“Brady Bunch” House Declared Historic Landmark

The owners of a historic home in Studio City are saying “landmark, landmark, landmark.”

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to designate the house used for exterior shots in “The Brady Bunch” as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The move comes after the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission unanimously voted to recommend the home at 11222 Dilling Street as a landmark in January, and the Planning and Land Use Commission approved the designation the following month.

With landmark status, the home is protected from demolition, though the wrecking ball isn’t prohibited entirely. If the owner chooses to demolish the house, the city Cultural Heritage Commission can delay the process for up to a year while it finds solutions to preserve it. The landmark designation also gives the commission more oversight on any proposed alterations to the property.

The home was built in 1959 by architect Harry M. Londelius, and it was owned for decades by Violet and George McCallister, who purchased the property in 1973 for $61,000, which amounts to about $466,000 adjusted for inflation. After their deaths, their children sold it in 2018 to cable network HGTV for $3.5 million.

HGTV embarked on a $1.9 million revamp of the house to transform the interior into a replica of the “Brady Bunch” set. A four-part miniseries called “A Very Brady Renovation” documented the process. “Brady Bunch” actors were featured destroying some of the inside while “Property Brothers” stars Drew and Jonathan Scott helmed the redesign.

The endeavor also included expanding the rear of the house by 2,000 square feet and adding a second story, doubling the home’s size to more than 5,000 square feet with five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

HGTV sold the house to historic home enthusiast Tina Trahan and her husband, Chris Elbrecht, a former CEO of HBO, in 2023 for $3.2 million.

“When I was buying it, I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, it was a great investment,’” Trahan told People in 2023 of the purchase. “When I buy art, it’s because I love the art. It’s not because, ‘Oh, I’m going to make money on this.’ Because if you’re going to make money in art, you have to sell it. I buy art, and then I don’t sell it.”

— Chris Malone Méndez