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The Alhambra from “NCIS”

Sometimes you go years wondering about a location only to find out that it is right in your own backyard. For what seemed like ages, I had wanted to track down the United States Criminal Investigative Service office from NCIS. I had a feeling that the series used two different structures – one for establishing shots and one for on location exterior filming – and it turns out I was right. While watching a scene that took place outside of NCIS headquarters in the Season 11 episode titled “Crescent City (Part I),” I immediately recognized one of the visible buildings as being part of The Alhambra, a large commercial office and retail complex in Alhambra that I had visited often when I lived in L.A. That led to me eventually finding the structure used in establishing shots, as well. But more on that later.

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The Alhambra complex was built for C F Braun & Co., a petrochemical engineering company originally founded by Carl Franklin Braun in San Francisco in 1909. After World War I, Braun, seeking to expand the business, decided to relocate the main offices to Southern California where real estate was more affordable. He purchased a 45-acre plot of land at the corner of West Mission Road and South Fremont Avenue in Alhambra and proceeded to build a large office complex there. The beautiful site, which looks more like a college campus than a company headquarters, was completed in 1922.

Braun passed away in 1954, but the company continued to function throughout 1980, at which time it was acquired by Santa Fe International. The business then went through a succession of different owners and its Alhambra headquarters was eventually sold to The Ratkovich Company in 1999. The development firm set about revitalizing the site by adding retail shops, a massive gym and a housing development. The new complex was dubbed “The Alhambra.”

My mom used to teach in the Alhambra area and attended several conferences at The Alhambra. For reasons I no longer remember, I dropped her off at many of those conferences. On my first visit, upon driving into the complex, I became mesmerized by its beauty and wound up wandering around a bit.

Though I fell in love with many aspects of the complex, my favorite feature is easily the walking bridge that links it to a shopping center located across the street. In that shopping center? A Starbucks! So yes, I’ve utilized that walking bridge many a time .

I figured filming had to have taken place at The Alhambra at some point, but, at the time, could not seem to find any information about its cinematic history online. Then one day, while watching an early episode of House, I spotted it standing in for the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) and made a mental note to re-visit the complex so that I could stalk it properly. I never got around to it, though. Then when I saw it pop up on NCIS last year, The Alhambra moved right to the top of my To-Stalk List.

In the beginning of the “Crescent City (Part I)” episode of NCIS, Eleanor Bishop (Emily Wickersham) is shown trying to make a repair to her car outside of what is supposed to be the United States Criminal Investigative Service office in Washington, D.C.

While watching, I immediately recognized the brick exterior and unique roofline of The Alhambra’s A9 East building.

The area where the scene was shot is denoted with a pink “X” in the aerial view below.

A far-off view of that same area is pictured in the photograph below.

Later in the episode, Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) and T.C. Fornell (Joe Spano) are shown walking through what is supposedly the Washington Navy Yard. In reality, the men were strolling along the eastern side of The Alhambra’s Building A10. (My photograph was taken a bit too far north and does not perfectly match the scene, but the building pictured in my photo is visible in the far background of the screen capture below.)

The area and direction in which the men walked is denoted with a pink arrow below.

The trio eventually winds up in the courtyard of The Alhambra’s Building A9 East.

That courtyard is denoted with a pink “X” in the aerial view below.

The Alhambra has appeared in several other episodes of NCIS, including Season 9’s “Till Death Do Us Part.”

Once I discovered NCIS’ use of The Alhambra for on location exterior filming of scenes taking place at the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service office, I decided to attempt to track down the building used for establishing shots. It turned out to be a rather easy hunt. The real life headquarters of NCIS in Washington, D.C., aka the the CNIC (Commander, Navy Installations Command) office, is used for those shots. That building is located at 716 Sicard Street SE at the Washington Navy Yard. You can see a photo of it here.

As I mentioned above, The Alhambra also regularly masked as the exterior of the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital on the television series House. The stills below are from the Season 2 episode titled “Daddy’s Boy.”

The Alhambra also appeared in the Season 3 episode titled “Son of a Coma Guy.”

As well as in Season 3’s “Needle in a Haystack.” For that episode, the grounds of The Alhambra were covered in snow.

Well, a portion of the grounds, at least. As you can see in the screen capture below, the production team failed to put snow on the far end of the street leading into The Alhambra, making the flurry appear to be a bit fake. Whoops!

The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer also made extensive use of The Alhambra. Though UCLA was initially utilized to masquerade as the University of California, Sunnydale on the show, when filming on a operating campus proved to be too difficult, production moved to The Alhambra to shoot exterior college scenes.

The Alhambra also masked as a mental institution in the Season 5 episode of Sliders titled “Map of the Mind.” And yes, that’s a CGI-generated vortex pictured in the second screen capture below.

The Alhambra was where Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) met up with CGB Spender (William B. Davis) in the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “En Ami.”

The Alhambra was also featured in episodes of The Profiler, Scandal, and Arli$$, though I am unsure of which episodes specifically.

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 Alhambra, aka the exterior of the United States Criminal Investigative Service office from NCIS, is located at 1000 South Fremont Avenue in Alhambra. You can visit the property’s official website here.

May 26, 2015
Happy Memorial Day!

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very happy Memorial Day. I hope everyone takes a moment today to remember what the holiday is truly about – not three-day weekends or BBQs, but honoring those who passed away while fighting for our country’s freedom.

May 25, 2015
The Frederick Mitchell Mooers House from “Mod Squad”

As I’ve said before, stalking begets stalking. Back in January, I wrote a post about a spectacular abandoned residence that had been featured in recent episodes of both Major Crimes and Parks and Recreation. A longtime reader (a veeeery longtime reader, pretty sure he’s been with me since the beginning!) named John was intrigued by the property and started exploring the surrounding neighborhood via Google Street View. In doing so, he stumbled upon the Frederick Mitchell Mooers House, an absolutely stunning Victorian located just a couple of blocks away, and posted a comment about it on my site. I was stoked over his find and even more thrilled to discover, after doing a bit of online research, that the pad had been featured in two episodes of the 1960s television series Mod Squad. So I ran right out to stalk it shortly thereafter. Thanks, John!

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The Frederick Mitchell Mooers House was designed by the Bradbeer & Ferris architecture firm in 1894. The 4,617-square-foot, 5-bedroom, 2-bath dwelling was built for a contractor named Frank Wright and his wife, May Gertrude Wright. Just four years after its construction, the Wrights sold the residence to gold miner Frederick Mitchell Mooers (hence the reason the home is sometimes referred to as the Wright-Mooers House). Upon Frederick’s death, the property was deeded to his mother, Eliza A.R. Mooers, though, according to Wikipedia, there was quite a bit of contention and drama over his will.

The sensational property, which mixes the Queen Anne style with Richardsonian Romanesque and Moorish design elements, features ornamental woodwork, asymmetrical detailing and a three-story tower with a unique roofline that is referred to as an “onion dome” in architectural circles. You can check out a historic image of the house from around the time that it was originally built here.

The Frederick Mitchell Mooers House was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1967 and was cited for being “a prototype of distinctive architecture of the boom of the 80’s,” though it was not actually built until the 1890s.

The pad was featured twice on the television series Mod Squad. It first appeared in Season 1’s “Child of Sorrow, Child of Light” as the home/illegal adoption agency belonging to Iris Potter (Ida Lupino). At the time of the filming, the house did not have a fence surrounding it – a look I much prefer.

I believe that the real life interior of the Frederick Mitchell Mooers House was also utilized in the episode, but, surprisingly, I could not find any photographs of the inside of the home with which to compare to screen captures. While I was stalking the property, I happened to meet one of its residents, a very nice man who invited me inside to snap some pictures. Sadly though, I was alone at the time, so I did not accept his offer. If only the Grim Cheaper had been with me! What I wouldn’t give to see the interior of that place!

During Season 2 of Mod Squad, the house masked as the office of shady doctor Asa Lorimer (Paul Richards) in the episode titled “The Healer.”

A different, but extremely similar interior was shown in “The Healer.”

As you can see below, the front doors and wooden paneling of the anteroom shown in the two episodes are a perfect match.

The staircase, though in differing locations, is also a match in appearance and structure.

The stained glass windows and doors leading to an interior office are also a match. All of this leads me to believe that the real life interior of the home was utilized in “Child of Sorrow, Child of Light,” and then a set modeled after it was created for use in “The Healer.”

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker John for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Frederick Mitchell Mooers House, from Mod Squad, is located at 818 South Bonnie Brae Street in Westlake.

May 22, 2015
New “L.A.” Mag Post – A Guide to Tomorrow’s Film Location Stars

Don’t forget to head over to L.A.mag.com today to check out my latest post. I am REALLY excited about this one. It is a guide to the buildings that I believe will be the film location stars of the future. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours

May 21, 2015
The Last Bookstore from “Gone Girl”

I love bookstores – and books. Actual books, not the digitized versions. You will never catch me reading on a Kindle. I like the feel of a book in my hands, the physical act of turning the pages and the smell. I love, love, love the smell of books. The Grim Cheaper always makes fun of the fact that I am constantly smelling my reading materials and when we watched the Sex and the City movie for the first time, he turned to me laughing at Carrie’s “I love the smell” line (video here). So me! So when I discovered The Last Bookstore in downtown L.A. a couple of years ago, it was love at first sight. Not only is the shop a virtual work of art, with interesting details looming around each and every corner, but it carries unique and intriguing tomes (new and used) that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Oh, and the place is also a filming location. Yep, right up my alley!

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The Last Bookstore was originally founded by Josh Spencer in 2005 as an online emporium that he ran out of his downtown loft. The young entrepreneur had an extensive background in selling books, furniture, records, clothes and cars via eBay, but had decided to focus solely on literary sales. He dubbed his new endeavor “The Last Bookstore.” The name was chosen ironically. As Spencer explained in a Southern California Public Radio interview, “I’ve always been into science fiction and post-apocalyptic things, so I always wondered what a cool ‘last bookstore’ would look like for some future civilization.”

The shop’s website further states, “The name was chosen with irony, but seems more appropriate with each passing day as physical bookstores die out like dinosaurs from the meteoric impact of Amazon and e-books.” Thankfully, The Last Bookstore seems immune to such a fate. By late 2009, Spencer had outgrown his loft and decided to lease a small brick and mortar site on Main Street. By June 2011 (the very same year that the Borders chain filed for bankruptcy), Spencer had outgrown that location, as well, and moved to the much larger, 10,000-square-foot lobby space of the Spring Arts Tower. It was only months before he needed to expand yet again and in February 2012 he began leasing the building’s second floor. Today, The Last Bookstore encompasses over 16,000 square feet – and every last inch of it is spectacular.

The 12-story Spring Arts Tower was originally designed as the Citizens National Bank Building in 1914 by John Parkinson, the same architect who, along with his son, was responsible for Union Station, Bullocks Wilshire, Los Angeles City Hall, and the Security Trust and Savings Bank (now The Federal Bar).

The building’s grand former lobby features mosaic tiled flooring, sweeping 25-foot-tall ceilings, and towering pillars throughout. The Art Nouveau-style space would be beautiful on its own, but Spencer decided to treat it like a blank canvas onto which he could create a work of art. The result is nothing short of incredible.

The Last Bookstore, which is California’s largest independent bookshop, houses an inventory of 250,000 new and used books, with stacks as far and as high as the eye can see.

Thanks to its whimsical displays, though, it is easy to forget the space is a store. The site seems more like a museum or a movie set or a scene from Alice in Wonderland come to life.

Unique design elements can be found everywhere you turn.

Even the bank’s old vault is utilized as display space.

My favorite décor element, though, has to be is what is called the “Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore.”

The Labyrinth is absolutely overwhelming in person!

The best part is that The Last Bookstore employees won’t tell you where to find it – you have to go on a hunt to track it down yourself, which the GC and I had a blast doing.

Despite its incredibly unique interior, The Last Bookstore has not popped up very often onscreen, though it was utilized in a rather illicit flashback scene in Gone Girl.

The scene was filmed in the shop’s main room, in the northwestern-most aisle as you first enter the store (though the photograph below was taken from the opposite angle from which the movie was shot).

As I mentioned in this post, the exterior of the Spring Arts Tower appeared in one of my favorite movies, 2004’s Little Black Book, though that was long before The Last Bookstore was founded.

The exterior of the building also appeared briefly in the the Season 2 episode of Castle titled “The Fifth Bullet.”

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, Spencer stated, “I think there’s always going to be a great market for books, but it’s definitely going to shrink to those who value and enjoy the ritual of browsing through books and holding books and turning pages. That’s gradually going to become less and less, as the generations pass. This might be the last generation, I think.” If his prediction does someday come to pass, I sincerely hope I am not around to witness it.

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 Last Bookstore, from Gone Girl, is located at 453 South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the store’s official website here.

May 20, 2015
The Cooper House from “Forever Young”

Today’s locale is a bit of a long time coming. In my early March post about the bungalow where Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) lived in Forever Young, I mentioned that I had stalked a different house from the 1992 movie – the one where Claire Cooper (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her son, Nat (Elijah Wood), lived – in my early stalking days. I found the location thanks to Scott’s L.A. Audio Tour of Pasadena CD, but because this was long before I had a blog, had failed to write down the address. Thankfully, the pad was rather easy to re-track down, though. In fact, the address was mentioned explicitly in a scene.

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When Nat and his friend Felix (Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’s Robery Hy Gorman) are playing around at a military facility, they discover Daniel’s cryogenically-frozen body inside of a suspended animation chamber. Daniel immediately starts to thaw and grabs Nat’s jacket, freaking the boys out, who run away. Daniel later looks inside the jacket and discovers Nat’s address written on the tag. Though the city is listed as San Marcos, the rest of the address shown is the home’s real life address. Claire and Nat’s house is located at 1724 Oxley Street in South Pasadena. How cool is that?

The residence was used extensively in Forever Young.

It is where Daniel lives after waking up from being frozen for 53 years.

In one of the movie’s more memorable scenes, Daniel fixes Claire’s roof and gives Nat some tips on women.

Amazingly, aside from the paint color, virtually no part of the property has been changed since filming took place in 1992.

In real life, the house, which was built in 1910, boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,115 square feet of living space and a 0.17-acre plot of land.

The home’s real life backyard was used in the movie. Sadly, though, Nat’s awesome tree house hangout was just a prop and is not there in real life.

I could not find any photographs of the real life interior of the home, but am fairly certain it was also used in the filming.

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 Cooper House from Forever Young is located at 1724 Oxley Street in South Pasadena.

May 15, 2015
New “L.A.” Mag Post – The “Perfect Strangers” Building

Be sure to check out my latest post for L.A.mag.com today, about the apartment building from Perfect Strangers. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

May 14, 2015
Latest Discover Los Angeles Post – Movie and TV Restaurants

Be sure to head over to Discover Los Angeles today to check out my latest article, about restaurants featured in movies and television shows.

May 13, 2015
Vickie’s Diner from “Lucky You”

This year is literally flying by! It seems like just yesterday that the Grim Cheaper and I headed to Las Vegas, but in actuality our mini work trip/vacay took place over two months ago! And I still have yet to post all of the stalking sites we visited while there, including today’s locale, which comes courtesy of my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, of The Drewseum website. A few years back, Ashley posted pictures of Tiffany’s Café, a small Sin City restaurant that was featured in Drew’s 2007 flick Lucky You. One of Ashley’s photos showed a poster prominently displayed on the restaurant’s wall that had been signed by the movie’s cast. Once I saw that, I was, of course, chomping at the bit to see the place in person, so I dragged the GC right on over there to grab lunch while we were in town.

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Tiffany’s Café was originally founded in 1955 (or 1960, depending on which website you’re reading) inside of White Cross Drugs pharmacy. The 1,200-square-foot eatery was so named for the vintage Tiffany-style lamps that dot the ceiling above its central lunch counter.

When White Cross Drugs (where Elvis Presley and members of the Rat Pat regularly had prescriptions filled in the ’50s and ’60s) was shuttered in March 2012, people assumed that Tiffany’s had closed down as well, and the restaurant suffered from a decline in patronage. When longtime owner Teddy Pappas eventually decided to retire, the place was acquired by Vickie Kelesis, a Tiffany’s waitress since 2006. She re-opened the eatery, changing its name to Vickie’s Diner, but the menu (which offers homemade, preservative-free fare), was left the same, aside from a few additions. White Cross Drugs was also re-opened as White Cross Market, an upscale grocery store, in 2013 and, when we were there, business appeared to be on an upswing.

The food at Vickie’s is fabulous! I opted for the chicken strips (natch), which were divine.

The GC ordered a chicken pita, which I sampled and liked almost as much as the chicken strips!

In Lucky You, Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) accompanies Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) to Tiffany’s Café for breakfast after agreeing to give him a second chance.

While there, they run into Eric’s father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall).

The scene was filmed towards the front of the restaurant, in the bank of booths located near Vickie’s entrance door. The exact booth used in the movie is denoted with a pink arrow in the photograph below.

White Cross Drugs was also visible in the scene.

Vickie’s Diner looks a bit different today, but is still recognizable from its onscreen appearance.

You can check out some photographs of what the restaurant looked like shortly after filming took place on The Drewseum website here.

Sadly, the poster that the cast signed during the filming has faded and Robert Duvall’s autograph is the only one still visible. You can see what the autographs originally looked like on Ashley’s site here.

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

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, of The Drewseum website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vickie’s Diner, aka the former Tiffany’s Café from from Lucky You, is located at 1700 South Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here and its Facebook page here.

May 12, 2015
New L.A. Mag Post – Seattle Grace Hospital from “Grey’s Anatomy”

Don’t forget to head over to L.A.mag.com today to read my latest post, about Seattle Grace Hospital from Grey’s Anatomy. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours

May 7, 2015