The Poltergeist Neighborhood
Although the house used as the exterior of the Feeling's home in the movie "Poltergeist" is located in Simi Valley, CA, most all of the neighborhood shots were filmed in the city of Agoura Hills, CA in the areas seen on the map below. You can get to this neighborhood by exiting Kanan Road from the 101 Freeway and turning north (right if coming from Los Angeles or left if coming from Thousand Oaks.) Then make a right turn (east) on Idle Drive and follow the map to the various locations. As the script called for, this neighborhood was very new at the time "Poltergeist" was filmed (1981) and has "grown up" quite a bit over the past 22 years.
I live just a few block from here and have heard rumors that graves of the Chumash Indian tribe that inhabited this area in the 1800's were actually excavated and relocated to what is now Chumash Park in order to build homes here. How much truth there is to that rumor I have no idea...
A screen shot of a tree and street as they look
during the opening credits of the film.
The same tree and street (looking south down
Rustling Oaks Drive) as they are today (May 2003)
The house used
as the exterior of the Freeling's home as seen in 2001. It is located at
4267 Roxbury Street in Simi Valley, CA. Unfortunately, the
1994 Northridge
earthquake, time, and vandalism have taken a toll on this once beautiful
home.