“The Exorcist” House and Stairs

I’ve ventured down a deep, dark rabbit hole today, friends.  I should back up and explain from the beginning.  Last night, the Grim Cheaper and I watched The Exorcist for the first time.  I had come across images of the stately brick house and adjacent towering staircase featured in the iconic 1973 horror flick while researching filming locations in the D.C.-area prior to our September trip and found them to be particularly haunting.  Despite the fact that I had never seen The Exorcist and knew little about it other than it was considered one of the scariest movies of its day (with theatregoers purportedly fainting during viewings), I jotted down the addresses and moved them to the very top of my D.C. To-Stalk List.  Both sites proved fabulously creepy in person.  I felt I couldn’t very well write about them without a screening of the flick, though, so last night the GC and I sat down to watch.  I was shocked at how much the movie withstood the test of time.  I was scared throughout (though I did find the demonic ramblings hysterical and I’m pretty sure they were meant to be obscene and shocking in their day).  When I sat down to write this post, I discovered that the film was actually based upon a real life case and starting doing research.  And wow, did I get sucked in!  I highly suggest you do not open that Pandora’s box unless you have a lot of time on your hands because it. is. fascinating.

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I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version here.  The Exorcist was originally a book – a best-seller, actually, written by William Peter Blatty.  William was initially inspired to pen the novel while attending Georgetown University in 1949, when a professor mentioned the supposed real life exorcism of a 14-year-old Maryland boy that had recently taken place.  The case of the possessed youngster, which was chronicled in countless newspapers, was shrouded in mystery and the story largely twisted by various reporters.  The tale, which detailed violently shaking beds, rashes that spelled out demonic messages, and outbursts of profanity laced with Latin, stuck with Blatty for two decades and he finally began to put pen to paper in 1969.  The book became an immediate sensation when it hit shelves in 1971 and drew renewed attention to the real life exorcism.  The movie that followed two years later, which Blatty wrote the screenplay to, only exacerbated the public’s fascination with the case and rumor and gossip about it spread.  The actual story, which was thoroughly investigated by historian Mark Opsasnick and finally revealed in a five-part article in 1999, is much less paranormal.  You can read it here.  Though Opsasnick does not mention the boy’s real name in his piece, instead using the alias Roland Doe, today that name is widely published all over the internet.  The “real” Exorcist child is Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, who lived at 3807 40th Avenue in Cottage City (that’s his childhood home pictured below).  You can see a photograph of a teen Hunkeler here.  And you can read another in-depth recap of the case, which further debunks many of the rumors, here.

While writing his novel, Blatty made contact with Father Bowdern, the priest who performed Hunkeler’s exorcism.  Bowdern told him of a diary that was written by Father Bishop, an attending priest, which chronicled the entire process.  The novelist, of course, asked to see the diary, but Bowdern refused to hand it over.  To assure the confidentiality of those involved, Blatty decided to change his story’s lead character from a teen boy to a teen girl.  He did eventually get his hands on the diary and much of what he read figured into the book.  The movie closely follows the story of the book and centers around famous actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) and her 12-year-old daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), who are temporarily living in a handsome brick-clad pad in Georgetown while Chris shoots a movie nearby.  Though their surroundings are gorgeous, it is not long before things take a sinister turn and Regan begins to show signs of demonic possession.

The MacNeil’s Georgetown dwelling is featured extensively throughout The Exorcist.

Looking below, you may notice that the actual residence differs quite a bit from what appeared onscreen.  For the shoot, an entire fake wing was built on the eastern side of the house.  This was done so that Regan’s bedroom window would be close to the stairs situated next to the property, which accommodated for several scenes that were pertinent to the film (I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I won’t say more).  A fake mansard roof was also added to the structure to give the appearance that the home had an attic – something else that was necessary to the plotline.

A fence has also since been added to the perimeter of the property, obscuring most of the ground floor from view.  This was apparently done to ward off stalkers, who still rampantly visit the residence, more than four decades after the film was made!

Said fence was closed when I stalked The Exorcist home, but I did find some Google Street View imagery in which it was open.  As you can see below, despite the missing wing and mansard roof, the house is still very recognizable from its time onscreen.

Only the exterior of the property appeared in The Exorcist.  Interiors were part of a vast set constructed at New York’s now defunct Camera Mart studios.

In real life, the dwelling, which was built in 1950, consists of 3 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 2,808 square feet living space.  The pad sits on a 0.11-acre plot of land that overlooks the Potomac River and the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

I find it fascinating that virtually all of the photos I took of the place have some sort of an orb reflection in them!

I mean, come on!  Can things get any more creepy?

The infamous stairs, which figured so prominently in the story, are located just east of and adjacent to the house.

And let me tell you, they are harrowingly steep!

According to a 2013 USA Today article, the stairs are technically known as the “Hitchcock Steps,” named in honor of the prolific suspense director, but ever since the movie’s 1973 premiere have largely been called the “Exorcist Steps.”

Though the southern portion of the stairs was also featured in The Exorcist, we did not venture down to see it.  It was over 90 degrees and insanely humid the day we stalked Georgetown and ambling all the way down those steps – and then back up – in that heat did not seem appealing in the slightest.

In 2013, Blatty and Exorcist director William Friedkin revisited several of the movie’s locations, including the stairs.  You can watch a video clip of their stalk here.

On an Exorcist side-note – I was shocked to see how much Linda Blair resembles Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) from Stranger Things (which the GC and I are obsessed with, BTW – if you have not yet watched, I cannot more highly recommend doing so!).

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The MacNeil house from The Exorcist is located at 3600 Prospect Street NW in Georgetown.  The stairs that appeared in the movie are located just east of the house and run between Prospect Street NW and M Street NW.