Category: TV Locations

Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins from “Veep”

I often find myself thinking about how fabulous it would be if Instagram had existed back when Beverly Hills, 90210 was still on the air. One of my most-loved down-time activities is perusing the feed of actors currently starring on shows I watch to see the various behind-the-scenes stories and photos they post. Not only do the images provide a rare peek at the intimate goings-on of the production of a television series, but they’re an incredible source of filming location information. Like I said, I can only imagine if the app was in existence during the 90210 days. Perhaps then the world would know the location of Tal Weaver’s (Gabriel Macht) house, as well as the mansion where the infamous red dress photo shoot took place (two of my most-wanted yet-to-be-found spots). But I digress. One of the best IG accounts for production info is Julia Louis-Dreyfus’. The Veep star regularly posts photos of the behind-the-scenes happenings of her hit HBO series – like this 2016 image showing the cast and crew during the filming of Season 5’s “Camp David,” which Julia states in the caption took place in Lake Arrowhead. I was more than a little perturbed when I came across the pic one day this past March being that I had literally just returned home from a trip to the mountain town days prior. Regardless, I quickly got to Googling to figure out exactly where filming had occurred and was thrilled to head back to Lake Arrowhead in September so that I could finally stalk it.

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A Google search of the words “Veep,” “filming,” and “Lake Arrowhead” led me to this 2016 Yelp review posted by user Stephanie B. in which she mentioned that the show had used Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins, located at 25994 California 189 in Twin Peaks, to mimic Camp David shortly before her stay. One look at images of the hotel online confirmed Stephanie’s assertion. From there, I just had to figure out exactly which of the property’s 20 cabins were utilized in the episode. Thankfully, the resort boasts quite an extensive website with numerous photographs of each bungalow, so that wasn’t hard to do. But more on that in a bit.

Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins was initially built in the early 1900s as housing for U.S. Forest Service rangers and staff. It was not until Helen and Fred Dowd saw the site’s potential as a vacation destination in the 1950s that the property was transformed into a sprawling hotel. The couple first leased the location, which they named “Arrowhead Road Resort,” from the Forest Service before eventually buying it outright in the ‘60s. More cabins were added to the premises during their tenure, but sadly, many of the original cottages from the early 1900s no longer stand thanks to several fires that hit the area over the years.

Fred’s passing in 1989 caused Helen to consider retirement and she put Arrowhead Road Resort on the market shortly thereafter. Four years later, Twin Peaks locals David and Tricia Dufour happened to visit some friends staying at the hotel and were given a tour of the vast property by Helen. It was love at first sight. The couple quickly snatched up the resort and re-named it Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins.

David, a general contractor, and Tricia, an interior designer, still own and manage the site to this day and have used their vocational talents to expand upon and improve the grounds and cabins, with David adding meandering streams and two large koi ponds to the premises and Tricia re-imagining the décor.

Today, the sprawling resort features 6 forested acres of land, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, volleyball courts, ping pong tables, hammocks, log swings, a myriad of outdoor seating areas, a jungle gym, a fire pit (perfect for s’mores!), and, as I mentioned earlier, 20 individual cabins ranging in size from studios that sleep 2 to a 7-bedroom lodge that can accommodate 21 guests.

During the month of December, each of those cabins is decorated for Christmas, which I think has to be about the coolest thing ever!

Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins truly is gorgeous in person. It is not hard to see why David and Tricia fell in love with the place or how it came to be used on Veep. Bonus – the employees are super friendly, as well! When I first arrived at the hotel, I popped in to the front office to explain why I was there and make sure it would be OK to take photos. The woman working at the desk told me to feel free to walk around and explore the grounds. While she was unsure of exactly where filming had taken place, thankfully I had already hatched all of that out beforehand, so she kindly handed me a map of the resort to help me find my way to the appropriate spots!

In “Camp David,” President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), her bagman Gary Walsh (Tony Hale), her ex-husband Andrew Meyer (David Pasquesi), his girlfriend Monica (Lauren Bowles), Selina’s daughter Catherine (Sarah Sutherland), and Catherine’s girlfriend Marjorie Palmiotti (Clea DuVall) head to Camp David for a “pre-Christmas Christmas celebration.” Though the trip is supposed to be an outing solely for family, unbeknownst to the rest of the group Selina has invited her entire team along, as well as Chinese President Lu Chi-Jang (Tzi Ma), his aides, and Finnish stateswoman Minna Häkkinen (Sally Phillips) – or as Selina refers to her “that a**-burger salad” – in order to discuss the building of manufacturing plants in key states where Selina needs votes. While three supposed Camp David cabins are shown in the episode, only two of the resort’s lodgings were utilized, with Fisherman’s Hideaway, aka Cabin #12 (pictured below), doing double duty portraying two different spots.

The front of Fisherman’s Hideaway first pops up as Camp David’s Aspen Lodge, where President Meyer and her family stay in the episode. In real life, the two-bedroom structure, which is Pine Rose Cabins’ most secluded unit, features a wooden deck with a BBQ, a full kitchen, a queen bed, a double bed, a foldout sofa, and a fireplace.

Only the exterior of the cottage was used in the filming. The interior of Selina’s cabin, which is much larger than Fisherman’s Hideaway’s interior, was a set built at Paramount Studios where the series is lensed. As you can see in these images of the inside of the actual Aspen Lodge, the Veep set was designed to closely resemble the president’s real life country retreat.

The north side of Fisherman’s Hideaway later pops up in “Camp David” as the cabin where Selina meets with President Lu Chi-Jang and the rest of the Chinese diplomats.

As you can see below, some changes were made to the structure for the shoot. Not only were the picnic table, bench swing, plastic storage compartment, utility box, and metal piping removed from the cabin, but a large pile of wood was added next to the door and the front porch area was digitally covered over with siding and a window to make it appear enclosed.

It is in front of the Fisherman’s Hideaway’s north side door that Lu Chi-Jang learns that President Eisenhower is no longer alive . . .

. . . and that Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh) inadvertently takes up chewing nicotine gum.

The supposed interior of that cabin was also a studio-built set.

Finally, Pine Rose’s Wild Bill’s cabin, aka Cabin #15, is where Selina’s team holes up in the episode.

In real life, the one-bedroom Western-themed lodging boasts a fireplace, a full kitchen, a deck, a BBQ, a queen bed, and a day bed.

Unlike Fisherman’s Hideaway, the interior of Wild Bill’s was utilized in “Camp David.” You can see images of it here.

The episode also made extensive use of Pine Rose Cabins’ beautiful grounds.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins, from the “Camp David” episode of Veep, is located at 25994 California 189 in Twin Peaks. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The cabins that appeared in the episode are Fisherman’s Hideaway and Wild Bill’s, both of which are denoted in pink in the aerial view below.

December 6, 2017
“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” House

My knowledge of the Golden Age of Television doesn’t extend much beyond I Love Lucy, which I watched regularly with my grandma as a child. I am so out of the loop when it comes to entertainment of that era, in fact, that up until recently coming across a blurb in my friend E.J.’s book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, I did not realize that The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was based upon the exploits of the real life Nelson family – patriarch Ozzie, his wife, Harriet, and their two sons, David and Ricky – all of whom played semi-fictionalized versions of themselves on the ABC series, which aired from 1952 through 1966. (The show has the distinction of being the longest-running live action comedy in TV history, though It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will tie that record when its fourteenth season finishes airing in 2019.) Not only that, but, as I also learned from E.J.’s book, the family’s actual Hollywood Hills West home was used in establishing shots of the clan’s residence in each week’s opening credits! I had never before heard of such a case of art imitating life via a location like that and was immediately intrigued. So I added the dwelling to my To-Stalk List and headed on over to see it in person shortly thereafter.

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Ozzie and Harriet purchased their picturesque 1916 Cape Cod Colonial-style pad, designed by Frank T. Kegley and H. Scott Gerity, in November 1941, shortly after relocating from New Jersey to California upon landing stints on Red Skelton’s radio show The Raleigh Cigarette Program. The couple parlayed that gig into another radio show, this one based upon their lives, titled The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which premiered on October 8th, 1944. While the duo played themselves on the weekly series, child actors were hired to perform as their two young sons. It was not until the show’s fifth season in 1949 that David and Ricky began portraying themselves. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet proved immensely popular with radio audiences and in February 1952, a 75-minute feature based upon it titled Here Come the Nelsons was produced to serve as a sort of test pilot for a television show. The movie was a hit and the family’s TV series began airing in October of that same year. The rest, as they say, is history.

In a rather unprecedented move, Ozzie and Harriet decided to utilize their own home in the opening credits of the series’ early seasons, which you can take a look at here. Miraculously, despite the passage of more than six decades, the pad still looks very much the same today as it did when the show originally debuted.

Sadly though, a large fence was built around the exterior of the property at some point which largely blocks it from view.

During my research for this post, I came across quite a few media reports (including this 2007 Los Angeles Times article) stating that a replica of the exterior of the Nelsons’ home was built by ABC for the series and that no filming of the real life residence ever actually took place. I am 99.9% certain, though, that the Hollywood Hills West house did, indeed, appear in the early seasons’ credits and that the re-creation was built at some point after the initial seasons aired and was utilized for both the various openings from the series’ later years (one of those openings is pictured below) . . .

. . . as well as in episodes which required the outside of the family’s house to be shown, such as Season 8’s “The Nelsons Decide to Move” (pictured below).

The interior of the Nelsons’ home on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was, of course, just a studio-built set, but, from everything I’ve read, it was very closely modeled after the actual inside of the Hollywood Hills West house.

Though the television series turned the entire family into icons, the Nelsons remained living in their rather approachable digs until 1975 when Ozzie passed away. Harriet did hold on to the property through 1981, but resided mainly at a modest weekend home in Laguna Beach the couple had owned for years. (That pad has since been torn down, unfortunately.)

The residence’s Tinseltown connections doesn’t end there, though. The property also served as the home of another famous small-screen family – that of Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) and his clan during the first few seasons of Entourage.

The real life interior of the dwelling was also utilized on the popular HBO series. (That interior has since been drastically remodeled, but more on that in a bit. You can see what it looked like pre-remodel here and here.)

Amazingly, the pad has yet another small-screen connection! In 2013, it was put on the market (for a cool $3,295,000) and the listing agent was none other than The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Mauricio Umansky. The property, which boasts 5 bedrooms (all of them en-suite), 6 baths, 5,283 square feet of living space, a 0.49-acre lot, a pool complete with a pool house, a 3-car garage, a whopping 3 fireplaces, a media room, a chef’s kitchen, and a master suite with his and her walk-in closets, was purchased by a development company that same year for $3,025,000. The group completely renovated the place with interior designer Kishani Perera (you can see photos of what it looks like currently here and here) and sold it in October 2014 for $5,250,000 to Law & Order: SVU’s Christopher Meloni. He still owns it today. Talk about a house with a Hollywood pedigree!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Nelson family home (both in real life and from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) is located at 1822 Camino Palmero Street in Hollywood Hills West.

December 4, 2017
Lake Arrowhead’s North Shore Marina Beach from “Vanderpump Rules”

Some television moments are so iconic they cannot be forgotten. A few that are ingrained in my memory for the long haul – Ross and Rachel’s rain-soaked first kiss on Friends, Sam and Diane’s slapping fight on Cheers, Dylan’s epic tantrum (complete with a shattered potted plant) during his first date with Brenda on Beverly Hills, 90210, and Stassi’s discovery that ex-boyfriend Jax has gotten her name tattooed on his arm on Vanderpump Rules. The latter event took place on a beach in Lake Arrowhead, so, as you can imagine, when I ventured out to the mountain hamlet for a quick getaway this past March, stalking it was one of my top priorities. The only problem was that, try as I might, I could not find it anywhere. Not only did I scan aerial views of the lake for hours upon hours looking for the spot, but I also showed screen captures of the tattoo scene to pretty much every local I came across while in town to see if they could identify it – all to no avail. It was not until a few days after I returned home that I finally pinpointed the site of filming as the beach located at the North Shore Marina. Darn Murphy’s Law! Thankfully though, my parents, the Grim Cheaper and I ventured back out to Lake Arrowhead for another visit in late September and, this time, the North Shore Marina beach was my first stop. Well, sort of. Sadly, the vast majority of the area’s coastline, including the stretch that appeared in Vanderpump Rules, is private, so I had to settle for seeing it from afar.

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In the Season 2 episode of Vanderpump Rules titled “Only the Lonely,” Stassi Schroeder and the rest of the Sur gang head out to Lake Arrowhead to attend a Pierce the Arrow (Tom Sandoval’s band) gig. (You can read about the location where the band performed here, as well as about a couple of other sites that appeared in the episode here and here.) Upon arriving in town, the group makes a brief stop at a local beach for some paddle-boarding and sunbathing.

Though not much of the beach was shown in the episode, I was able to discern that it was situated in between a grouping of boat docks . . .

. . . and that there was some sort of two-doored building, which I figured was a public restroom, on the premises.

Though Lake Arrowhead isn’t all that big, the search for the “Only the Lonely” beach proved problematic, mainly due to the fact that overhead views of the region aren’t especially clear from any search engine. After scouring and re-scouring every inch of the area’s shoreline via Google aerials for what seemed like hours, using the layout of the docks and the shape of the shoreline as it appeared in VR as my yardsticks, I finally pinpointed the site as the small beachfront located just north of the Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office at 870 North Highway 173 in the North Shore Marina. Though the beach does not have a name or an exact address, it is situated at the northern end of the marina, at the end of Access Trail 63, adjacent and just north of Peninsula Park, as denoted in the aerial view below.

While the gang is at the beach, Stassi makes the startling discovery that Jax Taylor, whom she broke up with months prior, has just gotten her name tattooed on his arm. Dumbfounded, she immediately asks the question all viewers were thinking at the time, “Why couldn’t you have done this when we were together?” (Instead of getting a bottle service girl pregnant in Vegas, perhaps?) Tom weighs in further, cautioning those at home, “Guys, I’m telling you, do not go out getting your ex-girlfriend’s name tattooed on your arm. Nine out of ten times this leads to a restraining order. Jax just got real lucky on this one.” It should be noted that it was not actually Stassi’s name that Jax immortalized on his bicep. No, he decided to take things one step further by tattooing her signature onto his arm. And yes, he of course covered over the inking not too long after the fact (with a black rose, no less), but not before etching another girlfriend’s name onto his other arm. An FYI for those who don’t watch the show – that relationship didn’t last, either. In fact, less than a month and a half after obtaining that tat, Jax was already looking to have it obscured. As he explained to his tattoo artist, “It’s round two for me on the cover-ups.” Thankfully, Jax switched things up in Season 4 by adding the names of his two BFFs, Tom and Tom, to his forearm. (I so love that he failed to capitalize the “i.” No ragrets!)

I cannot express how badly I wanted to re-create the moment Stassi discovered the tattoo (which was captured so perfectly on film), but because the beach and entire area surrounding it are private, that was not to be.

The site is so removed from public access, in fact, that the view below is pretty much all I saw of it.

For those interested, that view can be seen from the lookout point denoted below, which is situated slightly north of the Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office on Highway 173.

The stalk was not all for naught, though, as we were afforded some gorgeous glimpses of the North Shore Marina.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: North Shore Marina, from the “Only the Lonely” episode of Vanderpump Rules, is located at 870 North Highway 173 in Lake Arrowhead. Though the beach where filming took place does not have an exact address, it can be found at the northern end of the marina, at the end of Access Trail 63, adjacent to and north of Peninsula Park. Please keep in mind that the beach is private and trespassing strictly prohibited, but you can catch a limited glimpse of it from the lookout point situated just north of Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office on Highway 173.

November 22, 2017
Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia from “Veep”

It has been said that everyone has their own special superpower. I don’t know if that is true or not, but if so, mine is definitely my brain’s ability to take note of small, seemingly insignificant and rather trivial details, and commit them to memory, completely of its own volition. Case in point – I have stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia on a couple of occasions over the years. Though I did not spend much time on the premises during either of my visits (typically when in L.A., I am out and about stalking during all waking hours), last year, while watching the closing scene of Veep’s Season 5 premiere, “Morning After,” in which Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simon) attempts to check into a very crowded “Carson City” hotel, I immediately recognized the orange and pink ombré curtains visible behind him as those of the Garden Inn. Had I scrutinized or taken particular note of the hotel’s lobby area during my stay? No, not at all. In fact, prior to viewing the episode, had you asked me about the HGIA’s curtains, I probably would not have been able to recall them. But as soon as the draperies entered my eye-line during Veep, something in my brain clicked and I knew immediately where filming had taken place. Because I had failed to snap any photos of the hotel on my visits and because it is one of the series’ more minor locations, I never blogged about it. But when the Grim Cheaper happened to book us another stay there a few weeks back, I decided it was finally time I do so.

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In “Morning After,” Jonah, Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky), Dan Egan (Reid Scott), and Richard Splett (Sam Richardson), along with a slew of other staffers from both the Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Bill O’Brien (Brad Leland) presidential campaigns, descend upon Carson City, Nevada to head up a recount in the area. While in town, the group stays at a local unnamed motel. The exterior shown in the episode is a partial view of the Carson City Plaza Hotel and Event Center located at 801 South Carson Street, as well as the small strip mall situated across from it at 711 South Carson. (Though I have actually been to CC, I do not have any photos of those particular spots, so you’ll have to excuse the Google Street View image below.)

All actual filming of the “Morning After” hotel scene, though, took place at the Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia. The view of the curtains in the shot below is what caught my eye while watching.

After viewing the episode, I headed over to Google to pull up images of the hotel to confirm my hunch. One look at pictures of the Hilton Garden Inn’s lobby, with its peachy curtains and uniquely-etched front doors, cinched things for me.

Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia also popped up in the next episode of Veep, titled “Nev-AD-a.” (Confused about that title? This Veep clip should clear things up.) Oddly, a different hotel exterior, that of the Carson Tahoe Hotel at 800 North Carson Street, was utilized for the establishing shot in the episode. (Again, please pardon the Google Street View image below.)

In “Nev-AD-a,” exes Dan and Amy head back to their hotel after their first day of re-counting votes . . .

. . . and are shocked to discover that their rooms are located right across from each other.

In the episode, Dan is staying in Room 129 . . .

. . . while Amy is in 130. Both of these rooms can be found on the Hilton Garden Inn’s first floor, directly off of the lobby.

I am fairly certain that the interior of room 130 (or another of the property’s rooms) was also used in the episode. Like a dolt, I did not take any photos of the room we stayed in, but as you can see in these images from the hotel’s website, the Garden Inn’s bed and lamps match what appeared onscreen.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia, from the “Morning After” and “Nev-AD-a” episodes of Veep, is located at 199 North 2nd Avenue in Arcadia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

November 20, 2017
The Many Apartments of Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City”

While it is quite common for locations to shift after the pilot episode of a television series is shot (as I’ve mentioned countless times before on this blog), changes are typically few and far between from that point forward. The vast majority of my favorite shows tend to play fast and loose with their locales, though. On Beverly Hills, 90210, for instance, not only did two different pads portray the residence of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), but three exteriors were used to represent both the family home of Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and that of Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris). Then there’s Sex and the City, which completely thumbed its nose at any sort of location continuity. Though said to be at 245 East 73rd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, no less than five properties were utilized as the apartment building where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) lived during the program’s six-season run. The initial site, a third-floor flat situated above a café (complete with a very New York-style neon “coffee” sign), which appeared in the series’ first two episodes, has long been a craw in my side. Despite many attempts to track it down over the years, I could never seem to do so. Then, a couple of months back, I decided to do a deep dive into identifying it and was finally successful. As fate would have it, my good friend Kim visited NYC shortly after my discovery and graciously agreed to stalk the place on my behalf. Thank you, Kim! When I sat down to write a post on the spot earlier this week, I got a little obsessed with pinpointing the four other properties used, as well, and, after countless hours scouring the internet, managed to ID all but one! So here I present to you a round-up of Carrie Bradshaw’s many Sex and the City apartments.

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Mention Carrie’s apartment to any SATC fan and visions of a grand brownstone with an idyllic stoop will undoubtedly come to their mind. But the spot initially used as her dwelling was not a walk-up at all, nor did it have any sort of stoop. Instead, Carrie was first shown living on the third floor of a rather non-descript building housing a coffee shop on its ground level, as I mentioned above. The structure pops up twice in the pilot – first in an opening scene and then again in the episode’s closing when Mr. Big (Chris Noth) drops Carrie off at home after running into her at a club. It is on the sidewalk in front of the property that the duo’s now iconic exchange takes place, during which Carrie asks Big, “Have you ever been in love?” to which he responds, “Absof*ckinglutely.”

As was portrayed on Sex and the City, while the bottom two levels of the building are commercial space in real life, the upper floors house apartments.

Though the apartments appear to have been modernized in recent years (as you can see here and here), I am fairly certain from the way the episode was shot that one of the units was utilized as Carrie’s in the pilot.

As you can see in the stills above from the pilot as compared to the ones below from the series’ second episode, “Models and Mortals,” Carrie’s apartment interior looked completely different in the inaugural episode than it did during the rest of the series.

In “Models and Mortals,” an establishing shot of the building appears twice. While scrutinizing the shot, I noticed a sign situated below Carrie’s apartment in which the word “Clea” and partial word “Col” could barely be made out. After a ridiculous amount of time Googling that phrasing along with “New York,” I finally landed on a mention on The Knot website of Clea Colet, a now defunct bridal wear vendor formerly located at 960 Madison Avenue. A quick look at that address on Street View confirmed that it was, indeed, Carrie’s original apartment building. Amazingly, while the second level windows were changed at some point in the 19-plus years since the first season of Sex and the City was filmed, the edifice otherwise looks much the same as it did onscreen. Though there is an eatery named 3 Guys Restaurant situated on the bottom level (it’s been there since the ‘70s!), I am fairly certain that the coffee sign visible next to Carrie’s window was not a real feature of the property, but a prop brought in for the filming.

As Kim noticed while stalking the place, a Christian Louboutin store is fittingly located right across the street.

After “Models and Mortals,” the exterior of Carrie’s apartment building is not shown again until the twelfth episode of the series, Season’s 1 finale titled “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” By that time, shooting had shifted from the Madison Avenue building to a new spot – a handsome brownstone with a picturesque stoop. In the episode, Carrie and Mr. Big break up – for the first time – outside of the structure after he refuses to tell her she is “the one.” Oddly, the site was only utilized in the one episode and while quite a bit of it was shown, I had a heck of a time tracking it down.

While doing my due diligence, I noticed that an address number of what I thought was “56” was visible on the building next door to Carrie’s brownstone in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” I examined pretty much all of the Upper East Side, as well as Greenwich Village, looking for properties numbered 56 that matched what appeared onscreen to no avail before finally calling in my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for an assist. Though he put in a Herculean effort, spending hours perusing the Upper West Side, as well as re-tracing my searches of Upper East Side and West Village neighborhoods, he could not find the pad either.

Then fate stepped in when, while hunting for the place via Google Street View, it struck me that the number on the building next door might actually be “36.” I dragged the little yellow man to the Upper East Side once again and started scrutinizing blocks in the 30 range for the right spot. It was not long before I came across 36 East 62nd Street. I had to do a triple take, though, because while the structure at that address matched what appeared on Sex and the City to a T, there was no brownstone adjacent to it. Instead, as you can see in the Street View image below, situated directly next to the building is a vacant plot of land. As I later learned thanks to this The New York Times article, a brownstone did once stand in the vacant space at 34 East 62nd Street, but it was blown up on July 10th, 2006 by its owner, who was involved in a bitter divorce and wanted to not only commit suicide, but to seek revenge on his ex in the process. The blast incinerated the structure, as you can see in images here, here, and here.

A photo of the home from when it was still intact is pictured below via Property Shark. Hard to believe it is just gone.

Carrie’s apartment doesn’t show up again until the third episode of Season 2, titled “The Freak Show.” Well, it sort of shows up. In the episode, Carrie walks in front of a row of brownstones at the end of her non-date with Ben (Ian Kahn) and at one point stops and says, “This is me,” but the exterior of a building is never actually visible. All that is visible is a rather fuzzy view of several walk-ups with iron porch railings.

A few episodes later, in “The Caste System,” Carrie walks with performance artist/bartender Jeremiah (Sam Ball) to a row of brownstones and heads up a set of stairs, but, again, no real exterior is shown. All that is visible is a row of buildings.

In Season 2’s “La Douleur Exquise!,” we finally get a definitive look at an exterior, though it is an overhead shot of Big leaving Carrie’s apartment – after yet another break-up – in which virtually nothing of the property is shown. I believe the same set of brownstones was utilized in all three episodes, but since so little is visible, I cannot say that with any certainty, nor can I even begin to guess where they might be located.

In Season 2, episode 14, “The F*ck Buddy,” Carrie’s apartment exterior is shifted yet again – this time to a brownstone at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. I found this locale thanks to a 2016 post on the StreetEasy Blog which mentioned the property’s use during the series’ early years.

Though very little of the exterior of Carrie’s brownstone is shown in “The F*ck Buddy,” thanks to its distinctive porch railing and some landmarks visible in the background, I was able to discern that 64 Perry was indeed the spot used.

64 Perry also appeared in Season 2’s “Was It Good for You?”

If the address sounds familiar, that is because the brownstone utilized as Carrie’s from the Season 3 premiere, titled “Where There’s Smoke . . . “, onward can be found right next door at 66 Perry Street. Why production decided to shift locales yet again to a brownstone located literally one door away from the previous one used is a mystery.

Though 66 Perry is undeniably charming and picturesque (that’s a picture of me on the stoop taken way back in 2004) and it is not hard to see how it came to be used on the series, as why it wasn’t chosen for filming during Season 2 instead of its neighbor . . . well, your guess is as good as mine.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for stalking Carrie’s first apartment for me and to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping in the hunt for her second apartment!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment from the first two episodes of Sex and the City is located at 960 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. The brownstone used in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” was formerly located at 34 East 62nd Street, also on the Upper East Side, but no longer stands. Her home from the latter part of Season 2 can be found at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. And the brownstone used from Season 3 on is right next door at 66 Perry.

November 17, 2017
The Haunted House from “The Goldbergs”

There’s literally nothing better than being scared at Halloween! In my mind, at least. Terrifying movies? Yes! Spooky decorations? Yes! Haunted houses? Yaaaas! Especially haunted houses! Too bad Adam F. Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) doesn’t share my sentiment. In the Season 3 episode of The Goldbergs titled “Couples Costume,” the teen only begrudgingly visits a haunted house on All Hallows’ Eve in the hopes of impressing his girlfriend, Dana Caldwell (Natalie Alyn Lind), after his sister and brother, Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Barry (Troy Gentile), tell him he is too old for trick-or-treating. Figuring the pad utilized in the show would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I, of course, became obsessed with tracking it down immediately upon seeing it. Fortunately, it was a snap to find.

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While watching “Couples Costume,” I noticed that an address number of 2822 was visible just to the right of the haunted house’s front door. I had a hunch the dwelling was likely located in the same Cheviot Hills neighborhood as the property that portrays that Goldberg family’s home on the series (you can read about that site here), so I started scouring Google Street View for residences in the area numbered 2822. Sure enough, I found the place just a few blocks away at 2822 Forrester Drive.

In the episode, things don’t go well for poor Adam while at the haunted house, which is said to be taking place at a local fraternity on the Villanova University campus in Pennsylvania. Upon entering the tricked-out residence, he gets seriously spooked and uses Dana as a human shield, causing her to drop the promise ring he gave her. Adam then ditches Dana and runs for his life. Later in the evening, he winds up having to return to the haunted house with his sister, brother and mother, Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and face his fears in order to retrieve the ring.

The Tudor-style home that portrayed the haunted house in the episode looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, minus a few spooky decorations and the Greek Omega Theta Rho lettering over the front door.

In real life, the stately 2-story residence, which was built in 1926, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,241 square feet, and a 0.20-acre lot.

I believe the actual inside of the home was also utilized in “Couples Costume,” but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photos to verify that hunch.

Interestingly, the property is a virtual twin to the Baxter home from the television series Last Man Standing. I blogged about that pad, which is located at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square, earlier this year. You can read that post here.

In an odd twist, a different residence was used as the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the Season 1 episode of The Goldbergs titled “For Your Own Good.” Even more odd, that home is located at 2826 Forrester, right next door to the property that portrayed the haunted house!

You can see that home on the right-hand side of my images below.

Odder still – 2826 Forrester was even utilized in “Couples Costume!” It is outside of the dwelling that Beverly tries to take candy from local trick-or-treaters in order to find the “deadly razor candy bar” she made to teach Adam a lesson about safety that she thinks was accidentally given out. I have no idea why producers pulled the ol’ switcheroo like that, especially since, being that it appeared in the episode, 2826 Forrester was obviously available for filming. My only guess is that Tudor-style properties lend themselves to haunted houses better than more traditional homes, so location managers must have looked for one to appear in the episode and wound up finding a suitable candidate right next door to the original fraternity house.

The residence across the street at 2815 Forrrester was also utilized in “Couples Costume” as the spot where Adam and Dana went trick-or-treating after eventually making up.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The haunted house from the “Couples Costume” episode of The Goldbergs is located at 2822 Forrester Drive in Cheviot Hills. The residence that portrayed the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the “For Your Own Good” episode can be found next door at 2826 Forrester. The property that is used as the Goldberg family’s residence on the series is just a few blocks away at 3071 Earlmar Drive. And Dana’s home from the show is around the corner at 2885 Club Drive.

October 6, 2017
Bette Davis’ House from “Feud”

My favorite Big Little Lies quote belongs to Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), who, in response to Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) advising her to let something go, quips, “I love my grudges. I tend to them like little pets.” A woman after my own heart, I swear! Oh yes, I am a definite grudge-holder. So I really should have loved Ryan Murphy’s 2017 anthology series Feud, the first season of which detailed the longtime rivalry between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (played by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, respectively). The show just didn’t grab me, though. Not in the way that American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, Murphy’s other recent anthology series, did. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I didn’t like Feud. I avidly watched all eight episodes and thoroughly enjoyed their historical nature, as well as the period costumes and elaborate (and extremely accurate) sets. But more often than not, the storyline seemed lacking and I kept finding myself feeling bored. I did have a massive fondness for the series’ locations, though, namely the grand Tudor that Bette called home. So when a fellow stalker named AB emailed me the pad’s address a few months back, I immediately jotted it down and couldn’t have been more excited when I finally made it out to Cheviot Hills to see it in person it last week.

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Bette’s sprawling mansion was featured repeatedly throughout Feud.

The stately property was utilized in both on location filming and establishing shots.

The Feud production team went to great lengths to keep the locations featured on the series true to life. The Cheviot Hills residence most closely resembles Ms. Davis’ Laguna Beach mansion located at 1991 Ocean Way, though that pad is situated on top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The front of it is much less grand than the manse that appeared on Feud, but the rear and side are pretty darn dramatic.

In real life, the massive 1926 estate boasts 7 bedrooms, 7 baths, 5,436 square feet of living space, 21 rooms, a wet bar, a pool, a barbeque area, a 3-car garage, a jetted tub, a fireplace, a 0.63-acre lot, a garden, a deck, and an in-law unit.

You can check out some amazing photographs of the home taken in 1928, shortly after it was built, here.

Only the exterior of the dwelling was utilized on Feud. Interior scenes taking place at Bette’s house were shot on a soundstage at 20th Century Fox Studios in Culver City, where much of the series was lensed.

In a February 2017 Variety article, Feud production designer Judy Becker describes Bette as a traditionalist when it came to her décor. She says, “Bette was from outside of Boston. She was a Yankee. We did a brown and green and earthy palette for her. She had a lot of American Colonial furniture, and she had a braided rug. You would think you were in New England, but this was in L.A.” In her research of the actresses’ homes, Becker found that despite moving several times throughout her life, Bette’s furnishings and design schematic always remained the same.

Unfortunately, I could not find any images of the interior of the Cheviot Hills residence, but man, oh man, would I love to see what it actually looks like. I can only imagine how gorgeous it must be!

I did learn, though, thanks to the Just Call Me Aggie website, that the pad was owned by actress Agnes Moorhead from 1946 to 1953. Upon moving in, Moorhead hired famed interior decorator Tony Duquette (whom you may remember from this post) to design the place.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker AB for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bette Davis’ house from Feud is located at 2720 Monte Mar Terrace in Cheviot Hills.

September 29, 2017
Dana’s House from “The Goldbergs”

Brenda and Dylan. Winnie and Kevin. Rachel and Joey. Adam and Dana. All TV couples who didn’t wind up together, but who, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, really should have. Though, since The Goldbergs is still on the air, I guess there’s still hope for the latter two. I mean, any romance that starts out with an ‘80s movie re-creation has to end well, right? It would just be sacrilege otherwise! For those who don’t watch the popular ABC series, when tween Adam Goldberg (Sam Giambrone) falls in love for the first time – with Dana Caldwell (Natalie Alyn Lind), the 13-year-old girl down the street who “smells like Fruity Pebbles” – he professes his feelings by standing in her front yard, boom box held above his head, serenading her with Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” a la Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) in Say Anything . . . The moment, of course, pulled at this 80s-loving-stalker’s heart strings. So when my friend/fellow stalker Michael (you know him from his many guest posts) recently informed me of the location of Dana’s house, I ran right out to see it in person.

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The Goldbergs’ Say Anything . . . homage occurs in Season 1’s “The Ring.” In the episode, Adam realizes he is in love with Dana and seeks advice from his lady-killer grandpa, Pops Solomon (George Segal), who urges him, “You gotta go for it! Make a big gesture, something that’ll show her exactly how you feel.” Things don’t go quite as planned, though, for poor Adam.

Upon hitting play on his boom box, he accidentally wakes up Dana’s brother and father before suffering the ultimate humiliation of getting caught in the sprinklers. Despite the fact that, as Adam later laments to Pops, “I serenaded her brother, I dropped my boom box, and I soaked my Lloyd Dobler coat,” the grand gesture is not lost on Dana and, in the end, Adam gets the girl.

While watching the scene, Michael noticed that a small park-like area was visible across the street from Dana’s house. Figuring the dwelling was most likely located in the same vicinity as the Cheviot Hills residence that portrays the Goldberg family home on the series, he started poking around the neighborhood via aerial views looking for a tiny landscaped space situated across from residences and it wasn’t long before he found the right spot. As it turns out, Dana’s pad is just around the corner from Adam’s!

As Michael also noticed (I totally missed it!), set dressers covered over a portion of the home’s garage with foliage for the shoot, as well as most of the driveway with fake grass.

In actuality, the property’s driveway takes up almost the entire northern end of the front yard, as you can see below.

In real life, Dana’s house boasts 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 2,934 square feet.

The picturesque pad, which was originally built in 1948 and features a 0.28-acre lot, is massive in person – much larger than it appeared onscreen.

The Caldwell residence popped up a few times on The Goldbergs, including in the Season 1 episode titled “You’re Under Foot” . . .

. . . and in Season 2’s “Cowboy Country.”

Inexplicably, a different home was used as Dana’s in the Season 2 finale titled “Goldbergs Feel Hard.” Though little other than the front door of the property was shown, it is definitely a different locale, as you can see below.

Dana’s residence has actually been featured in several productions over the years.

Thanks to my friend Chas, of the It’s Filmed There website, I learned that in the Season 2 episode of Joan of Arcadia titled “Game Theory,” which aired in 2005, the pad belonged to a different Dana – Dana Tuchman (Kevin Rahm), Joan Girardi’s (Amber Tamblyn) teacher.

In the Season 1 episode of Bones titled “The Woman in the Car,” which aired in 2006, the property portrayed the supposed Washington, D.C.-area home of Carl Decker (Zeljko Ivanek).

Thanks to filminglocs, I discovered that the Caldwell residence was also featured in the Season 7 episode of House titled “Carrot or Stick,” which aired in 2011, in the scene in which Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) tries to figure out who took a suggestive photo of him.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael (you can read his many guest posts here) for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dana’s house from The Goldbergs is located at 2885 Club Drive in Cheviot Hills. The property that portrays the Goldberg family’s residence on the series can be found just around the corner at 3071 Earlmar Drive.

September 25, 2017
The Former Site of the “Eight Is Enough” House

One of my biggest filming location pet peeves is when an unfound spot from an old movie or television show is explained away as having been demolished without any evidence to support that allegation. Like Whitney Houston, I wanna see the receipts! So when I recently came across an Eight Is Enough message board in which several commenters mentioned that the home where the Bradford family lived on the popular ABC series had been torn down years back, I was not quick to believe the claims and decided to look into the matter myself. As I eventually learned, the EIE house was indeed razed long ago, sadly. Because questions about the residence linger online, though, I figured it was worthy of a blog post – especially since my friend Michael (you may remember him from his many guest posts) was able to dig up some proof of its demolition.

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For those not familiar with Eight Is Enough, the show, which ran from 1977 to 1981, was based upon the 1975 memoir of Tom Braden, a Washington, D.C.-area political columnist who, with wife Joan, had eight children. For the series, the family’s last name was changed to Bradford and the setting shifted to Sacramento, where Tom (Dick Van Patten) and second wife, Abby (Betty Buckley), lived with their large brood – David (Grant Goodeve), Mary (Lani O’Grady), Joannie (Laurie Walters), Susan (Susan Richardson), Nancy (Dianne Kay), Elizabeth (Connie Needham), Tommy (Willie Aames) and Nicholas (Adam Rich) – in a charming two-story Colonial-style dwelling. (Diana Hyland, the actress who played Joan, Tom’s first wife and mother of the Bradford clan, sadly passed away in the middle of the series’ inaugural season and only appeared in the first four episodes. Tom then married Abby at the beginning of Season 2.)

A commenter on the Eight Is Enough message board had stated that the Bradford pad formerly stood right off Lankershim Boulevard at 10703 Chiquita Street in North Hollywood. Early on in my research, though, I unearthed a The Sacramento Bee article from 2015 in which associate producer Sandra Bice said that the property used on the show was located in Burbank. She explained that EIE location managers likely did some scouting of Sactown neighborhoods and then found a house in the vicinity of Warner Bros. Studio, where the series was lensed, that had a similar look and feel. I was not sure which source to believe, but felt an associate producer was likely more credible. To fulfill my due diligence, I did look into the Chiquita Street address, though. Number 10703 is no longer in existence, but, as Google showed me, that address falls at the end of a small cul-de-sac in Studio City, not North Hollywood. While there are several newly built homes situated in the cul-de-sac today, aside from a mid-90s construction date, I could find no other information on them or what stood there prior anywhere.

Seemingly stuck, without any sort of idea where to turn next, I brought Michael in on the hunt. Thankfully, he was able to work his usual magic, showing me the receipts via a 1984 Press Democrat article in which the home’s location was spelled out in literal black and white. As it turns out, the message board commenter was correct – almost. The Eight Is Enough house was once located at 10733 Chiquita Street (not 10703).

Running a search on that address, Michael then came across a building permit which showed that the residence was torn down in 1996.

The permit also provided a diagram revealing how the property was formerly laid out.

Armed with that information, I headed over to the Historic Aerials website to see if I could figure out exactly where the house and its detached garage used to be situated. Though a bit hard to see, the Bradford residence and garage are marked with pink and blue arrows, respectively, in the images below.

Using that imagery, along with the building permit, I was able to discern that the Eight Is Enough house and garage formerly stood in the areas denoted with pink boxes below.

That spot is pictured below in its current state.

The home, said to be at 1436 Oak Street in Sacramento on the series, was used extensively throughout Eight Is Enough’s 5-season run. Not only did the dwelling pop up regularly in establishing shots . . .

. . . but it also appeared in each episode’s opening credits . . .

. . . as well as in countless on location scenes. The residence was also featured in the 1987 made-for-television movie Eight Is Enough: A Family Reunion and in 1989’s An Eight Is Enough Wedding, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of either production with which to make screen captures for this post.

Only the exterior of the dwelling appeared on Eight Is Enough. Interiors were filmed inside of a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio.

Though the Bradford house is long gone, the road leading up to it still looks relatively the same.

Thanks to IMDB and the Eight Is Enough message board, I learned that the residence was an onscreen regular in its day, most likely due to its charming aesthetic, proximity to several studios, and Anywhere, U.S.A. feel. In the Season 2 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Where’s Houston?,” which aired in 1976, the Bradford pad portrayed the home of Houston Preli (Lane Bradbury).

I believe the property’s actual interior was also utilized in the episode.

The pad popped up on The Rockford Files once again two years later, this time as the supposed Sherman Oaks home belonging to Jay Rockfelt’s (John Pleshette) parents in Season 4’s “Dwarf in a Helium Hat.”

From the way the episode was shot, I can say with certainty that the real life interior was also featured.

The Eight Is Enough house was used in an establishing shot of the residence belonging to Rebecca Steck (Paula Hoffman) in the Season 2 episode of Valerie – or The Hogan Family, if you’re watching in syndication – titled “Caught on a Hot Tin Roof,” which aired in 1986.

Interestingly, the shot was actually borrowed from the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, which makes sense being that both series were produced by Lorimar. Though the quality of The Hogan Family cap is terrible (I could not find a hi-res version of “Caught on a Hot Tin Roof” to stream), as you can see, the images above and below are one and the same.

In 1987, it popped up as the supposed Eden, Oregon-area Sitwell Mortuary where Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) met with some blackmail victims in the Season 4 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “Trouble in Eden.” (Thanks to fellow stalker Dennis for the tip!)

The property’s interior also briefly appeared in the episode, though the main mortuary room featured was, I believe, just a set.

The Bradford home also portrayed the Conventry Presbyterian Halloween Spook House in the Season 3 episode of Quantum Leap titled “The Boogieman: October 31st, 1964,” which aired in 1990.

Thanks to fellow stalker AJM, I learned that the Bradford residence was used extensively as the home of Cus D’Amato (George C. Scott) and Camille Ewald (Lilyan Chauvin), where Mike Tyson (Michael Jai White) lived while training to become a boxer, in the 1995 biopic Tyson.

The interior of the pad also appeared in the movie.

Update – While perusing photographs of the 1938 Lankershim Bridge collapse, a fellow stalker named Paul spotted the Bradford home! He was kind enough to share the photos with me to post here. The image below is from the USC Libraries Digital Collection. The Bradford pad is denoted with a blue circle. Though not perfectly clear, it is a much better shot of the property than the ones provided by Historic Aerials. I love that, despite the somewhat fuzzy imagery, the home is still definitely recognizable from Eight Is Enough.

The second photo Paul shared comes from the Water and Power Associates website and, once again, the Bradford residence, which is pictured from the rear, is circled in blue. Though I have not been able to discern when precisely the property was originally built, at least we now know, thanks to Paul, that it was constructed at some point prior to 1938.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael (you can read his many guest posts here) for helping to confirm this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Bradford home from Eight Is Enough was formerly located at 10733 Chiquita Street in Studio City. The residence was torn down in 1996 and a new house now stands in its place.

September 22, 2017
The Francis F. Palmer House from “Gossip Girl”

A Gossip Girl tour of New York wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Constance Billard School for Girls/St. Jude’s School for Boys, the elite preparatory academy attended by Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), and the rest of “Manhattan’s elite” teenage set on the CW series. The only problem is that four different locations (yes, four!) actually portrayed the learning institution. I visited (and blogged about) the most recognizable of the bunch, the Museum of the City of New York, while in NYC back in 2009. And while I desperately wanted to stalk the second-most recognizable spot, the Francis F. Palmer House, aka the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (try saying that one five times fast!), I wasn’t able to get around to it on that trip. So there was no way I was missing it during my latest Big Apple vacation last April.

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The Francis F. Palmer House was originally constructed from 1916 to 1918 on a corner plot of land located at East 93rd Street and Park Avenue that was once the site of an 1847 residence built by Winfield Scott, a war hero who served as Commanding General of the United States Army from 1841 to 1861.

Commissioned by wealthy banker Francis Palmer, the Georgian Federal-style estate was designed by the Delano & Aldrich architecture firm, who employed brick and Tuscan marble in the construction. At the time of its inception, the five-story pad boasted a Mansard roof, a Juliet balcony, a library, a myriad of fireplaces, and a large formal garden courtyard situated on its west side.

When Palmer passed away in 1926, his widow sold the residence to George F. Baker, Jr., the son of a well-to-do banker. Baker snatched up three surrounding properties, as well, razed them and hired Delano & Aldrich to build a garage with servants’ quarters and a large secondary wing complete with a ballroom in their place. The new structures were all situated around the garden courtyard, making it the focal point of the dwelling.

In 1959, Baker’s widow sold the sprawling mansion to the Synod of Bishops (aka the administration of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia), who transformed it into their headquarters. While the property underwent a few modifications to make it functional as a workplace, not much was altered, thankfully, and the changes that were made honored the original design. As part of the transformation, the Synod opened up the large brick wall surrounding the central courtyard (allowing it to be visible from the street) and added a gorgeous wrought iron gate. A towering Imperial staircase was also installed at the rear of the courtyard in order to grant easier access to the second floor. Today, the site is comprised of an administration building and two churches, the Cathedral of the Icon of Our Lady of the Sign and St. Sergius Church.

The Francis F. Palmer House was only utilized as Constance Billard School for Girls/St. Jude’s School for Boys during a portion of Gossip Girl’s inaugural season, first appearing in the episode titled “Poison Ivy.”

The site’s 93rd Street exterior . . .

. . . as well as its courtyard and stairwell made numerous appearances during Season 1 and should be immediately recognizable to GG fans.

Eagle-eyed viewers undoubtedly know that a second school courtyard was also featured during Season 1 and throughout the end of Season 2. That spot cannot be found at the Francis F. Palmer House, though. It was actually just a set built on a soundstage at Silvercup Studios in Queens where the series was lensed.

Most interior school scenes were also shot on a studio-built set at Silvercup.

The inside of the Palmer House did pop up a few times as the interior of Constance Billard/St. Jude’s during Season 1, though, including in the episodes “Poison Ivy” and “A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate.”

“A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate” was actually the last time the Palmer House made an appearance on Gossip Girl. For whatever reason, beginning with the episode that followed, titled “The Blair Bitch Project,” the Museum of the City of New York started standing in for the gang’s school and the Palmer House was never to be seen again.

Then, inexplicably, at the beginning of Season 2, locales shifted once again – this time to The Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, though establishing shots of the Museum of the City of New York were still often utilized.

Despite the Palmer House’s rather brief stint on Gossip Girl, it is still, in my opinion, one of the most recognizable locations from the show, not to mention a gorgeous example of New York’s early 20th Century architecture. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

The Palmer House also stands in for The Briarton School, where Jamie Burns (Matt Bomer) teaches, on the third season of The Sinner.

And it popped up as the home of Nicholas Endicott (Dermot Mulroney) in the Season 1 episode of Prodigal Son titled “Like Father . . . “

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Francis F. Palmer House, aka the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, aka Constance Billard School for Girls/St. Jude’s School for Boys on Gossip Girl, is located at 75 East 93rd Street on New York’s Upper East Side. The other locations utilized as the gang’s academy on the series are the Museum of the City of New York at 1220 Fifth Avenue, also on the Upper East Side, The Packer Collegiate Institute at 170 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn, and Silvercup Studios at 42-22 22nd Avenue in Long Island City.

September 1, 2017