Fox · 1989–Springfield, Oregon → Orlando
Springfield is nowhere: the show has never put it on a map. But Matt Groening grew up in Portland, Oregon, and he gave his characters the names of its streets. Since then the real world has answered back, with a mural, a bridge, a full-size house and two Springfields in theme parks. These are the places you can go.
Groening named characters after Portland streets; Evergreen Terrace, where he grew up, is a real street in the city’s hills.
The Simpsons’ opening ends with the family arriving at the couch, and a different gag waits each time.
NME: Here’s why The Simpsons has phased out couch gags (Victoria Luxford, 20 April 2026)
On the sets: Tracey Ullman in a Fox press photo for The Tracey Ullman Show, June 1987, Fox Broadcasting Company · Public domain; Matt Groening in his studio, August 1987, Anacleto Rapping, Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0; Dan Castellaneta in a Fox press photo for The Tracey Ullman Show, November 1988, Fox Broadcasting Company · Public domain.
The end of every opening
The opening titles end with the family running in to sit down, and something different happens to the couch each time. Here every gag lands it somewhere real: 13 places you can stand in, from a mural in Oregon to a star in Hollywood.
The family are on their way. Press the button.
Nobody on the couch yet.
Thirteen gags, thirteen places: four around Springfield and Eugene, five in Portland, two in Los Angeles, one in Vermont and one in Orlando.
Portland, Oregon · Groening’s home town
Groening grew up in Portland and borrowed its street names. Not every match is real. Call each sign, and it turns over.
Ned Flanders
Reverend Lovejoy
Kearney, the bully
Mayor Quimby
Sideshow Bob Terwilliger
Milhouse Van Houten
Dolph the bully
The Simpsons’ own address
8 signs. Call each one.
Bill Oakley, a Simpsons showrunner in the 1990s who now lives in Portland, points out that Flanders, Lovejoy, Kearney and Quimby all cross this one strip. NW Kearney Street gave its name to one of the school bullies, NW Lovejoy Street to the Reverend Lovejoy and NW Quimby Street to Springfield’s mayor.
A shopping street in the Northwest District. Walk north from Flanders and read the cross streets.
Portland’s newest walking and cycling bridge opened over I-405 on 4 June 2021 and was named Ned Flanders Crossing on 9 September that year. Its bronze plaque shows Flanders waving beside his catchphrase, with Groening’s signature at his elbow. The city called Flanders the brainchild of Portland native and Lincoln High graduate Matt Groening.
A free walking and cycling bridge, open at all hours. The bronze plaque is at one end.
Portland, Oregon
Live marketplace results for walks around Portland, Groening’s home town. Check each itinerary for its stops.
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Oakley names the Terwilliger Curves, a serpentine six-lane stretch of I-5 and one of Oregon’s most dangerous, as the namesake of Sideshow Bob, Robert Terwilliger. The Oregonian put the boulevard above them on its 2012 map of Simpsons Portland.
A wooded parkway with a footpath. The Terwilliger Curves of I-5 run below it.
July 2007 · The Simpsons Movie
Before the film opened, fourteen towns called Springfield sent videos and the public voted for which one would host the premiere. Cast yours.
Fourteen Springfields entered. Pick one.
The box is still sealed.
In July 2007 Springfield, Vermont, beat thirteen other Springfields in an online vote to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie, with 15,367 of the 109,582 votes. Its video had an actor playing Homer chasing a giant pink doughnut through town. The premiere was held in the town’s 100-seat cinema on 21 July 2007.
A small town on the Black River in Windsor County. Main Street is the centre.
Lane County, Oregon · a free self-guided tour
The show has never said which Springfield it is. Springfield, Oregon, has a plaque in Groening’s hand calling it the real one, and a day’s worth of places to prove it.
The Springfield Horseman, designed by the University of Oregon art student Charles Forrester for the state’s 1959 centennial, stands at the old depot. In 2007 the statue was painted Simpsons yellow for a national competition.
The old depot holds the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, beside two small riverfront parks.
Springfield and Eugene, Oregon · Free · self-guided
A free self-guided route: the horseman, the mural and the family couch, the signed plaque, and Max’s Tavern in Eugene.
Plan the route
A 15 by 30 foot Simpsons mural, approved by Twentieth Century Fox and designed by Julius Preite with Matt Groening, has covered the art centre’s west wall since 2014. Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa, led its dedication. Inside, a life-size cardboard family from the film premiere sits on a couch with room for one more.
The mural is outside on the west wall. The centre is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, and until 7pm on the second Friday of the month.
500 Main Street, Springfield, Oregon · Tue–Sat 11am–4pm
The mural outside, and the life-size cardboard family and couch inside.
Visit
The City Manager’s Office keeps a plaque signed by Matt Groening that greets Springfield, Oregon, as the real Springfield, from a proud Oregonian. Springfield’s mayor, Sean VanGordon, helped Portland unveil the name of Ned Flanders Crossing in 2021.
The plaque is in the City Manager’s Office, open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
Opened in 1932, Max’s is the oldest bar in Eugene still in its original spot. Local lore says Groening sketched here in his college years and that it gave Springfield its Moe’s Tavern. Nobody has proved it, and it pours Pabst, not Duff.
A bar, open daily from 2pm to 2am, so over-21s only.
Portland · the West Hills
Evergreen Terrace is a real street in the hills above Portland, where Groening grew up. The Simpsons live at 742 Evergreen Terrace, a number that does not exist in Portland, where the numbers start in the thousands. Groening grew up there with his parents, Homer and Margaret, and his sisters, among them Lisa and Maggie.
A street of private homes. The Groening family house is private and none of the family lives there now: please do not knock. This guide does not map it.
1997 sweepstakes
Your game piece is face down.
Henderson, Nevada · 1997
In 1997 the builder Kaufman and Broad, with Fox and Pepsi, built a copy of 742 Evergreen Terrace in Henderson as the prize in a national sweepstakes. Groening drew Homer in the concrete of the front path and signed it. The winning number aired on 21 September 1997 and went unclaimed. Barbara Howard of Kentucky, drawn later, took $75,000 in cash instead, and the house was stripped of its props, stuccoed and repainted to match its street.
A private family home, long since remodelled. It is not open, and this guide does not map it. The photograph shows old Henderson, not the house.
Two coasts · one ride
Los Angeles: a star on Hollywood Boulevard and a Springfield on Universal’s Upper Lot.
The Simpsons Ride opened here on 19 May 2008, in the building that had held Back to the Future: The Ride. Springfield, a walk-in town with Krusty Burger, Moe’s Tavern, Lard Lad Donuts and a Kwik-E-Mart, was dedicated beside the ride on 12 May 2015, with Yeardley Smith and Nancy Cartwright on stage.
Inside the theme park, so a park ticket is needed. Check the park’s own site for the day’s hours.
Universal City, Los Angeles · Prices by date on the official site
Park tickets for the Upper Lot’s Springfield and The Simpsons Ride.
Tickets
The family were given a television star on the Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard on 14 January 2000, the show’s tenth anniversary. Matt Groening received his own star on 14 February 2012.
Set in the pavement of Hollywood Boulevard, free to see at any hour.
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for walks and drives along Hollywood Boulevard, where the family’s star is.
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Matt Groening in 2024; his studio as it was in 1987 is on the middle set at the top of the page. Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa, led the dedication of the Springfield mural in 2014; in 2015 she and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart, opened Universal’s Springfield in Hollywood.
Yeardley Smith led the dedication of the Emerald Art Center mural in 2014.
Travel Lane County: The Simpsons tour of Springfield (Taj Barnhart Morgan, 18 September 2026)
Yeardley Smith and Nancy Cartwright joined the dedication of Springfield at Universal Studios Hollywood on 12 May 2015.
Theme Park Insider: Universal Studios Hollywood dedicates its new Simpsons land (12 May 2015)
Photographs: Matt Groening, October 2024, PhilipRomanoPhoto · CC BY 4.0; Yeardley Smith, July 2012, Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0; Nancy Cartwright, November 2011, Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0.
End of the titles · go there
13 places you can visit, from Eugene to Orlando. Groening’s childhood home on Evergreen Terrace and the house in Henderson are private homes: named here, never mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The mural is outside on the west wall. The centre is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, and until 7pm on the second Friday of the month.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The plaque is in the City Manager’s Office, open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The old depot holds the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, beside two small riverfront parks.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A bar, open daily from 2pm to 2am, so over-21s only.
500 Main Street, Springfield, Oregon
A 15 by 30 foot Simpsons mural, approved by Twentieth Century Fox and designed by Julius Preite with Matt Groening, has covered the art centre’s west wall since 2014.
The mural is outside on the west wall. The centre is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, and until 7pm on the second Friday of the month.
225 5th Street, Springfield, Oregon
The City Manager’s Office keeps a plaque signed by Matt Groening that greets Springfield, Oregon, as the real Springfield, from a proud Oregonian.
The plaque is in the City Manager’s Office, open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
101 South A Street, Springfield, Oregon
The Springfield Horseman, designed by the University of Oregon art student Charles Forrester for the state’s 1959 centennial, stands at the old depot.
The old depot holds the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, beside two small riverfront parks.
550 East 13th Avenue, Eugene, Oregon
Opened in 1932, Max’s is the oldest bar in Eugene still in its original spot.
A bar, open daily from 2pm to 2am, so over-21s only.
Stay
Hotels by the two Universal parks.
Orlando, Florida · Choose dates on the official site for prices
The resort’s hotels, for a stay within reach of the Springfield at Universal Studios Florida.
Check datesUniversal City, Los Angeles · Choose dates on the official site for prices
A hotel on the hill at Universal City, below the studio park and its Springfield.
Check datesGo there
The Lane County route and the art centre, park tickets, and live tour searches for Portland and Hollywood Boulevard.
Springfield and Eugene, Oregon · Free · self-guided
A free self-guided route: the horseman, the mural and the family couch, the signed plaque, and Max’s Tavern in Eugene.
Plan the route500 Main Street, Springfield, Oregon · Tue–Sat 11am–4pm
The mural outside, and the life-size cardboard family and couch inside.
VisitUniversal City, Los Angeles · Prices by date on the official site
Park tickets for the Upper Lot’s Springfield and The Simpsons Ride.
TicketsOrlando, Florida · Prices by date on the official site
Park tickets for Universal Studios Florida, where Springfield and the Kwik-E-Mart are.
TicketsPortland, Oregon
Live marketplace results for walks around Portland, Groening’s home town. Check each itinerary for its stops.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursHollywood, Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for walks and drives along Hollywood Boulevard, where the family’s star is.
Live marketplace results · prices change
Compare toursWhat’s on
We found no dated Simpsons events at these places from October 2026. The mural, the bridge and the star are there every day.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
A writer’s memoir, an oral history and the first episode guide.
Mike Reiss with Mathew Klickstein
A long-serving writer’s memoir of making the show.
Find the bookJohn Ortved
An oral history of how the show was made.
Find the bookMatt Groening (creator)
The first episode guide, covering the early seasons.
Find the bookDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Travel Lane County’s self-guided Simpsons tour lists the horseman, the mural, the plaque and Max’s Tavern, with opening hours.
Travel Lane County: The Simpsons tour of Springfield (Taj Barnhart Morgan, 18 September 2026)
In July 2026 the Orlando ride was still running daily, with no closing date announced.
Inside the Magic: Universal and the future of The Simpsons Ride (Brittni Ward, 12 July 2026)
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
15 of 15 places · 16 of 16 Moments
500 Main Street, Springfield, Oregon
A Fox-approved mural by Julius Preite and Matt Groening goes up on the Emerald Art Center, and Yeardley Smith dedicates it.
225 5th Street, Springfield, Oregon
Groening signs a plaque for the City Manager’s Office, greeting the real Springfield from a proud Oregonian.
101 South A Street, Springfield, Oregon
The Springfield Horseman is painted Simpsons yellow for a national competition.
550 East 13th Avenue, Eugene, Oregon
Local lore links Eugene’s oldest bar to Moe’s Tavern.
NW Flanders Street over I-405, Northwest District to the Pearl District, Portland
Portland names its new I-405 footbridge Ned Flanders Crossing.
NW 23rd Avenue between NW Flanders and NW Quimby Streets, Portland
Flanders, Lovejoy, Kearney and Quimby cross NW 23rd Avenue.
2701 NW Vaughn Street, Portland
Montgomery Park’s sign and Burnside Street come together in Montgomery Burns.
1750 SW Salmon Street, Portland
Groening draws Bart in the wet pavement outside his old school.
SW Terwilliger Boulevard, Portland
The Terwilliger Curves lend Sideshow Bob his surname.
West Hills, Portland
Groening grows up on Evergreen Terrace, the street the Simpsons live on.
Henderson, Nevada
A full-size copy of the Simpsons’ house is built in Nevada as a prize; the winner takes the cash.
Main Street, Springfield, Vermont
Springfield, Vermont, wins the vote to host The Simpsons Movie premiere.
7021 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
The family get a star on the Walk of Fame for the show’s tenth anniversary.
Upper Lot, Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City, California
The Simpsons Ride opens in Hollywood.
Springfield is dedicated at Universal Studios Hollywood with Yeardley Smith and Nancy Cartwright.
Universal Studios Florida, 6000 Universal Boulevard, Orlando
Universal Studios Florida builds its Springfield around the ride.
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