Mary’s House from “Why Women Kill”

Today marks the third time I’m blogging about Why Women Kill, which is a bit surprising considering I’ve barely watched any of the 2019 CBS All Access series.  But while scanning through episode 6, “Practically Lethal in Every Way,” making screen captures for my recent post on Bistro Garden, the image of a massive Craftsman home came into view, and my heart was set aflutter!  I stared in awe at the home, which belongs to Mary (Analeigh Tipton) and her abusive husband, Ralph Vlasin (Scott Porter), on the 1963 portion of the show, and decided to track down it right then and there.  Thanks to its Arts and Crafts architecture, I had a feeling the pad was located in the Pasadena area, though I had never come across anything quite like it in all my years living there.  I did a Google search for “Why Women Kill,” “filming,” and “Pasadena,” which garnered no fruitful results.  Firm in my assertion that the house was in Crown City and knowing that productions sometimes shorten or abbreviate longer titles, I did a second search for “WWK,” “filming,” and “Pasadena,” and, sure enough, an article came up which stated that in June 2019 the series spent two days shooting on the 200 and 400 blocks of Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena.  I headed right on over to the 200 block via Street View, dropped down the little yellow man, and there was Mary’s Craftsman at 224 Oaklawn!

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I had never visited the street before and, in fact, only first heard about it last December thanks to my friend/fellow stalker Owen who emailed to alert me to another of its famous Craftsmans – 216 Oaklawn, aka the Browning residence from Zathura: A Space Adventure.  (I’ll be covering that property in a later post.)  The enclave, which consists of a small 0.2-mile curved stretch of road with a smattering of about thirty dwellings at South Pasadena’s northern edge, was established in 1904.  Oaklawn was the brainchild of the South Pasadena Realty and Investment Company and Henry and Charles Greene, the prolific architects responsible for the vast majority of the area’s landmark Craftsmans.  The brothers designed the layout of the street, which was initially centered around a large oak tree that no longer stands (hence the name), as well as a reinforced concrete footbridge leading to Fair Oaks Avenue (where residents could access local streetcars) and a waiting station.  Lots were sold undeveloped.  The subdivision was referred to in early advertisements as “Suburb de Luxe” and the homes eventually built there certainly lived up to the hype!  I was flabbergasted wandering the neighborhood, gawking at the massive, architecturally stunning properties surrounding me.  From Craftsman homes to Tudors to mid-century manses, each one is more spectacular than the last!  Two that caught my eye during my visit are pictured below.

As Owen pointed out to me last December, Oaklawn also boasts a striking entrance feature.  He wrote, “When making screenshots, I noticed something in the background that I couldn’t ID.  I was like, ‘What the hell are boulders doing on a residential street?!’  I went to Google’s street view to check it out, and I came across something interesting and unusual that I had never known about.  You may be well aware of it, of course, but at the end of Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena, near the Zathura house, are rustic portals on each side of the street.  These picturesque portals, which look like something straight out of a lifestyle magazine, were also designed by Greene and Greene.”  I had not been aware of the portals – as I said, I had never even heard of the street before! – but was intrigued and had to take a look while stalking the neighborhood.

The elaborate stone structures, initially designed to frame the central oak, were constructed long before any homes lined the street and, per the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, “served as advertisements to the undeveloped lots.”

Today, they welcome visitors to the picturesque idyll.

Despite their substantial influence on Oaklawn, there’s no concrete evidence that Greene and Greene designed any of the enclave’s homes (though one resident speculates the street boasts as many as four properties that can be attributed to the brothers).  The majority of the lots were sold off in 1907 to various builders, including G.W. Stimson.  His son, architect G. Lawrence Stimson, is credited with designing many of the houses, including Mary’s from Why Women Kill.

In real life, the 1910 home features 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,930 square feet, a dining room with a cast aluminum ceiling, a carriage house designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, a fireplace with Grueby Faience Company tile, intricate Craftsman detailing, hardwood flooring, built-ins galore, a butler’s pantry, a 0.45-acre lot, and a backyard pond.

You can check out interior photos of the massive abode here.

The property pops up numerous times on Why Women Kill, first in the scene in which Beth Ann Stanton (Ginnifer Goodwin) introduces herself to Mary and Ralph, her new neighbors, in episode 6, “Practically Lethal in Every Way.”  The residence is said to be situated across the street from Beth Ann’s supposed Pasadena estate, so it is rather ironic that neither property is actually in Crown City.  Mary’s pad is, of course, in South Pas and Beth Ann’s, the mansion at the center of the series’ storyline, is a good 15 miles away at 113 Fremont Place in Hancock Park.

Mary’s house goes on to appear in the episodes “I Was Just Wondering What Makes Dames Like You So Deadly” and “Kill Me as if It Were the Last Time.”

The home is just as incredible in person as it is onscreen.

The interior, namely the living room with the Grueby tile fireplace, is also featured on the show, as you can see in the screen capture below as compared to the MLS image from 2012, when the pad was last on the market.

On Why Women Kill, Mary’s staircase (which is visible just beyond the front door) is very Craftsman in style with a natural wood finish, but, per the listing photos, at the time it was on the market it was painted white.

I am not sure if the new owners changed the coloring back to the original wood or if the show’s production team did, but either way, it was a good move!  The natural wood is so much more appropriate to the architecture of the home, not to mention infinitely prettier.

 

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Mary’s house from Why Women Kill is located at 224 Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena.  The home from Zathura: A Space Adventure can be found right next door at 216 Oaklawn.