The Campbell House from “Soap”

Something must be in the water, because this has been the most fortuitous week I’ve ever had when it comes to stalking.  Over the course of the past few days, not only have three of my most-wanted locations been found, but I was even granted access to the interior of one and, remarkably, it still looks exactly the same despite the fact that 27 years have passed since filming took place!  A post on that spot is coming soon.  Today though, I’m covering the Campbell family residence from Soap, which I have been obsessively trying to track down ever since a reader named Andrew reminded me of the 1977 ABC series in early March.  And this past Friday, track it down, I did!

Thanks to the general look of the Campbell home and the exterior steps leading from the sidewalk to its front porch, I had a fairly solid hunch that it could be found in the Hancock Park/Windsor Square area.  Adding to my certainty was the fact that the Tate mansion from the series is located in Hancock Park (511 South Muirfield Road to be exact) and productions often tend to stick to the same vicinity when it comes to shooting locales.  So I began the search at 511 South Muirfield and worked my way outward.  While I came across a lot of houses with an extremely similar look (like a ridiculous amount – 1524 South Victoria Avenue, 359 North Ridgewood Place, and 367 North Van Ness Avenue, just to name a few) none of them was an exact match to the spot that Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan), Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon), Chuck Campbell (Jay Johnson), Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal), and Danny Dallas (Tedd Wass) called home.

So I decided to revisit my Soap DVDs to see if any episodes provided additional clues and was thrilled to discover some shots of the Campbell house which offered a glimpse of the neighboring property, along with its gambrel-style roof – a design element that is not very common in Los Angeles.  Optimistic it was the key to pinpointing the locale, I started scouring aerial views in the Hancock Park area for a gambrel roofline and it was not long before I came across one at 344 North Van Ness Avenue in Larchmont.  When I dropped Google’s little yellow man down into Street View, I saw what I was fairly certain was the Campbell house next door at 338 North Van Ness!  As it turns out, the place is located just 1.6 miles from the Tate mansion.

Besides the obvious matching facades and gambrel-roofed neighbor, I pinpointed a few additional elements of the Campbell home that lined up with the Van Ness dwelling.  Both properties have seven steps leading from the sidewalk to the front porch.  Also, the driveway of the Campbell house is located on its left hand side, while its neighbor’s driveway is located just to its right.  The driveway schematic is the same at the Van Ness pad.

Though it is just barely visible in the screen capture below, the front porch portico of the Campbell home has crisscrossing woodwork on its lower half.  The portico of the Van Ness residence also bears the same design.

And on the frame of the Campbell pad’s front door, a three-digit address number is visible.  While the numbers are too blurry to make out, the fact that there are three digits parallels the address of the Van Ness home.

Though many elements of the property line up, there was no smoking gun, no definitive feature that told me it was definitely the right spot.  And because there are SO many similar homes in the area, I was not 100% sure of my find – especially considering the fact that the neighboring residence with the gambrel roof was not at all visible on Street View due to a massive amount of foliage, so I could not compare it to my screen shots.  Also casting doubt on my find was the driveway of the Van Ness home.  On Soap, the Campbell driveway was flush with the front lawn, but the driveway of the Van Ness residence is graded.  So I called on my friends/fellow stalkers Michael (you may remember him from his many guest posts) and Owen (from the When Write Is Wrong blog) for their opinions.  They both wrote back telling me they thought I had the right spot.  As Michael pointed out, not only do the trees that flank both homes’ front yards greatly resemble each other . . .

. . . but the angled lawn lining the curb of the driveway of the Campbells’ neighbor’s home matches that of the neighboring home on Van Ness.

Owen mentioned the front yard trees, as well, and also brought up the matching crenelated roof eaves and notches located at the top of the portico posts, all of which gave me 99.9% certainty that we had the correct locale.

Then, while stalking the home this past Sunday afternoon, I found my smoking gun!  During my Soap scanning earlier in the week, I had noticed some sort of metal bar situated at the bottom of the windowpane next to the Campbells’ front door.  I wasn’t sure what the bar was, but thought it looked a lot like a mail slot (though it seemed to be a rather odd place for one being so close to the ground).  Well, I just about fell over when I arrived at the Van Ness residence and my eyes zeroed in on a metal bar in the exact same spot!  As it turns out, it is a mail slot!  Bingo!

I was also able to catch a glimpse of the neighboring home with the gambrel roof.  Unfortunately, short of actually walking up the driveway, the photograph below is the best shot I could take of the the property’s side.  As you can see, the roofline, the half-circle window just below it, the two rectangular windows on the second floor, the first floor overhang, and the lower level windows all match what was seen on Soap.  Again, bingo!

A more close-up view of the house next door is pictured below.

I also noticed that the driveway of the Van Ness home had been completely redone since filming took place – it is now comprised of stone instead of cement – which makes the grading of it all the more plausible.

In real life, the Campbell home was originally built in 1920 and boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 2,636 square feet of living space.

Only the exterior of it was utilized on Soap.  The interior of the Campbell residence was a set built on a soundstage at Sunset Gower Studios, where the series was lensed.

I cannot express how exciting it was to finally be standing in front of the Campbell house and to see a place so ingrained in my childhood memories come to life.

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Big THANK YOU to my friends/fellow stalkers Michael (aka guest poster extraordinaire) and Owen (from the When Write Is Wrong blog) for their help in verifying this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Campbell family home from Soap is located at 338 North Van Ness Avenue in Larchmont.

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