Got an email last week from fellow stalker Karin who wanted me to locate the house belonging to Donald Draper (played by Jon Hamm) and his wife, Betty (played by January Jones), on the AMC television series Mad Men. It turns out that my good friend, and fellow stalker E.J., over at The Movieland Directory, had written down a bunch of addresses where Mad Men filming had taken place over the years off of the On Location Vacations website. Using those addresses, it wasn’t long before Karin and I had located the right house. 🙂 Thank you, E.J.!! So, while out doing some stalking with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, last Friday, I dropped by the Draper residence to snap some pics. 🙂

On Mad Men, the Draper family supposedly lives in the town of Ossining in Westchester County, New York. In reality, though, their home is located in the suburbs of Pasadena, just a stone’s throw away from the Father of the Bride house. It’s such a small movie world, isn’t it? 😉

I had a heck of a time making screen captures of the Draper home as it seems that, for some reason, the exterior of the house is rarely shown on the series. I guess the producers of Mad Men aren’t big on doing establishing shots! LOL You can see a paparazzi pic of Jon Hamm and January Jones filming at the house a few weeks ago here.

I am happy to report that Don Draper’s house looks exactly the same in person as it does on TV. Except, of course, for the color of the front door. On the series, the Draper’s front door is painted red, while the door of the real life home is blue.

If you look at the house on Google Maps Street View, the front door is also red, which leads me to believe that the Google photographs must have been taken while Mad Men filming was going on. So cool!

Before Karin’s challenge, I had never watched even a single episode of Mad Men. My fiance has been a longtime fan of the series, though, so, last night I popped in the pilot episode from his Season One DVD’s for a quick peruse. It’s actually a very entertaining show about a wealthy group of Manhattanites living in the 60s, when everyone smoked everywhere, having a cocktail at the office was commonplace, and all husbands cheated on their wives. Doesn’t sound like a very reputable show, but it definitely makes for some interesting storylines. 🙂 A bit of a disclaimer – the house that was featured in the pilot episode of Mad Men is not the same residence that is being used now. The house from the pilot episode is pictured above and as you can see looks quite different from the Pasadena residence that is used in all of the other episodes.

UPDATE:

Just got an email from fellow stalker Kevin who happened upon some Mad Men filming at the Draper residence just a few weeks ago. Kevin was nice enough to send me some photos he managed to snap of the many antique cars parked on the road, some of the filming equipment, and best of all, the Draper house all dressed up with its red front door. Big THANK YOU to Kevin!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Don Draper’s house from Mad Men is located at 675 Arden Road in Pasadena.