The house as it appeared in the TV series' exterior shots
6151 Richmond Street is the address of the house where the Golden Girls live. Blanche Devereaux and her husband George originally bought the house.
Throughout the time Blanche lived in this house, George died, and she later had two roommates, Rose Nylund and Dorothy Zbornak. Dorothy's mother, Sophia Petrillo, later moved in after the Shady Pines retirement home she lived in had burnt down.
Description
The house seemed to defy logic as the entrances and exits were not physically possible. For example, the exit from the kitchen was supposed to exit into the garage but the location of the exit itself would have lead into the back hallway and bedroom area. This also didn't match the external shots of the house as the garage was clearly on the opposite side of the kitchen from this exit.
These inconsistencies appeared over time as the original layout would have worked. The picture at right is how the house was set up in the pilot. The Girls would exit upstage left to get to Blanche's room and exit directly upstage to get to the lanai. The rest of the bedrooms were down the hallway at the upstage left exit. After the pilot, Blanche's room was moved to the upstage left hallway and the exit for the lanai was moved to the upstage right exit.
In addition to this, the angle of the hallway would suggest that the bedrooms could be seen through the kitchen window, and it would block the street. On many occasions, the Girls would look out the window and reference something happening on the street. This would be physically impossible given this layout.
Rose's room, as time went on was moved from the end of the hallway (where Blanche's room was moved to) to the stage right side. This would place her room right outside of the back living room windows. Given this supposed layout you should be able to see the external wall of Rose's room from the living room but you cannot.
The upstage exit from the kitchen was often purported to be the garage but this is also physically impossible. As mentioned above if that was the case then the garage would occupy the same space as the back hallway and bedrooms which again does not match exterior shots of the house.
Like the picture, according to exterior shots of the house, the garage would have been located on the right side of the house when facing the home. Which would place it, in relation to the living room and kitchen, where the cameras actually were when they were shooting the show. This meant that viewers watched the Girls from their garage.
Floorplans
An official floorplan was never created for the house, but fans have designed a few possible floorplans based on observations.
Real Structures
The house in a more recent fan photo
For the first season, the exterior shots of the house were filmed on location in Brentwood, California. The house itself still stands in what is reportedly a quiet neighborhood.
From the second season onward, exterior shots were filmed at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, where an exact replica of the Brentwood house was built. Park tourists could see the house as part of a tram tour along the "Residential Street" attraction, which features other house exteriors, including Harry Weston's house from Empty Nest right next door. The attraction was removed in 2003.