The “Step by Step” House

One location fellow stalker Owen has been on the lookout for for quite some time now is the house where the Lambert Family lived in the 1990’s television sitcom Step by Step.  Because of the house’s Crafstman style architecture, Owen was pretty convinced that it was located somewhere in South Pasadena, a city which is known for its Crafstman style homes.  Well, back in June while doing some research for my blog, I was fortunate enough to meet a SUPER NICE woman who works in the South Pasadena film office, so I emailed her to ask if she might know the location of the house.  The woman, who can usually name South Pasadena film locations right off the top of her head – SO LOVE IT! – didn’t happen to know anything about this particular location, but I did get an email from her a couple of hours later telling me that she had found the house!   YAY!

While doing some preliminary stalking, Owen had been able to discern that the address number of the house was “201”.  So, my SP film contact started playing around with different 201 address numbers in Google Maps until she landed upon the Step by Step  house!  In reality, the address number turned out to be “2011”, not “201”, but somehow my contact was able to find it anyway!   See, I told you she was super nice!  🙂  Most film location people won’t even give me the time of day, let alone spending a couple of hours of their time looking for a house for me!   Love it!!!! 

So this past Saturday, with the address in hand, Mike from MovieShotsLA and I went out to stalk the Step by Step  house.   We actually had some amazing stalking karma that day, because not only did we get let into the Father of the Bride backyard and inside the 13 Going On 30  house (those posts will be written soon, I promise!), but we also got to speak with the owner of the Step by Step  house who just happened to be standing on his front porch when we pulled up.  He said NO ONE ever recognizes the house and was absolutely AMAZED that we had.  LOL  Apparently he didn’t know who he was dealing with.  His grandmother owned the house at the time the show was filmed and he told us that no filming actually took place inside the house, nor does the inside look anything like the set that was built for the show.  He also said that he never got to meet the actors as they were never a part of the filming that took place at the house.   He was SUPER nice, though, and told us to take all the pictures we wanted.  🙂  And I am happy to report that the house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Step by Step premiered over 18 years ago!  Unbelievable!  

Ironically enough, part of the Step by Step  opening credits was also filmed in South Pasadena, just around the corner from the house.   In the very beginning of the credits the family’s Ford Explorer is seen passing by a sign reading “Port Washington, Wisconson, Population 9,336”.  Well, that scene was filmed a good 2,000 miles away from Port Washington on a street named Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena!  You can watch the Step by Step opening credits here.

The building shown in the credits is actually South Pasadena’s oldest commercial building.  It currently houses the South Pasadena Historical Museum and the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, but way back in 1887 the building was the site of the city’s grocery store.  

A little bit of television trivia for you – the remainder of the Step by Step  opening credits were filmed at SixFlag’s Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia.  Producers digitally added water over Magic Moutain’s real life parking lot to make it appear as if the roller coaster the family rides on was overlooking the beach.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Step by Step  house is located at 2011 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena.  The beginning of the series’ opening credits was filmed in front of the Meridian Iron Works Museum, which is located at 913 Meridian Avenue, also in South Pasadena.