Tag: Famous houses

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Bugsy Siegel’s House

Just around the corner from the Witch’s House in Beverly Hills is one of the most famous crime scenes in Hollywood history – the home where legendary mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was murdered on June 20, 1947. This home is often cited as being owned by the famous mobster at the time of his death, but in reality it was leased by his girlfriend, actress Virginia Hill. Born on February 28, 1906 to a poor Brooklyn family, Bugsy, who by all accounts absolutely loathed his nickname, went own to become one of the most notorious and cold-blooded mobsters in history.

On that fateful night in 1947, Bugsy returned home from a dinner with friends and retreated to his living room with two friends. The living room area of his house is located to the right of the front door and the windows of that room are pictured above.

At 10:45 pm, while Bugsy sat on his couch reading the Los Angeles Times, his murderer crept up a neighbor’s driveway and fired off nine rounds from a 30/30 shotgun through a side window of Bugsy’s house. Four of those rounds hit Busgy in the head, killing him immediately and sending one of his eyeballs clear across the room. YUCK! The cold-blooded mobster, who is often credited with “creating Las Vegas” was dead at 41. His murder has never been solved.

On an interesting side note, about a year before Bugsy’s death, on July 7, 1946, Howard Hughes crashed one of his airplanes into two homes located across the street from Bugsy’s death house, almost killing himself in the process. One of the homes he crashed into is pictured above.

Bugsy’s death was famously re-enacted in the movie Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty and Annette Benning. But, for reasons unknown, producers did not use the real life home where his murder took place for the filming of the biopic. Instead a home in Hancock Park was used (pictured above).

A HUGE thank you to E.J. from The Movieland Directory for sharing with me a chapter from his book, Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites , and a wealth of information on the life and death of Bugsy Siegel for this post. When I first started writing this entry, I asked E.J. if he had any good stories about Bugsy’s home to share with me. About twenty pages of reading material from E.J. later, this post was born. 🙂 Thanks, E.J.!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bugsy’s real life former home and death site is located at 810 North Linden Drive, in Beverly Hills. Howard Hughes’ crash site is located just across the street at 903 and 905 North Linden Drive. The home where Bugsy dies in the movie about his life is located at 425 S. Plymouth Boulevard in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

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The Witch’s House from “Clueless”

One of my favorite sites to stalk in all of Beverly Hills is known simply as “The Witch’s House” and it just so happens to fit in perfectly with this month’s Halloween theme. Although not really a filming location, the house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. Known formally as “The Spadena House”, after the Spadena family who lived there in the 1930s, the house did show up very briefly in fave movie Clueless, during the scene when Alicia Silverstone is “totally buggin'” about Ty’s crush on Josh (pictured in above screen capture).

The home was originally built on a silent film studio lot in Culver City known as Irvin C. Willat Productions and was used as an office/dressing room. It was designed by the very first art direction Oscar Winner, Henry C. Oliver, in 1921. Willat Productions was sold in 1926 and the house was purchased and later moved to its current location in the heart of Beverly Hills, where it was turned into a private home for the Spadena family. No one can say for sure how the house came to be called “The Witch’s House”, but mention the words to any Beverly Hills native and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Personally, I believe the house got its nickname due to its resemblance to the witch’s home in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

In 1998, a real estate agent named Michael Libow was hired to sell the house. Apparently he became frustrated that all prospective buyers planned to demolish the property, so he took matters into his own hands and purchased the home himself for $1.3 million. He is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. For the past few years the two have painstakingly rennovated the home, even re-creating the original moat which once surrounded the property. The Witch’s House is still currently under rennovation, so unfortunately a large chain link construction fence blocks some of the view from the street. But hopefully in a few years the rennovations will be complete and the house will be even more spectacular for us stalkers to view.

Because it is so truly unique, I am actually very surprised that the house hasn’t appeared in more Hollywood productions. Besides Clueless, the Witch’s House was also featured in the 1965 movie The Loved One, as the home of Sir John Gielgud’s character, and in the 1957 horror film The Undead. Supposedly, during its time on the Willat lot, the home also appeared in a quite a few 1920s silent films, as well.

The Witch’s House is simply a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season, and it is a beautiful example of Storybook style architecture.

You can read more about the history of the Witch’s House and see some fabulous photos of it here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Witch’s House is located at 516 N. Waldren Drive, at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, in Beverly Hills.

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Halloween

Hi, my name is Lindsay Blake and I have never seen the movie Halloween. I know, I know – it’s like sacrilege or something, especially since Halloween is my favorite holiday. I’ve also never seen any of the Friday, the 13th movies. But I’ve always been kind of a scaredy cat, so as a teenager I was way too afraid to watch any sort of horror flick. I fully intend to rent and finally watch them this Halloween season, though. In the meantime, even though I have yet to see the movie, I did some Halloween stalking this past weekend. Halloween supposedly takes place in Haddonfield, Illinois, but in reality all of the filming was done in the L.A. area.

This weekend I set out to stalk Jamie Lee Curtis’ house from the movie, which is actually located in South Pasadena, not far from Michael Meyer’s childhood home and the Pretty In Pink house. In the movie, pretty much only a side view of the house is shown, so when we first drove up I didn’t recognize it at all. I actually thought we were in the wrong place, until I rounded the corner and saw the side of the house, which I am happy to report looks exactly the same as it did thirty years ago when filming took place.

The front of the home actually looks completely different than the side. The front of the house is a very cute, very typical South Pasadena style Craftsman home. The side of the house does not have any Craftsman features at all. It has more of a traditional American feel to it, so it was odd to see.

The next Halloween location I set out to stalk – the street where Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends walk home from school and Michael Meyes drives by in his station wagon – is also located in South Pasadena. The most recognizable part of the street where the girls walk is a large stone pillared half-wall located on a corner, which amazingly also looks EXACTLY the same thirty years later. Very cool!!! 🙂

Big THANKS to Mike from MovieShotsLA for the above screen captures! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jamie Lee Curtis’ house is located at 1115 Oxley Street, at the corner of Oxley Street and Fairview Avenue, in South Pasadena. The stone wall the girls walk by is located on the corner of Fairview Avenue and Highland Street, also in South Pasadena, just around the corner from Lady Heather’s house on CSI .

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Celebrity Jury Duty

Last September I was called to report for jury duty at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown Los Angeles. As you can probably guess, I was not too excited for this venture. I perked up, though, when on my first day of service, I arrived at the courthouse to see a whole slew of paparazzi standing out front. Hoping BritBrit was there for a custody hearing, I asked one of the paps what news story he was covering and it turns out he was awaiting the verdict in the Phil Spector murder trial. Later that day I ended up being selected to serve on a jury for a brief four day trial and was floored to find out that the Phil Spector trial was actually taking place in the courtroom directly next door to mine! Due to jury deliberations, though, Phil was not actually at the courthouse. But a few days later, on September 26th to be exact, I returned from lunch to see Phil and his wife waiting outside the courtroom for his verdict to be read. Phil was definitely an oddball and didn’t seem as if he was entirely all there. And boy is he tiny!!!! He is probably about 5′ tall – while wearing platforms, no less! Seeing Phil during jury duty was definitely an “Only-in-L.A.” moment for me and really made the whole thing worthwhile. 🙂 Other “Only-in-L.A.” moments: looking at the hundreds of celebrity headshots on the jury waiting room walls detailing which stars have served their public duty at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center and our jury orientation including directions to the nearest Starbucks! I am not kidding!

So in keeping with my October theme of all things haunted in Hollywood, I had to drag my boyfriend out to stalk Phil’s mansion this past weekend. It was at this home on February 3, 2003, that actress Lana Clarkson was shot to death – whether by her own hand or by Phil’s has yet to be determined. I got the address of Phil’s house from my very favorite star map – “The Movie Star Homes and Crime Scenes Map”. But, map or no map, I don’t think the home would have been hard to locate, as there is a large sign at the front gate which reads “Phil Spector’s Pyrenees Castle”.  Apparently before Lana’s death the sign read simply “Pyrenees Castle, 1700 Grand View Drive”, but during his murder trial he had it changed to its current wording. I swear, this guy couldn’t be more of a douchbag.

From the front gate of the home there is not a whole lot to see, other than signs warning against trespassing and alerting stalkers that the property is under 24 hour camera surveillance. There was no way I was getting out of the car for a photo op at this location as I imagine Phil doesn’t take too kindly to people posing for pics outside of his house. Then again, maybe he doesn’t mind too much – I mean he did put that sign out front!

After seeing the front gate area, we drove around to Alta Vista Drive where there is a much better view of the home from the street.

After hitting up Alta Vista Drive, we headed over to Parkview Drive for yet another view of the house.

Sadly none of the streets offered an outstanding view of the home, but you can cyberstalk it on Zillow to see some better photos. Phil’s castle/mansion is actually located in a very modest, middle class neighborhood far from the lavish streets of Beverly Hills. Until reading this article, I was under the impression that Phil had actually built the home, but it turns out it was constructed in 1926 long before the “Wall of Sound” had been created. A very successful Frenchman by the name of Sylvester Dupuy spent about $250,000 to have the home built and he modeled it after a real chateau in France that he had admired as a child. The house was built on a three acre lot in the middle of a large expanse of vacant land. In 1936, ten years after the home’s construction, Dupuy died and left the property to his children. At the time of Dupuy’s death most of the fortune he had amassed from his successful agriculture business was gone. In 1946, Dupuy’s children sold the castle and it was converted into an eight room apartment building where Dupuy’s widow lived until her death. After a string of different owners, Phil Spector purchased the home in 1998 and had this to say about it, “I’ve bought myself a beautiful and enchanting castle in a hick town where there is no place to go that you shouldn’t.” I wouldn’t exactly call Alhambra a “hick town”, but I guess to a famous record producer and in comparison to Beverly Hills, the city might seem a bit “hickish”.

I couldn’t figure out where the name “Pyrenees Castle” came from until looking at the above map. I believe at one time the castle’s land butted up to nearby Pyrenees Road, hence the name. In the years since its construction, much of the land must have been sold off and the property’s boundary line scaled back to Grand View Drive.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Phil Spector’s Pyrenees Castle is located at 1700 Grand View Drive in Alhambra. The main gate and sign reading “Phil Spector’s Pyrenees Castle” can be seen at the Grand View Drive entrance. But for the best views of the home, head over to Alta Vista Drive and follow it to where it ends at Phil’s back gate. After that, follow Parkview Drive to where it curves for a side view of the home.

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Lady Heather’s House

On the second season of CSI: Las Vegas we were introduced to a character whom Grissom later became very fond of named Lady Heather. On the show Lady Heather, who was played by The O.C.’s Melinda Clarke, owns an S&M fetish club in Sin City which she runs out of her extraordinary home. Lady Heather first appeared as a guest star in an episode entitled “Slaves of Las Vegas” and has since reappeared on four separate occasions, becoming something of a cult favorite for CSI fans. Her unique home also appeared in all five of the “Lady Heather” episodes and, being that it is a pretty spooky house and fits in with my Haunted Hollywood theme for this month, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.

Lady Heather’s house is an absolutely ginormous mansion (13,393 square feet according to Zillow!!) located on a large corner lot in South Pasadena. I found the home thanks to Scott’s LA Audio Driving Tour of Pasadena, which lists many great Pasadena filming locations. It is easy to see why producers chose to use this house for the filming of CSI, as it has a very looming and dark presence, most likely due to its sheer size. For the filming of CSI, producers brought in many Gothic decorations, like large candelabras, to create a more dark and spooky atmosphere. But when you see the home in person, it becomes obvious that not much had to be done in preparation for filming due to its naturally ominous look. In person, the home looks like it could be a real life haunted house. And it actually looks like it belongs on a bayou in New Orleans rather than in the middle of Suburban Pasadena. Unfortunately I don’t own CSI on DVD, so I couldn’t get very good screen captures of the home.

In the various Lady Heather episodes, the exterior of the home is shown numerous times, especially the front door and front porch area (which unfortunately I do not have any screen captures of).

A back porch area is also shown in a special 90 minute episode from Season 3 entitled “Lady Heather’s Box”. It is the location where Grissom and the dominatrix sit down for a cup of tea.

Lady Heather’s house is a very cool place to see in person. I highly recommend stalking it if you are at all a fan of CSI or if you want to conduct your own Haunted Halloween tour. 🙂

UPDATE – This very same house was also used as the haunted mansion in the recently aired Season 3 episode of The Mentalist entitled “Red Scare”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lady’s Heather’s house is located at 929 Buena Vista St., at the corner of Buena Vista and Meridian Avenue, in South Pasadena.

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Cher’s House from “Clueless”

For a few years now I have been looking for Cher’s house from one of my fave movies of all time, Clueless. In trying to locate the house, though, I had read several articles and interviews about the filming of Clueless, which all stated that the neighborhood scenes were actually filmed in Scottsdale, Arizona, not in California, so I had pretty much called off my hunt. I had also always believed that Cher’s house was merely a set, not a real home. Something about the house just looked fake to me, so I had a feeling the house was just a facade that was built at a movie studio strictly for the filming of Clueless.

But all of that changed last week, when I got a challenge from a guy named John who informed me that Cher’s house was actually also used as Gaby’s boyfriend Victor Lang’s house in a Season 3 episode of Desperate Housewives entitled “Dress Big” (pictured above). After hearing that, I knew that the house could not be located in Scottsdale. And, being that the Desperate Housewives episode aired twelve years after Clueless was filmed, I also knew the house had to be real, not just a set. So I enlisted Mike, over at MovieShotsLA, to help me locate the house and, sure enough, after just a few days we found it!!

After reading a few articles on the filming of Clueless and searching through online images of colonial style mansions in the LA area, I decided to check my fave locations website, Malibu Locations, to see if Cher’s home was listed with them. Sure enough, after about ten seconds of searching, I found it! Mailbu Locations listed the home as being in Encino, so I got Mike on the phone and the two of us got to searching aerial views of Encino. About ten minutes later I located the house, right on Louise Avenue in the heart of Encino. OMG – If Cher only knew that her home was actually located in the “Valley”! LOL So, of course, yesterday I ran right out to do some Clueless stalking! 🙂

I am sad to say that not much of the home is visible from the street, which I pretty knew before I stalked it, as I remembered from the movie that the house had an extremely long driveway. But Zillow has some good aerial views of the home and you can definitely recognize it as Cher’s mansion. This is one location I wouldn’t really recommend stalking as there just isn’t really anything to see. 🙁

But I was absolutely floored to discover from looking at the Malibu Locations photos of the house that the interior of the home was also used extensively for the filming of Clueless!! If you look at the interior photos of the home, all Clueless fans will recognize the entryway staircase which was shown several times in the movie, most memorably as the location where Cher and Josh first kiss.

Also used in the movie were the Encino house’s real life kitchen, wood-paneled office, dining room, fireplace (where Ty tries to burn her “Rollin’ With The Homies” tape), master bedroom (where Cher and Christian was Spartacus and Some Like It Hot), and backyard and pool area (where Mr. Hall and Miss Geist get married). I must admit I was absolutely floored to see the pics of the interior of the house. 🙂

Mike also just discovered that the interiors of the Clueless home were also used as Toni Marchette’s house on 90210. For the exterior, however, a different home was used.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clueless house is located at 5148 Louise Avenue in Encino – yes, that’s the “Valley”! 🙂 While there is not much of the house to see from the street, you can cyber-stalk it on Zillow here.

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Doc Brown’s House

Back to the Future has always been one of my very favorite movies, so when I found out that the interiors of Doc Brown’s house were filmed at a home in Pasadena, I had to run right out to stalk it. The exteriors of Doc’s house were also filmed at a home in Pasadena, a very famous Craftsman style home named the Gamble House. The Gamble House was built by the famous Greene & Greene architecture firm for the Gamble Family (of Proctor and Gamble). Formerly the Gamble family’s summer home, the Gamble House is now a museum which is open daily to the public. But I’ll save the history of the Gamble House for another post. Being that no filming is allowed to take place on the inside of the Gamble home, producers had to find a similar home to shoot the interiors of Doc’s house. The home they chose is called the Robert R. Blacker Home and it is considered by many to be the finest example of Craftsman architecture ever built by the Greene Brothers.

Built in 1907 for more than $100,000, the Blacker House was originally situated on over seven acres of land and included a seperate garage and a caretaker’s home. Originally built for Robert Rowe Blacker and his wife Nellie, sadly the home and its land was parceled off and sold after their death. While the caretaker’s house and the seven acres of land are now gone, the Blacker House still sits on a significant amount of property and it is absolutely breathtaking to view in person. Besides being featured in Back to the Future, the Blacker House also shows up in a deleted scene from the movie Armageddon, as the location where Bruce Willis says goodbye to his father before going off to save the world. I highly recommend stalking the Blacker House if you are at all a fan of Back to the Future or architecture in general. The house is absolutely striking in person and pictures simply do not do it justice.

On a side note, last summer, while vacationing in San Diego with my family, we stopped in at the Lodge at Torrey Pines for a bite to eat. I could not believe my eyes as we drove up to the resort as the exterior is the spitting image of the Blacker House. The concierge was shocked when I asked him if the hotel was modeled after the Blacker House – he said that no guest he’d ever talked to in the two years he’d been working at the hotel had ever even heard of the Blacker House. Apparently he didn’t realize he was talking to a stalker. 🙂 LOL The Lodge at Torrey Pines is a beautiful hotel and another breathtaking example of Craftsman architecture. Although no movies have been filmed there, I highly recommend stalking the hotel if you find yourself in the area.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Gamble House is located at 4 Westmoreland Place in Pasadena. The R. R. Blacker House is located at 1177 Hillcrest Avenue, at the corner of Hillcrest and Wentworth Ave., also in Pasadena. The Lodge at Torrey Pines can be found at 11480 North Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla.

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"I Don’t Need the BMW Anymore, I Already Have A Mercedes!"

This past weekend while out stalking Les Anderson’s house from my fave 80s movie License to Drive , I randomly found the house of his girlfriend Mercedes from the movie. This was another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were obsessed with finding. We had been doing some cyber-stalking of Mercedes’ house for a few weeks with no luck. We both had an inkling, though, that the house was somewhere right around Les’ house. And then, this weekend, fate stepped in. As my boyfriend pulled the car away from Les Anderson’s house, he took a turn onto Loring Drive and I literally started screaming “STOP THE CAR!” Out of the corner of my eye, I had spotted the house!

Truth be told, I didn’t so much spot the house, as I did the street in front of the house. While watching License to Drive trying to find Mercedes’ house, I noticed that three streets joined and became one right at her front door (shown in the above screen capture). I had been cyberstalking all week, trying to find three streets that came together in front of a large brick house, but to no avail. Until my boyfriend took a turn onto Loring on Sunday, and I noticed the exact same street set-up that I had seen so many times in the movie. When my boyfriend backed the car up, I looked at the house located where the three streets meet and sure enough, there was Mercedes’ house! YAY!

I must say it was very exciting to be standing there in my teenage idol’s footsteps, even all these years later. 🙂 Especially since the house looks exactly like it did back when License to Drive was filmed.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mercedes house is located at 485 Loring Drive in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from Corey Haim’s house in the movie.

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License to Stalk!

When I was about ten years old, my favorite movie in the world was License to Drive starring the two Coreys. I bought the movie on VHS and literally watched it every single Friday and Saturday night. I was absolutely obsessed with Mercedes Lane in the movie, a character played by Heather Graham. I wanted nothing more than to have her spectacular long, curly hair, her cute boyfriend Les Anderson, and, especially, her white VW Cabriolet convertible. Six years later, I was still obsessed with Mercedes and I actually did end up getting a white Cabriolet when I turned 16 and I could not have been happier! I didn’t have the long gorgeous hair or the cute boyfriend, but hey, you can’t win ’em all. 😉 Anyway, I’ve always wanted to stalk the houses used in the movie, especially Les Anderson’s (Corey Haim’s) house and for the past few weeks Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have made it our mission to find the filming locations from the 80s flick. So I almost fell over on Friday when I received a text message from Mike telling me that he had located Les’ house in the movie! YAY!

I must say that Mike is a true stalking genius and my hat is off to him, yet again! After a few weeks with no luck in locating the Anderson house, Mike noticed that an address for Les and his twin sister is shown quite clearly in the scene when they both receive their driver’s licenses. So Mike Googled the address, and while the one shown on the licenses doesn’t exist in real life, there is in fact a “Dalehurst Drive” in Los Angeles and sure enough, there was the Anderson home, just a few numbers off from the fake address. 🙂 I am starting to realize that, more often than not, producers will show the actual addresses of homes used in productions rather than making up fake ones. All the hours we spent looking for the Anderson house and there it was right under our noses the whole time! LOL

So this weekend, I dragged my boyfriend and my best friend out to do some License to Drive stalking. 🙂 Except for a few minor differences, the house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did 20 years ago when the movie was filmed. Missing, though, are the front bushes Les drives his Grandfather’s Cadillac through when he sneaks out to go on his date with Mercedes. LOL

I also had to snap some pics of the distinct shaped house located across the street from the Anderson home, just to be sure I was stalking the right place. The neighbor’s house also looks pretty much the same, except for what looks like a small ad-on that must have been done after License to Drive was filmed.

I must say it was VERY COOL to be standing there in front of the Anderson house after countless times of seeing it immortalized on my television screen. I highly recommend stalking the home if you are at all a fan of License to Drive. If you have yet to see the movie, RENT IT! It is a definite 80s classic!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Les Anderson’s house in the movie is located at 536 Dalehurst Avenue in Los Angeles, near the UCLA campus.

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The Brothers and Sisters House

Got a challenge last week from Britney who wanted me to do some stalking of the house used in the ABC series Brothers and Sisters. I’d actually gotten this challenge once before, but since I had never really watched the show, I hadn’t put much effort into stalking it. But then I saw the house on Tony’s Los Angeles Filming Locations Flickr page and he directed me to this link on The Movieland Directory, which listed the address of the Walker Family home from the series. So, for Britney’s sake, I ran right out to stalk it. 🙂

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The Walker home is located in a gorgeous neighborhood in the eastern section of Pasadena. It’s funny because from the bits and pieces I had seen of Brothers and Sisters over the years, I had a feeling the house was located in Pasadena. It just looks like a very Pasadena style home. In person, the Walker house is very beautiful and absolutely humongous! It almost has a New Orleansean feel to it, as well. It wasn’t very recognizable in person though, as from what I can tell, it seems that producers usually shoot only one section of the house, not the whole thing. But once I went back and watched some clips of B&S on YouTube, I could definitely see that it was the right house. I highly recommend stalking the place, even if you are not a fan of the show, as it is just beautiful. I need to keep my eyes peeled, too, because I am sure B&S is not the only production the home has been used for.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It:The Brothers and Sisters house is located at 1640 Lombardy Road in Pasadena. According to the Movieland Directory, the former Ritz Carlton (now the Langham Hotel) at 1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave. in Pasadena, was also featured in Brothers and Sisters, but I am not sure which episode was filmed there.