O.J.’s Mansion from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

The Grim Cheaper and I are absolutely hooked on the new FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which is not surprising considering we have both been fascinated with the case since the beginning – as has the rest of the world.  While watching the first episode, titled “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” I was shocked to see the real life former home of Robert Kardashian playing the role of itself.  I stalked and blogged about the residence back in 2013 and recognized it immediately when it popped up onscreen.  I recently wrote about the pad once again for Los Angeles magazine and, during my research for that post, came across this The Hollywood Reporter article which talked about some of the other locales used in the mini-series.  One particular sentence had my interest especially piqued.  Author Lacey Rose stated, “Many of the case’s famed landmarks will appear familiar, even if the series had to take some liberties with its locations.  O.J.’s Brentwood home, for instance, was razed in 1998, so the location manager found a similar-looking Tudor in Beverly Hills and production designers recreated key touches of Simpson’s estate, including the life-size Simpson statue in the yard.”  I, of course, instantly got started searching for the property.

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Thanks to an address number of “1006” that was visible on the curb in front of the house in “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” finding it was a snap!  I simply began looking through 1000 blocks in Beverly Hills and quickly came across the right spot at 1006 North Rexford Drive.  I didn’t get around to stalking the place, though, until this past weekend while the GC and I were in L.A.

The manse has appeared in several episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, including “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” “The Run of His Life,” and “The Race Card.”

Numerous areas of the property have been shown onscreen, including the entrance gates;

the backyard;

and the real life interior, which you can see photographs of here.

The residence looks much the same in person as it does in The People v. O.J. Simpson and, though gated, quite a lot of it is visible from the street.

Unfortunately though, the estate sits on a heavily tree-lined street and, because we were there in the late afternoon, my photographs of it turned out rather dark.

For those who want a true American Crime Story experience, the house is available as a vacation rental for a whopping $14,000 a night.  According to its HomeAway webpage, the massive property, which was originally built in 1923, boasts 7 bedrooms, 9 baths, 10,311 square feet of living space, a den, a library, 2 offices, multiple fireplaces, a game room, a gym, a sauna, a “laundry center,” an entertainment lounge with a bar, a 35mm projection screening room, a secluded 1.65-acre lot, a pool, a guest apartment (for the Katos in your life), a tennis court, a spa, and a playground.

The estate also boasts a Hollywood pedigree.  According to my buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, the dwelling, which last sold in March 1981 for $2,950,000, belonged to Warner Bros. Studio founder Harry Warner during the 1940s.

On a rather humorous side-note – the GC’s GPS is run through his iPhone and gives directions via Siri.  When I asked Siri to direct us to “1006 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills,” she instead, rather ironically, gave us a listing of juice places in the area.  Not joking!  A photograph of the listing that popped up on the GPS screen is pictured below.

The whole thing was especially comical being that the video below had just been released a few days prior.

Since we were on an O.J. kick, the GC and I decided to also stalk the site of Simpson’s real life former residence, which was a first for me.  While I have visited Nicole’s condo a few times over the years, for whatever reason, I had never been to “Juice’s” estate.  As mentioned above, the home was razed in 1998, long before I moved to L.A., so I guess I always figured it was never worth the trip.  Now that the case is front and center again, though, I was dying to see the place in person.

O.J.’s estate formerly stood at 360 North Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood.  The football star purchased the 6,200-square-foot, Tudor-style manse for $650,000 in 1977 and lived there for the next twenty years (not counting the 474 days he spent in jail), until being evicted in 1997 after the house was foreclosed upon.  The pad was subsequently purchased by Jerry’s Famous Deli owner/investment banker Kenneth Abdalla for close to $4 million.  According to a 1998 CNN.com article, Abdalla contended that the property was in need of a large amount of repairs and figured it would be most cost effective to demolish it and re-build from scratch.  I believe the tear-down had more to do with the pad’s notoriety than its condition, though, especially considering the fact that Abdalla also had its address changed to 380 North Rockingham.

 

Today, a large Mediterranean-style residence stands at the site.  You can see aerial views of what the property currently looks like below and what it looked like when Simpson lived there here.

There is literally nothing left of Simpson’s former home.  The gates, the fencing, the circular driveway, the pool, the waterfalls, the putting green, the guest quarters, the tennis court, and the playground have all been replaced.

You can check out an in-depth rendering of the layout of O.J.’s former estate here and see photographs of it here and here.  It is amazing to me how much it resembles the house being used in The People v. O.J. Simpson.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: O.J.’s house from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story is located at 1006 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills.  The site of O.J.’s actual former mansion can be found at 380 North Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood.