Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. A small residential house. Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show? A. In Bon Temps, Louisiana. Q. When did we see it on the show? A. In Episode 12 of Season 3, "Evil Is Going On" (the season finale). It's seen in a short scene, near the end of the episode, where Hoyt & Jessica pull up outside the house in a car. Hoyt has Jessica blindfolded, so she can't see the surprise he has planned, and he leads her by the hand to the door of the small, white house. Inside, Jessica looks around and (despite the fact that it's obviously somewhat dismal), gets excited over the possibilities of fixing up the place. Hoyt tells her that he got the house for her, and that he wants to marry her. When she says they can't get married (because of the whole vampire thing), Hoyt says that people become ministers on the Internet, and if necessary, he'll become a minister and marry them himself. As he playfully picks her up, the camera pulls back to show a rather sinister-looking doll lying on the floor of the next room. Q. What is it actually, in real life? A. A house on the outskirts of a movie ranch. Q. Where can I find it in real life?

The location: Hoyt & Jessica's New House

A. At first glance, the house appears to be just another house, located on the west side of Bennett Road, across from the American Wholesale Nursery.

But it's actually part of the Big Sky Movie Ranch.  The ranch's official address is 4927 Bennett Road, in Simi Valley, CA.


The ranch shares a lot of Hollywood history. It was one of the main filming locations for the popular "Little House on the Prairie", (including the fictional town of Walnut Grove).  Other productions filmed here include "Carnivàle", "Jericho",  "Transformers", "Highway to Heaven", "Father Murphy", "Bonanza", "Gunsmoke", "Rawhide" and "The Thorn Birds".

The Hoyt/Jessica house is located about 150 feet away from (south of) the ranch's entrance road (at the above address), just a quarter mile west/northwest of where Bennett Road forks off from Tapo Canyon Road..


Simi Valley is located northwest of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, just within Hollywood's 30-mile studio zone.  This particular part of Simi Valley is in the mountains above the actual valley, about two and a half miles north of the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway.

Here is an aerial photo of the house. And here is a map link.

(And here is the official website of Big Sky Movie Ranch.)

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A.  I got an email from a fan, Cindy Nunn, who (in May 2011) had been out hiking with her sister in the Tapo Canyon area of Simi Valley when they came across True Blood being filmed at a house located on just off Tapo Canyon Road.




Cindy Nunn shot these photos of the house in May 2011:









She sent me the photos of the house (above).


The Hoyt & Jessica scene was so short, that I frankly didn't recognize the place.

Since True Blood was then filming the 4th season, I assumed the house would be a new location for that new season. 


But I had a hard time pinning down the street address, and after I realized it was next to Big Sky Movie Ranch, I began wondering if maybe it was part of the ranch.


So, I went to the ranch's  website to see if they had a photo of the house on their site (as one of their available sets).  They didn't, but I noticed that True Blood was listed among their credits.


So, I emailed them and asked if they knew which scene from True Blood had been shot at the ranch, and they told me that they had filmed the scene of Hoyt buying Jessica the new house, which had also appeared in the last season.


Of course, I immediately watched the Season 3 finale again, found the scene with Hoyt & Jessica, and as I expected, it was the same house that was in the photos Cindy had sent me...


 Here's a link to Cindy's blog, "Hill & Dale Hikes Thru Simi Valley."  (Thanks, Cindy!)