Orphan was released on July 24, 2009. A married couple, played by Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, adopt 9-year-old Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) and soon find out she’s more than they bargained for.
I’ve loved Orphan since I saw it in theaters, and I always wondered about the filming locations, particularly that great modern style house on the hill. I could never find much information about it online, though. Several of the filming locations around Toronto were listed online but nothing about the house, other than it was in a nature preserve area and they couldn’t damage the trees when building the treehouse set.
I thought maybe it was in Montréal, as that was listed as a location on IMDb and I couldn’t find anything else about what might have filmed there. I finally got a clue when I found a Reddit thread asking about the house. They also thought it might be in Montréal. However, at the very bottom of the thread there was a comment that the house was in Burlington, Ontario.
I looked at Google Maps and noticed there was a large nature preserve area in Burlington, so I started looking at some roads near there and suddenly I was looking at the Orphan house! They added some of the wooden accents and structures to it for filming, but it was still instantly recognizable.
For my actual trip to Toronto, I didn’t get to as many of the Orphan locations as I wanted to, but I did make sure to get the main house and the orphanage. I had hoped to get the playground and some of the other spots, but time constraints got in the way. Maybe next time!
Movie Location: St. Mariana’s Home for Girls
Filming Location: 188 Dorset St. W, Port Hope, ON
Date of Photos: April 2026
This is in Port Hope, not far from the downtown area that was used in It: Chapter One & Chapter Two.
Movie Location: Coleman House
Filming Location: 5190 Walkers Line, Burlington, ON (Private Property)
Date of Photos: April 2026
