The Real Life “The Simpsons” House

Did you know that there is a real The Simpsons house?  Neither did I.  For my birthday earlier this month, I told the Grim Cheaper that all I wanted to do was spend a couple of days at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa (which I blogged about here) in Henderson, Nevada.  He granted my request and the two of us had a fabulous stay.  While there, my friend, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, texted me to let me know that I was in the vicinity of a “filming location” (his use of quotes, not mine) and that I should Google 712 Red Bark Lane, Henderson.  I immediately did so and was shocked to learn that a real life version of the Simpson family home from the long-running cartoon series (27 seasons and counting!) had been constructed at that address in 1997.  The GC and I were at dinner at the time that I received Owen’s text and, throughout the remainder of our meal, were both consumed with looking at photos of the residence on our smart phones.  Even though I’ve never been a fan of The Simpsons, I became completely enamored of the place (I mean, how cool is it that an actual livable home based on a cartoon rendering from a television series was built in an ordinary neighborhood?) and was shocked that I had never heard about it before.  I made it very clear to the GC that we would not be leaving Vegas without stalking it, so we headed right on over there on our way out of town.

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The story of the unusual residence is as follows – in July 1997, Kaufman & Broad builders (now KB Home), PepsiCo Inc., and Fox Broadcasting Company hosted a contest as part of a marketing ploy for KB Home’s new Springfield Community – South Valley Ranch housing development and Fox Interactive’s new video game, Virtual Springfield, in which one lucky winner would be given a life-size, real world replica of The Simpsons house.  The contest results were set to be announced during the series’ Season 9 premiere on September 21st.

The home was designed by Michael Woodley (Senior Vice President, Architecture, Kaufman & Broad) and Manny Gonzalez (Director of Architecture, Kaufman & Broad) and took 49 days to build at a cost of $120,000.  Prior to construction, the duo watched 56 episodes of The Simpsons to make sure that the residence would be completed in exacting detail.  As you can see below, the result of their efforts is spot-on.

Even the brick pop-outs on the real life chimney are an exact match to what appears regularly on the show (though the chimney itself is a bit different).  God is in the details, as they say.

A close-up view of the chimney is pictured below.

Some liberties did have to be taken, though.  Due to the size of the lot, the width of the real life house was limited to 40 feet, while Woodley estimates the cartoon version to be about 50 feet.  The positioning of the garage and the area above it are a little bit off, as well.  Overall though, it is a pretty incredible re-creation.

The property was originally painted in hues of bright yellow, orange, and blue to match its cartoon counterpart.  You can check out some photos of what the residence looked like upon completion here, here, here, and here.  Per contest rules, once the winner took over ownership of the house, the exterior had to be repainted in more neutral colors to match the other 151 dwellings in the Springfield Community – South Valley Ranch development.

While the repainting did take place, it did not help the dwelling blend in with its neighbors.  In fact, The Simpsons house sticks out like a sore thumb.  As you can see in the images below, the residence looks quite odd amongst the other homes on the street, which are all Spanish in style.

As such, I think the homeowner association should have allowed the original color scheme to remain.

I was absolutely floored to see, though, that the newer paint was chipping away on portions of the house, allowing the original coloring to peek through.

Not only was the exterior of the home re-created for the contest, but Hollywood set designer Rick Floyd was brought in to exact The Simpsons house’s interior.  You can check out some photos of his design here, which was so detailed that a fake half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich was permanently installed underneath Bart’s bed.  In all, Floyd collected 2,000 Simpsons-related props to carry out his vision (though it was stipulated that the furnishings were not included in the grand prize, but could be purchased should the winner so desire).  Bart’s tree house, Homer’s BBQ, and the family’s swing set were even on display in the backyard.  You can read an article about Floyd’s endeavors, which included picking out marshmallows from a box of Lucky Charms and gluing them together to represent Snowball II’s kibble, here.

Prior to the announcement of the winner, the property was opened to the public from August 13th through September 14th and a whopping 33,000 people came to tour it, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.  During Groening’s visit (which you can read a great article about here), he not only painted a picture of Bart on the wall of the dwelling with the words “El Barto was here,” but he also imprinted his handprints and sketched Homer in a portion of cement in the home’s front walkway.  That etching is still there, though I didn’t realize it while I was stalking the place.  The image below is from M2thaK’s fabulous YouTube video about the house.

The etching’s location is denoted with a pink arrow below.

A whopping 15 million people wound up entering the contest.  The lucky winner was a woman from Richmond, Kentucky named Barbara Howard.  In a heartbreaking twist, she, sadly, decided to take a cash payment of $75,000 in lieu of the home.  Though Barbara appreciated the property’s significance, she had no desire to vacate her 260-acre farm to live in it.  She did see the place in person, though, during a weeklong Las Vegas vacation that was also part of her winnings.  Shortly after the contest ended, KB Home repainted the exterior of the property and began removing the various props and décor items, selling them off one by one.  The 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,200-square-foot residence then sat vacant (and according to M2thaK’s video was severely vandalized) until KB sold it in 2001.  (Though almost all online sources state that it was sold in 2001, Redfin actually lists a sale date of August 3rd, 2000.  I am unsure which is correct.  Redfin also shows the home was purchased for $100,000.)  According to a 2008 Nevada Appeal article, the buyers repainted most of the inside, but did choose to leave the playroom and closet interiors the original colors.  I can’t help but wonder what the fate of the house would have been had a true Simpsons aficionado been the grand prize winner.  Would the majority of the interior and exterior (minus the paint color, of course) been left intact?

Either way, I am thankful – and amazed, really – that, even with all of the Simpsons detailing removed, the property is still so recognizable.

In the writing of today’s post, I discovered something that blew my mind!  On The Simpsons, the family’s address is stated to be 742 Evergreen Terrace in Springfield (state undetermined).  Being that I don’t watch the show, I was ignorant of that fact until today’s research.  I was also ignorant of the fact that Historic Aerials, a website I use daily, displays a default address in the search bar.  Now, I consider myself to be a very observant person, so how I never spotted that address before is beyond me!  When I went to look at historic views of The Simpsons house earlier this morning, though, the words “743 Evergreen Terrace” seemed to be blaring at me.  I figured the site might change the address displayed based on recent searches (in the same manner that targeted ads pop up whenever a web browser is opened), so I immediately ran to the GC’s computer, pulled up Historic Aerials and was floored to see that 743 Evergreen Terrace indeed showed up.  On the series, that address denotes the mansion located across the street from the Simpsons, which at different points in time belonged to George and Barbara Bush and Gerald Ford.  The founder of Historic Aerials must be a Simpsons fan!  If only he (or she) had won the contest!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling about this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The real life The Simpsons house is located at 712 Red Bark Lane in Henderson, Nevada.