Where Was Mrs. Doubtfire Filmed?

A real Pacific Heights Victorian

The house is a Queen Anne-style Victorian, one of thousands built across San Francisco in the late 19th century, on a street of similarly ornate houses in one of the city's most architecturally intact residential neighbourhoods. Its use in the film required no alteration to the building itself — the elaborate exterior, bay windows and front steps are simply what the house looks like.

Only exteriors were used. As with most family-home locations, the interiors seen in the film — the kitchen, the bedrooms, the bathroom Daniel gets dressed in — were built as sets, not filmed inside the real house.

Ownership, and an arson attempt

The house was bought in 1997 by Dr Douglas Ousterhout, a San Francisco surgeon, for around $1.4 million, and remained in his ownership for close to two decades. It was listed in September 2016 at $4.45 million and sold that November for $4.15 million — a shade under asking, despite the film association.

In 2015, while still under the previous ownership, someone attempted to set fire to the property's garage and front doors in what police treated as a suspicious fire; the case was subsequently resolved through the courts. It is an unpleasant footnote to a house whose fame is otherwise entirely benign, and a reminder that the attention a filming location attracts is not always welcome.

The exterior paint scheme has changed over the years and does not precisely match the film today, though the house remains immediately recognisable.

Robin Williams and the neighbourhood

San Francisco was Robin Williams's home city and he shot several films there across his career; Mrs. Doubtfire is among the most closely identified with a specific, still-standing address. After Williams's death in 2014, the house became a spontaneous memorial site, with flowers, notes and tributes left on the front steps for an extended period.

The film also used other real San Francisco locations, including Golden Gate Park for the estranged family's outings and a since-altered restaurant kitchen for the dinner-party farce sequence, but Steiner Street is by far the most visited.

Visiting the location

Where

2640 Steiner Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California.

Getting there

A short walk from Alamo Square and the 'Painted Ladies' postcard row; several Muni bus lines serve the neighbourhood.

Access

A privately owned residence on a public street. The exterior can be viewed and photographed from the pavement; there is no public entry.

• This is someone's home — view and photograph respectfully from the street, and do not approach the door or the property.
• Combine it with Alamo Square, a five-to-ten-minute walk away, for the classic Painted Ladies skyline view.
• Pacific Heights rewards a longer walk regardless of the film — it has one of the city's best-preserved concentrations of Victorian architecture.
• The house's paint colours have changed with ownership over the years; do not be surprised if it does not exactly match a still from the film.

Frequently asked questions