Where are The Exorcist steps in Georgetown? Believe it or not, they’re spookily easily to find, though they’re also surprisingly easy to overlook, since there isn’t actually a house right next to them with a window for a priest to jump from. (It is nearby, though, and heavily fenced in order to deter tourists.) The curiously placed steps were originally intended to be a quick and easy route for pedestrians to get from one especially steep street to another. Now, of course, they’re an iconic piece of cinema history, as well as an official Washington DC Tourist Site.
Before we get to the location, though, here’s a refresher on the steps’ significance just in case you need one:
So! With that bit of pleasantness out of the way, note that you’ll find The Exorcist steps on the 3600 block of Prospect Street NW in Washington DC, almost exactly between 35th and 37th (36th, heading south, pretty much dead-ends into them) and just north of M Street. The steps can be found next to the Georgetown University Car Barn, itself located at 3520 Prospect; a Google street view reveals that the stairs’ de faco address is approximately 3592:
Furthermore, here’s a Google Maps view of The Exorcist stairs. You can trace the actual outline of the steps on the map just behind the pointer:
Nor is that all: they also have their own page on the Georgetown University web site, and their own page of Yelp reviews.
The steps “always evoked something spooky and suspenseful,” says William Peter Blatty, who wrote the 1971 novel upon which the 1973 film is based. During shooting, they were known as the “Hitchcock steps.” At the same time, director William Friedkin considers The Exorcist “in many ways a hymn to Georgetown,” despite some fans’ more gruesome associations.
Fox’s 21st-century televisual take on The Exorcist premieres Friday, September 23.
(Photo credits: Where are The Exorcist steps in Georgetown via Google Maps, Warner Brothers)
