The Brady Bunch: Let’s Visit the Bradys’ House!

One of the most famous TV stories is the one about a lovely lady, her three very lovely girls, and a man named Brady with three boys of his own. This is of course the theme song to The Brady Bunch, Sherwood Schwartz’s idea of a modern blended family.

Robert Reed and Florence Henderson play the perfect parents, and Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen are their rambunctious and too-good-to-be-real kids. Rounding out the clan is Ann B. Davis as their lovable housekeeper. The TV show became even more popular in reruns and has taken its share of flak for its storylines.

The one star not mentioned or seen in the Brady Bunch opening theme is the Brady house. It was however shown in every one of the sitcom’s episodes and sported a modern look that viewers of that era desired. The structure also featured a separate shared bathroom for the kids and a home office for Mr. Brady, an architect. In the exterior scenes of the home, producers wanted to show a middle class house that would seem well-suited for an architect, yet would look affluent enough to require a housekeeper.

The Brady Bunch producers found their desired abode in the San Fernando Valley, a home originally owned by Louise Weddington Carson. Her late husband had built the house ten years earlier when they were forced from their previous dwelling because of construction on the Ventura Freeway.

It had the perfect look to it and symbolized California living but was just a split level, without an upstairs. This issue was solved by set designers attaching a phony window to the house so that it would appear to be a two-story home in the exterior shots.

The home was used again, with new exterior shots taken for the various Brady revivals. However, when the feature film based on the series was shot, Paramount declined to use the house again. The growth of the trees and shrubs surrounding the original made it look quite different from what fans would be expecting. Because of this, and because they needed a home with a driveway adjacent to the neighbor’s, set designers built the face of the home around a home in Encino for the exterior shots.

The original Brady home is a very popular TV landmark but some are disappointed when they seek it out. After all, it’s just a house that was used in exterior shots. It’s not like they find the kids fixing their bikes in the driveway fixing their bikes.

We’ve set up another “virtual road trip” so you can visit the house, see what’s next door, look across the way, and down the street — all from the comfort of your own home.

The home is located at 11222 Dilling Street in Los Angeles. It is presently valued at approximately $800,000. The home’s interior is 2,477 square feet and sits on a quarter-acre lot.