The “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” House

Considering the number of people who share this crazy hobby and the length of time we’ve all been at it, you’d think most ‘90s-era sitcom houses would have been found by now. So I was shocked to receive an email in mid-May from fellow stalker Chris (who tracked down the site of Michelle’s downhill derby from Full House, as well as Mary-Kate and Ashley’s home and Chateau Emanuel from The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley) asking if I knew the location of the supposed Oakland residence where Mark Cooper (Mark Curry) and his roommates lived on the popular TGIF series Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. I didn’t but told him I’d be happy to assist in tracking it down. Well, it turns out Chris didn’t need my help! With no address number to guide him and no idea if the house was in Northern California, where the show was set, or Southern, where it was lensed, he somehow managed to ID it in record time! Just four days later, he wrote me back with its location – 514 El Centro Street in South Pasadena! So I headed right on over there while doing some socially-distant stalking shortly thereafter.

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In real life, the charming 1904 pad boasts 1,665 square feet (though it looks much larger from the street), 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 0.18-acre lot, and a large detached garage.

Though the City of South Pasadena Inventory of Historic Resources notes the place as being “Early Craftsman,” I consider it more Victorian in style.

Either way, it’s gorgeous.

The stained glass windows give the property a definite Bay Area feel, so it is no surprise that it wound up on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper – especially considering Warner Bros. Studio, where the series was lensed, is just a short distance away.

Fate really stepped in during Chris’ hunt for the locale. As he explained the search to me, “I managed to find it by chance and in a very roundabout way. I had actually watched an episode of Smart Guy last night (as I’ve currently run out of Mr. Cooper episodes) and noticed how their house and driveway was slightly similar to Mr. Cooper’s and wondered whether it was perhaps in the same area, especially as producer Danny Kallis was connected to both shows. I then managed to find the original stock footage of the Smart Guy house and on one of the shots, I could see the numbers ‘521’. I then looked up a postal/parcel map of Los Angeles, typed in ‘521’ and worked my way through each address on Google Maps. The idea was that if I could find the Smart Guy house then maybe Mr. Cooper’s would be nearby. When I came to 521 El Centro Street on the list, I don’t know what it was, but there was something about the area that resembled Mr. Cooper’s neighborhood (possibly the little front walls and similar front steps). I also knew his house was on a wide road and so out of curiosity, I clicked on the Street View image of it. I then turned the camera to the right and as I did so, I spotted a house in the distance that looked like Mr. Cooper’s. I then went up the street a bit and to my amazement, found it at 514. Ironically, I never did find the Smart Guy house which I was hoping would lead me to it, yet still got the result I was hoping for regardless. It was also ironic that Mr. Cooper’s house turned out to be a 500 number too and had I not been searching for a 521 number, I probably wouldn’t have found it.” Hats off to you, Chris, for a job well done!

The property first popped up in Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper’s second episode (no house was featured in the pilot) and then went on to appear in establishing shots throughout the series’ five-season run.

The pad was almost always shown from an eastern-facing angle but, as you can see below, that viewpoint looks a bit different today thanks to a leafy tree growing in the front yard that largely hampers its visibility from the street.