that side of the barn is not really recognizable, but as you can see below the barn doors are a direct match to what was shown onscreen.
According to the book Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide, the Blenheim Street side of the property is a commercial horse facility known as Golden Oaks Stables.
Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up by ABC Family (now Freeform) and filming moved to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, a house on Midwest Street was tapped to stand in for the Hastings’ residence. That façade should look familiar to Gilmore Girls fans as it was formerly used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) home on the popular series.
Producers also had a re-creation of the Vancouver barn constructed in front of the Hastings’ home once the series got picked up.
Fun fact – all of the residences on Midwest Street are built with multiple facades so that they can mask as different properties depending on which way the camera is angled. The front of Spencer’s house is actually the back side of the dwelling that serves as Mona Vanderwaal’s (Janel Parrish) home on the series.
Interestingly, while the Vancouver house is no longer used for filming, it still pops up occasionally in establishing shots.
The interior of the Hastings’ residence was also re-created on a soundstage once production moved to Warner Bros. Though the re-creation is not an exact match to the Vancouver home, it is fairly close.
I am absolutely in love with the sitting area located just off of the family’s kitchen. I am so ready for a fireplace in my life! I’ll take that settee, too, while I’m at it.
Spencer’s bedroom set is also pretty fabulous. Actually, I should say “was” pretty fabulous. Sadly, it was dismantled last year when filming of the five-year time jump commenced.
Spencer’s room was my favorite out of all the girls (with Aria’s running a close second). I especially loved the metal “S” sign that hung on her wall.
Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!
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Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Spencer’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 3275 Celtic Avenue/7376 Blenheim Street in Vancouver. The barn is situated on the Blenheim Street portion of the property. The mansion featured in the 2011 Disney Channel movie Geek Charming is located next door at 3233 Celtic Avenue.
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