‘Brady Bunch’ house declared a historic landmark
Here’s the story…of how a seemingly non-descript residence within the San Fernando Valley become an LA landmark.
The LA City Council voted to designate the “Brady Bunch” house as a historic-cultural monument on Wednesday, enshrining the Studio City Midcentury as a piece of the town’s historical past.
“Long before it became a pop‑culture pilgrimage site and backdrop for countless photo ops, the Brady Bunch House helped shape America’s vision of family life in the late 1960s and early ’70s — especially the idea of a blended family,” mentioned Adrian Scott Fine, president of the LA Conservancy. “We’re thrilled to see it now designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument, ensuring the Brady Bunch — and their iconic home — remain part of Los Angeles’ story.”
The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission unanimously voted to advocate the house, situated at 11222 Dilling St. in Studio City, as a landmark on Jan. 15. The Planning and Land Use Commission permitted the designation a month later, sending closing say to the City Council.
“I look forward to seeing this memorialized in the appropriate way as part of San Fernando Valley television history,” Councilmember Adrin Nazarian mentioned in the course of the Planning assembly.
The landmark status protects the house from demolition, however does not prohibit it. If the proprietor ever needs to destroy the house, the Cultural Heritage Commission can delay the method for as much as a yr to seek out preservation options. The fee additionally will get extra oversight on proposed alterations.
“The Brady Bunch” was filmed in a studio for the whole thing of its iconic run from 1969 to 1974. So how does a house that was merely for exterior pictures wind up as a landmark?
Through painstaking renovations and a little bit of actuality TV magic.
The house was in-built 1959 by architect Harry M. Londelius, who gave the up to date ranch a shake roof, cathedral ceilings and heaps of Palos Verdes stone. After starring within the present, the house turned a image for Southern California’s suburban, single-family allure.
For many years, it was owned by Violet and George McCallister, who purchased it for $61,000 in 1973. Once they died, their youngsters sold it in 2018 for $3.5 million — almost twice the unique ask.
The bloated sale worth was the results of a bidding conflict, as gives poured in from TV fanatics and celebrities, together with ‘N Sync’s Lance Bass. In the top, cable community HGTV emerged because the winner.
The channel had large plans for the property, saying a $1.9-million rework that may recreate the interiors precisely how they regarded within the present. The total course of was documented in a four-part miniseries titled “A Very Brady Renovation.”
The present featured the actors who performed the Brady children taking sledgehammers to the interiors whereas “Property Brothers” stars Drew and Jonathan Scott reshaped the dwelling areas.
An inside have a look at the “Brady Bunch” house in Studio City.
(Ryan Lahiff for Eklund | Gomes)
The closing consequence was a close to picture-perfect reproduction of the Brady abode: the floating staircase, the groovy orange kitchen counters, even the well-known vase destroyed by a stray basketball throughout a famous episode. (“She always says don’t play ball in the house.”) To make house for the throwback bedrooms, the crew added 2,000 sq. ft to the rear of the house, in addition to a second story — which they hid from the road by lowering the foundation by a foot.
The renovation almost doubled the sq. footage, that includes 5 bedrooms and 5 bogs throughout greater than 5,000 sq. ft.
After the miniseries, HGTV took a bathtub on the sale. They flipped it for $3.2 million in 2023 — $300,000 lower than they paid for it 5 years earlier and $2 million lower than the asking worth.
The house was purchased by historic-home fanatic Tina Trahan and her husband Chris Elbrecht, former chief govt of HBO. It got here with a few Brady-themed furnishings throw-ins equivalent to a inexperienced floral sofa and credenza full with a 3-D printed horse sculpture.
Fans nonetheless flock to the house to take images from the road, however Trahan and Elbrecht opened it to the public For the primary time in November, providing a restricted run of excursions for $275.
