San Francisco filming locations

December 19, 2013December 18, 2013

The “Four Christmases” Bar

Last December, while doing research on the Venice residence that was used as the interior of the house belonging to Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughn) in Four Christmases (which I blogged about here), I came across this Venice Paper article that stated that the 2008 comedy had also done some filming at a neighboring property located at 1319 Abbot Kinney Boulevard. When I Googled the address, I learned that it was the location of a spiritual gift shop/bookstore named Mystic Journey (which has since moved). Being that Four Christmases did not have a scene that took place at any sort of a store, I could not for the life of me figure out what the space had been used for in the flick. It was not until I came across these interior photographs of the building’s second floor that I figured out a fake bar had been built there for the shoot. I later confirmed my theory with the movie’s incredibly nice production designer, Shepherd Frankel, and then ran right out to stalk the place in early February.

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The 6,057-square-foot, three-story ultra-modern building was originally constructed in 2007 and was set up to accommodate two different retail/office spaces. The ground floor consists of a 2,000-square-foot storefront that has been vacant ever since Mystic Journey moved out this past April. (According to the Yo Venice website, It will soon be home to an IRO clothing store outpost.) You can see photographs of that bottom level here.

The top two floors are comprised of a 4,057-square-foot open live-work space with a full kitchen, hardwood flooring, two patios, and plenty of windows.

As you can see in the interior photographs below (which I got from the building’s former real estate listing), the place is absolutely incredible! Throw in a huge walk-in closet and it’s pretty much my ideal living space.

At the time of the filming of Four Christmases in December 2007, the building’s first floor and roof were being temporarily utilized for a Smart Car promotional event called the “Smart House.” Shepherd and his team took over the property’s second and third levels, which were vacant, and transformed them into a supposed San Francisco-area bar/art gallery.

The bar was only featured once in Four Christmases – in the opening scene, in which Kate and Brad pretended to be strangers named “Kent” and “Daphne.”

As you can see below, the place was dressed heavily for the filming and is virtually unrecognizable from the real estate listing photographs.

The third floor railing, thankfully, remains the same, though, and is what eventually tipped me off as to what the building had been used for in the movie.

The bathroom where Brad and Kate, ahem, rendezvoused in the scene was a set that Shepherd constructed inside of the building.

Although the exterior of the bar/gallery is never visible in Four Christmases, Kate and Brad are shown leaving the establishment and hopping onto a cable car. That portion of the scene was actually filmed in San Francisco (one of the few scenes that was), just outside of Café Grecco, which is located at 423 Columbus Avenue.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The fake Four Christmases bar/art gallery was created on the second and third floors of the building located at 1319 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The spot where Kate and Brad caught a cable car outside of the bar can be found about 400 miles away at 423 Columbus Avenue in the North Beach area of San Francisco.

December 19, 2012December 31, 2012

The “Four Christmases” House

Today’s location is a big one, my fellow stalkers! Well, it is for me, at least, being that it took me years to find it, as I mentioned in last Friday’s post. Yes, I am talking about the ultra-modern and gorgeous hilltop home where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 romantic comedy Four Christmases. Despite the fact that the abode only showed up once in the flick – and very briefly at that – its contemporary façade and bamboo accents made quite an impression on me and I fell in love the place pretty much on sight. Try as I might, though, I just could NOT seem to track it down. So when I finally did this past Thursday morning, I was pretty much doing cartwheels across my apartment for the next hour and a half. And while the residence is actually located in San Francisco and I was therefore not able to stalk it myself, I recruited my good friend Nat, who lives in the Bay Area, to stalk it on my behalf, which she did the very next day. Thank you, Nat!

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Because Four Christmases was lensed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, I had no idea where to even begin my search on this one. When I first embarked on the hunt, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, had contacted one of the movie’s crew members for me, who informed him that the residence was indeed located in San Francisco, but that it had been changed significantly for the filming and would be virtually unrecognizable in person. He refused to divulge the property’s exact location, though, so I did not put much credit into his information as I thought that he might be fabricating things in order to throw us off the scent. As it turns out, the guy was telling the truth. Brad and Kate’s house was changed drastically for the shoot, which is another reason that it was so hard to find. It was not until I came across production designer Shepherd Frankel’s amazing website last week and saw this artistic rendering of the Four Christmases house that I was able to finally find the place.

What threw me off considerably during the search was the fact that, for the filming, the home’s real life front doors (which face the street) were covered over and a fake door added to the eastern side of the structure (in the area denoted with a red arrow in the photograph below), making it impossible for me to figure out how the place was situated in relation to the street. Once I saw the drawing of the house on Frankel’s website, though, it all came together in my head and I was able to find the pad within minutes. WHOO HOO!

The home’s actual front doors are pictured below. I much prefer the set-up of the house that appeared in the movie to its real life exterior. Absolutely LOVE that bamboo-covered accent wall.

Also love that the residence’s stuccoed front half-wall was covered over with wood for the shoot. It gives the place a much more modern feel and adds quite a bit of texture and color to the exterior.

One aspect of the house that was not altered for the filming was its view, which, as you can see below, is absolutely STUNNING.

Can you imagine waking up to this image every morning? Sigh!

In real life, Brad and Kate’s dwelling is absolutely gargantuan – much larger than it appears to be from its front exterior and much larger than it appeared to be in Four Christmases. The four-story pad, which was originally built in 1987, boasts five bedrooms, four baths and a whopping 3,990 square feet of living space – all on a 0.09-acre plot of land.

Absolutely LOVE the Christmas tree in the window. Can you imagine how spectacular it looks at night, all lit up and against the backdrop of that amazing San Francisco view?

All of the interior scenes that took place at Brad and Kate’s house were filmed in Venice Beach at the same residence that was used in Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” music video, which I blogged about last week.

Oddly enough, though, it seems that a different interior was used as Brad and Kate’s house at some point during the filming because in the trailer for Four Christmases, the couple is shown making phone calls to their respective parents while sitting in a brick-walled loft-style residence with arched windows.

Even odder still is the fact that that particular interior (which in reality is located at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood and which you can check out some photographs of here) did wind up in the film – as the studio where Brad and Kate took dance lessons. As you can see below, the brick walls, exposed duct work and arched windows match Kate and Brad’s house from the trailer perfectly. Heck, even the Christmas decorations are the same! Very, very strange! UPDATE – Shepherd was nice enough to send me an email explaining that this scene was supposed to have taken place in a break area at the dance studio and not at the couple’s home, so the seeming anomaly now makes sense.

You can watch the Four Christmases trailer by clicking below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for all of her help in finding this location and for going out and stalking it for me. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Brad and Kate’s house from Four Christmases is located at 85 Burnett Avenue in the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco.

August 5, 2010March 3, 2011

My “Sex and the City” Bachelorette Party

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s blog, this past weekend I headed up to Northern California to celebrate my final days of singlehood with a bachelorette party in San Francisco. My friends Nat and Kylee planned the entire celebration and until I actually arrived at the party site, I had absolutely no idea of what the evening would entail. As it turned out, they had put together a Sex and the City-themed soiree for me which was held at an amazingly chic New York-style loft in the Marquee Loft Building located in the heart of downtown San Francisco. YAY!

When I first walked into the loft, Nat and Kylee had the Sex and the City theme song blasting from the TV in the living room, but I have to admit that I was so in awe of the actual loft that I didn’t even notice the music and therefore had no idea of the night’s theme.

The loft was simply AMAZING and walking in I truly felt like I had stepped into a residence in New York. The place was decorated so perfectly and was just so Sex and the City-ish, that I should have known right away what my friends had in store for me, but the blonde in me had taken over I guess, because I am ashamed to admit that I had absolutely no idea.

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Then I walked into the kitchen and immediately noticed the cupcake apron that Charlotte York (aka Kristin Davis) had worn in Sex and the City 2, but even then I STILL didn’t realize the night’s theme! I thought the apron was simply a part of the loft’s cool decor and when I pointed it out to Nat and commented on its movie connection she must have been ready to smack me because she said, “Yes, I KNOW!! I wanted you to feel like you were walking into Charlotte’s kitchen.” How incredibly cute is that????? Nat and Kylee finally explained the theme of the evening to me and needless to say I could NOT have been more excited.

Besides the loft fitting in with the party’s whole Sex and the City theme, the place was also, of course, a filming location! As it turns out, Nelson Moss (aka Keanu Reeves) lived in the Marquee Loft Building, in Unit #702, in the 2001 movie Sweet November.

And while we didn’t stay in the exact unit where filming took place, many elements of our loft, including the front door, living room windows, and kitchen area, were an exact match to Nelson’s loft in the movie.

The Marquee Loft Building, which was built in 1921, originally housed the Don Lee Cadillac Dealership and was designed by Charles Peter Weeks and William Peyton Day, the notable San Francisco architecture team who was also responsible for designing the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, and the Huntington Hotel. The former auto dealership, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was converted into a residential loft building in 1999 and that same year won the San Francisco Business Times award for “Best Rehab of the Year”. My fiancé and I actually currently live in a loft-style apartment, but our entire place could literally fit in the master bedroom of the loft where my bachelorette party was held. 😉

My bachelorette loft, which is a vacation rental, featured two bedrooms (pictured above) and over 1,300 square-feet of living space. I was absolutely DYING over it as it is EXACTLY the type of place that I would love to own someday.

The ultra-chic pad also boasted a private computer office area;

a large living room with a sofa-bed;

and amazing views of the City . . .

. . . especially at night! Sigh! What I wouldn’t give to live in a place like that!

But my story doesn’t end there! In keeping with the night’s theme, instead of just making a veil for me to wear throughout the evening, as is the norm with bachelorette parties, Kylee constructed an almost exact replica of Carrie’s feathered veil from Sex and the City: The Movie. I was absolutely DYING laughing when she first pulled it out of her bag, as I knew as soon as I saw that flash of blue exactly what it was.

Then to complete the look, she also had a Carrie-style necklace made for me that spelled out the word “Mrs.”, with a diamond stud standing in for the period. LOVE IT! I should really explain here that neither Nat nor Kylee is at all a fan of Sex and the City (in fact, Kylee downright hates the show) so the fact that they came up with all of this stuff is absolutely mind-boggling to me! I mean, I’m like the biggest Sex and the City fan in the entire world and I don’t think I would have thought of any of it!

But the soiree didn’t just involve spending the weekend at an exclusive New York-style loft. My friends also took me to Teatro ZinZanni, which is described on its website as “a bewitching evening of European Cabaret and Cirque, Divas and Madmen, Spectacle and Sensuality with Live Music and Gourmet Five-Course Dinner – set in the nightclub of your dreams!” I had never actually heard of the musical/comedy/dinner theatre show, which is currently celebrating its tenth year in San Francisco, before this past Saturday night, but, let me tell you, the whole thing was RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. The show was absolutely HILARIOUS, the food was AMAZING, and the costumes! Sigh, the costumes! I couldn’t take my eyes off of them! The subject matter of the show changes a few times each year and, as fate would have it, the current theme just happens to be “Love, Chaos, and Couture”, which fit in perfectly with my SATC-themed night. One of the stars of the show also just happened to be actress Liliane Montevecchi, who played Mrs. DeLauer in 2003’s How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days. Teatro ZinZanni was simply AMAZING and I honestly cannot recommend stalking it enough. As my friend Nat says, “It is my favorite thing to do in San Francisco.” And I can honestly say it is now mine, too!

All in all, the evening was spectacular and, as I said to Nat afterwards, she and Kylee could not have planned a more perfect evening for me had I given them a blueprint of what I wanted. 🙂 The following morning, my mom texted me and said that my dad was worried that I might have gotten sick during the party. That cracked Nat and Kylee up to no end and Kylee said sarcastically, “Yeah, ‘cause that would just be so Lindsay.” 😉 No, I did not get sick – the evening was fun, but extremely classy, which is exactly the way I wanted it. 🙂 As I mentioned in Monday’s post, planning this wedding has been a very stressful and trying endeavor, compounded mostly by the fact that my dad has been so sick (and yes, he is sick once again and has to have another surgery today – UGH). But looking at these photographs absolutely warms my heart and makes me realize that, when all is said and done, I am not going to look back on the past few months with irritation at the guests and family members who asked for ridiculous things , the vendors who fell through or messed up, or the invitations that didn’t arrive on time. All of that stuff is trivial. No, I am going to look back and be hit with how incredibly lucky I am to be surrounded by such an exorbitant amount of love in my life. As it turned out the evening’s Sex and the City theme could not have been more apropos, because the thing I thought about most that night was friendship. I have the most incredible group of friends a girl could possibly ever ask for . . . just like Carrie Bradshaw.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Marquee Lofts are located at 151 Alice B. Toklas Place in San Francisco. In Sweet November, Keanu Reeves lived in Loft #702. My bachelorette party was held in Loft #509, which is a vacation rental. You can visit the loft’s rental website here. Teatro ZinZanni is located at Pier 29 on the Embarcadero at Battery Street. You can visit the show’s official website here.

August 3, 2010August 2, 2010

The “Party of Five” House

Sunday night I returned home from my bachelorette party weekend, which turned out to be a surprise Sex and the City-themed soiree thrown up north in San Francisco. Needless to say, I was absolutely FLOORED about it. 🙂 The celebration was, of course, held at a filming location, so I will, of course, be blogging about it, but I am still waiting on some pictures that my friends took before I can do so. In the meantime, though, I thought I’d blog about a location that I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like forever now – the San Francisco home where the Salinger Family – Bailey (aka Scott Wolf), Charlie (aka Matthew Fox), Julia (aka Neve Campbell), Claudia (aka Lacey Chabert), and Owen (aka toddler twins Brandon and Taylor Porter) – lived on the 90’s television series Party of Five. For whatever reason, even though I’ve had the place on my To-Stalk list for ages now, every time I’ve visited San Francisco over the past two years, I haven’t been able to make it out to the house. So, I begged my good friend Nat to take me there the morning following my party and, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited to finally be seeing it in person.

Because I accidentally left my trusty stalking notebook at home, I didn’t have the address of the house with me this past weekend, so, before heading out there, Nat and I did a little cyberstalking to find the address online and as it turns out the property has its own listing on Yelp! Love it, love it, love it!

I am VERY, VERY happy to report that the Salinger house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1994 when Party of Five was filmed. Even the paint colors have remained the same! YAY! The home is absolutely GORGEOUS in person and so quintessentially symbolizes San Francisco that it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as the main residence on the Bay Area-based series.

In real life, the three-story dwelling, which was built in 1900, features seven bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a whopping 6,705 square feet, cathedral ceilings, a four-car garage, an elevator, a gourmet kitchen, a greenhouse solarium, stained glass windows throughout, two decks, and views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and San Francisco Bay. The property was sold to new owners earlier this year for $6,550,000. I can’t even imagine owning an iconic piece of television history like that! So darn cool!

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The house was featured each week in the Party of Five opening credits and in establishing shots throughout the series’ six-year run.

Because parts of the Party of Five pilot were shot on location in San Francisco, I assumed that the real life interior of the house was also used in the filming of that episode. But if you look at this recent real estate listing for the home and compare it to the above screen captures, you can see that that was not actually the case. But I am happy to report that the real life house does boast a small garden courtyard, much like its onscreen counterpart.

You can watch the Party of Five opening credits, which feature the house, by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Nat for taking me to stalk this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Party of Five house is located at 2311 Broadway in the ultra-exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.

May 1, 2009December 6, 2013

San Francisco City Hall

I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve read just about every biography on my girl Marilyn Monroe that’s ever been published. So, imagine my surprise when I came across an article the other day which stated that the starlet married her second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, at San Francisco City Hall. How in the heck did I not know this before??? I grew up in San Francisco for Pete’s sake! City Hall was pretty much right in my own backyard! In fact, I even stalked the place back in October, during my last trip to the City by the Bay. I had yet to blog about it, though, because it was extremely windy the day I was there and I only got out of the car long enough to take one photograph – the one pictured above. Check out my hair! LOL So, the other day, after reading about Marilyn’s San Francisco wedding, I sent my good friend Nat, who lives in the area, on a stalking mission to take photographs of City Hall for me, so that I could finally blog about it. 🙂 Here goes!

San Francisco City Hall was built in 1915 by architect Arthur Brown, Jr., who also designed Coit Tower, the War Memorial Opera House and Pasadena City Hall. The Beaux-Arts style building that stands today is actually San Francisco’s second City Hall. The first, which was built in 1899 and stood at the corner of Grove and Larkin Streets where the public library is now located, was completely destroyed during the 1906 earthquake. Rescue workers were able to salvage the statue that stood atop of the original City Hall’s dome and planned on placing it on the new building. Unfortunately, the statue fell off the back of a flat bed truck while being transported to its new location and was destroyed. LOL LOL LOL How’s that for irony?? The current City Hall measures over 500,000 square feet, takes up two entire city blocks, and cost over $3.5 million to build! Over ten acres of marble were used in the construction. The building’s dome stands at 307.5 feet tall, trumping Washington D.C.’s Capital Building’s dome by 14 inches.

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s wedding took place on January 14, 1954 in the third floor chambers of Judge Charles S. Perry, who was a close friend of Joe’s. DiMaggio’s other good friend Reno Barsocchini and his former manager Lefty O’Doul were the couple’s only guests. Sadly, the marriage was short-lived. Marilyn filed for divorce only 274 days later. City Hall is also the location where Mayor George Moscone and County Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death by Dan White on November 27, 1978.

San Francisco City Hall has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years. The interior of the building’s rotunda showed up at the very end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where it stood in for the Washington D.C. building where Indiana Jones agreed to let Marion Ravenwood buy him a drink (pictured above). City Hall was also used in Bedazzled, The Rock, A View to a Kill, Dirty Harry, Milk, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Towering Inferno, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dharma and Greg (in the “Much Ado During Nothing” episode), Foul Play, and Bicentennial Man, just to name a few!

I highly recommend stalking San Francisco City Hall. It is an absolutely beautiful building and just seeing the dome alone in person is worth a drive by! And, although I didn’t venture inside while I was stalking the place, the first floor area is open to the public. Free tours are also given three times daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m. San Francisco City Guides also offers free interior tours of City Hall every Thursday at 11:00 a.m. You can visit their website for further details.

Big THANK YOU to my surrogate stalker Nat who took all of the above photos. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: San Francisco City Hall is located at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in San Francisco.

April 24, 2008February 17, 2009

The Princess Diaries

This weekend while doing some San Francisco Stalking, I dragged my boyfriend and my friend Nat to the “Grove High School” filming location from the movie The Princess Diaries, which I must confess I was a big fan of. 🙂 I am a total sucker for any teeny bopper movie! When we arrived at Grove High School, I recognized it immediately by its large circular staircase, and was shocked to learn that in reality it is not a school at all, but actually a private residence! The house is incredible in person and way huge!! I can’t even imagine living there!

The home is in a beautiful neighborhood that borders the Presidio of San Francisco. The Presidio is San Francisco’s former Army base and is now a park. The picture to the left is one of “Grove High School’s” neighboring homes. I definitely recommend a drive-by of this location, even for those non-stalkers out there, as the neighborhood is definitely a sight to see! Anne Hathaway’s house in the film is also located in San Francisco, and while I didn’t get a chance to stalk it on this trip, it’s definitely on my list for next time!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Grove High School is located at 2601 Lyon Street, at the intersection of Lyon and Green Street, in San Francisco. Mia and her mom’s home can be found at 724 Brazil Avenue. It is actually a real life former San Francisco fire house that was built in 1911.

April 23, 2008February 13, 2009

Police Doubt Fire . . .

One of my favorite movie lines of all time is “It was a run-by fruiting!” from Mrs. Doubtfire – Robin William says the line to Pierce Brosnan after throwing a piece of fruit at his head at the local pool. LOL So, this weekend, the Mrs. Doubtfire house was on my must-see list of San Francisco stalking locations. The home looks pretty much exactly as it did back in 1993 when the movie was filmed and I recognized it immediately. This location was a snap to find as it is actually referenced in the movie – Miranda gives Mrs. Doubtfire the real address of the home when she tells him where to go for his nanny interview.

The next stop on our SF stalking tour was Robin William’s house, located in the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco. Robin purchased the home in 1991 and lived there with his wife, Marsha, and their children, for the past 17 years. Apparently the house was the site of numerous fund raisers and events hosted by Robin and his wife over the years and was THE place to trick-or-treat in San Francisco. Sadly, Marsha filed for divorce from Robin this past March. You can’t feel too bad for Robin, though, as he pulled a Jude Law back in 1988, when he left his then wife for Marsha, who was his son’s nanny!

Robin’s house is a HUGE pink palace (according to Zillow the place is a whopping 9,310 square feet!) complete with a dinosaur topiary. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a pic of the dinosaur, though, as most of it is hidden behind a large wall. Robin also has an ornate depiction of the comedy/tragedy mask above his front door, which, being an actress, I thought was very cool! I might need to get me one of those for good luck! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mrs. Doubtfire house is located at 2640 Steiner Street, at the corner of Steiner and Broadway, in San Francisco. Robin Williams’ home is located at 540 El Camino Del Mar in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco.

April 22, 2008February 13, 2009

San Francisco Stalking!

This weekend while visiting San Francisco, my friend Nat put together a custom made stalking tour of The City by the Bay for me. She said she had a new found respect for me, as she hadn’t realized how much time and energy finding locations took until she put together the tour for me. I make it look so easy! LOL 🙂

One of the first stops on our tour was the park where the Tanner Family had their famous picnic in the opening credits of Seasons 1-4 of Full House, one of my fave sitcoms of the 80s. The Tanner’s picnic was held in Alamo Square Park, right in front of the famous Seven Sisters homes. The Seven Sisters, or Painted Ladies, as they are more commonly referred to, are a group of seven very famous, very beautiful Victorian homes that were built in the 1890s. The homes are such a huge tourist trap and frequent filming location that they are also known as “Postcard Row.” You can see the picnic location and the Seven Sisters in the opening credits of Full House here.

Our next stop was the Tanner Family home from Full House. Their red-doored house is not one of the Seven Sisters as is commonly believed, but is actually a different VIctorian home located a few blocks away on Broderick Street. The front door is no longer painted red and there is now a large tree blocking most of the front of the home, but it is still very recognizable! You can see the home in the Full House opening credits here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It:The Full House house is located at 1709 Broderick Street, just off Divisadero Street, in San Francisco. Alamo Square Park is located in the Western Division area of San Francisco. Invasion of the Body Snatchers also featured a scene filmed in Alamo Square Park. The Painted Ladies can be found just across the street from the park at 712-720 Steiner Street. The man who built the homes, Matthew Kavanaugh, lived in number 722 during the 1890’s.