Step Inside ‘Ratched’’s Spooky Lucia State Hospital

I first visited King Gillette Ranch in 2009 when “The Biggest Loser” was still being filmed on the grounds and was shocked at how accesible it was. None of the vast property was off-limits and I got to revel not only in the up-close-and-personal views of the locations made so familiar on TV, but the history of the site as well.   

Though it’s just a small part of the sprawling park, the Gillettes’ Spanish Colonial Revival style mansion, completed in 1929, is a definite focal point.

The rambling structure, built in a winding snake-like shape, boasts 26,000 square feet, a dramatic drive-through portico, courtyard, fountains and many decorative arches. However, Gillette didn’t get to call the ranch home for long and died at the property in 1932. His widow continued to live on the picturesque premises until 1935, when she sold the place to MGM director Clarence Brown. 

Brown added several amenities befitting a Hollywood bigwig, including an airstrip, a pool and a projection room.

In 1952, the ranch was acquired by the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, aka the Claretians, who transformed the place into a seminary. They ended up installing a dorm and a few other outbuildings. Since their departure, the location has served as everything from a language school to a New Age church. There were even plans to turn it into a Czechoslovakian theme park at one point (nope, not kidding!), but in 2005 the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, California State Parks, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and National Park Service banded together, jointly purchased the site and opened it as a public park in 2007.

Today, the bucolic property features a nature preserve, hiking trails, a man-made lake, picnic grounds, bridges, and huge expanses of manicured lawns.

Though beautiful, portions of it have a definite institutional feel thanks to the Claretians’ additions — thus, making it the perfect spot to play Lucia State Hospital on “Ratched.”

Quite few areas of the ranch are utilized on the series. The exterior of the imposing three-story dormitory stands in for the outside of the main hospital building and is featured extensively throughout the show’s first eight episodes. Don’t go looking for the Lucia State Hospital’s interiors at the ranch, though.

The streamlined inside of Lucia State Hospital was just a set created by production designer Judy Becker and constructed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Century City. Described by set decorator Matthew Flood Ferguson as “institution-chic,” the space is glitzy, colorful and sleek – a far cry from the expected trappings of a mental hospital. And that ambiance is by completly design. As Becker told “Architectural Digest,” “Ryan said he wanted it to look like a fancy hotel that had been repurposed into a hospital but still retained a lot of its glamour. It’s supposed to look like you want to live there. It’s supposed to hide all the horrors. Because it doesn’t have that creepiness we all expect, it’s an even better foil for the events that unfold.”

The design of the set was largely inspired by the now-abandoned Arrowhead Springs hotel in San Bernardino. Lucia State’s curved lines, rounded windows and central pillars strongly mimic those of the once grand resort, which you can see interior photos of here, as well as here. (And you can check out what the interior of the Gillette Mansion actually looks like here.)

The production team was so inspired by Arrowhead Springs, that they even created fake natural hot springs at King Gillette Ranch to mimic those found at the hotel.

The Gillette mansion itself also appears on “Ratched.” The home’s southern façade masquerades as the exterior of Lucia State’s makeshift maximum security jail facility.

However, the ornately tiled wine-cellar-turned-jail itself can’t be found at the ranch. That gorgeous space (too gorgeous to be a jail if you ask me!) is actually the former Dutch Chocolate Shop site at 217 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

With huge versatility and beauty at every turn, King Gillette Ranch has long been a favorite of location scouts. Just a few of its “roles” include playing the home of Lillian Marlowe (Yvonne De Carlo) in the 1949 film “The Gal Who Took the West.”

The Park Operations Center serves as the hospital where Carol (Florence Henderson) and Cindy Brady (Susan Olsen) get their tonsils taken out in the Season 2 episode of “The Brady Bunch” titled “Coming Out Party,” which aired in 1971.

The locale popped up numerous times on “Charlie’s Angels,” including in 1977 in the Season 2 episode “Angel Baby,” in which it’s used to portray the Warfield Home for Girls, where Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) goes undercover to investigate a baby-selling ring.

Additionally, the ranch’s long eucalyptus-lined driveway served as the Tour de France finish line in a dream sequence at the beginning of the 1985 comedy “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.”

Wild Gary Rodgers (Nick Swardson) attempts to perform a trapeze stunt on the King Gillette grounds — and fails miserably — in the 2017 comedy “Sandy Wexler.”

Lastly, Katy Perry utilized the site extensively for her 2019 “Never Really Over” music video.

Open daily, King Gillette Ranch is a great spot for socially-distant outings and, come October, will be hosting the annual Nights of the Jack, which will be a drive-thru event this year.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: King Gillette Ranch, aka Lucia State Hospital from “Ratched,” is located at 26800 West Mulholland Highway in Calabasas.

For more Dirt on King Gillette Ranch from “Ratched,” click over to the main page.