Baltimore – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 24, 2017July 29, 2017

Hollywood Diner from “Sleepless in Seattle”

Another day, another diner from a Meg Ryan movie! Unlike the Port Café, the Wilmington, California eatery that portrayed East Coast establishments in both When Harry Met Sally . . . and A Few Good Men, today’s locale can actually be found close to the Atlantic – though its name would have you believe otherwise. I’m talking about the Hollywood Diner in downtown Baltimore, which played the Capital Diner in the 1993 romcom Sleepless in Seattle. To discuss the restaurant’s history, though, we have to go back to the filming of a much earlier movie, 1982’s Diner.

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When writer/director Barry Levinson started pre-production on his semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama Diner, set in 1959 Baltimore, he sought out to find a coffee shop similar to the one he hung out in during his youth for the shoot. His former stomping ground, the Hilltop Diner, which largely inspired his story, had been turned into a liquor store years prior, so filming there was not a possibility. After failed negotiations with the owners of the Double T Diner in Catonsville, Maryland, Levinson wound up coming across a vacant plot of land in Charm City’s Canton neighborhood that overlooked the famed Domino Sugars sign and thought it would make the perfect setting for his movie. All he needed was a diner. So he headed to a diner graveyard in New Jersey and quickly set his sights on a streamlined silver structure that formerly served as Long Island’s Westbury Grill. He leased the 1954 café from the graveyard, transported it to the plot of land in Canton, and proceeded to shoot Diner there, dubbing the fictional eatery “Fells Point Diner.”

Both the interior and exterior of the diner were used extensively in the shoot. (And yes, that’s a very young Kevin Bacon in the second screen capture below. <3)

Though some sources claim that Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey was used for the filming of Diner’s interior scenes, that information is incorrect. The establishment does bear a considerable resemblance to the café where Eddie Simmons (Steve Guttenberg), Shrevie Schreiber (Daniel Stern), Boogie Sheftell (Mickey Rourke), Timothy Fenwick Jr. (Bacon), and Modell (Paul Reiser) hung out in the flick, but upon close inspection, it is obvious that the two are not one and the same.

When filming on Diner wrapped, the 48-foot by 17-foot restaurant was shipped back to the diner graveyard in New Jersey, which would have been the end of the story had then Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer not stepped in. Shortly after the movie premiered in early 1982, Schaefer implored local citizens to help return the structure to Charm City, putting purchase and transport of the eatery on his civil “wish list.” WBAL Radio heeded his cry, bought the restaurant from the graveyard and gifted it to Baltimore. It was transferred to its new home at 400 East Saratoga Street in the heart of downtown in January 1984. At the time, the diner lacked a bathroom and a kitchen, but locals donated time and money to spruce up the structure and transform it back into a functional restaurant. It opened later that year as The Kids’ Diner. Run by city schools and the mayor’s office, the site served as both an eatery and a vocational training center for area students.

Plagued by financial woes from the start, the restaurant was taken over by the Chesapeake Foundation for Human Development in 1991 and renamed “Hollywood Diner.”

The foundation couldn’t quell the café’s money problems, though, and, after undergoing a series of different management organizations and restaurant iterations, the site finally shuttered in 2012. Though there were plans to turn the property into a food truck park, using the interior of the diner for seating, it does not appear that the project ever took of.

Despite the longtime closure, the diner still stands intact today, thankfully.

I was floored when I walked up to the structure and saw that the interior was visible through the front windows!

At the beginning of Sleepless in Seattle, Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) stops for tea at the diner while on a Christmas Eve road trip to her fiancé’s parents’ house.

It is amazing to me how little the restaurant has changed since filming took place over 24 years ago.

Hollywood Diner has appeared in several productions over the years. In fact, Barry Levinson has quite a soft spot for the place, having utilized it in two of his other movies. In 1987’s Tin Men, the restaurant serves as Ernest Tilley’s (Danny DeVito) regular breakfast joint.

And Van Kurtzman (Adrien Brody) also hangs out there in Levinson’s 1999 drama Liberty Heights.

The director even named the eatery “Fells Point Diner” in the movie, as a nod to his 1982 film.

Though some websites state that the diner also appears in the 1990 Levinson-directed drama Avalon, in the scene in which Michael Kaye (Elijah Wood) watches as a restaurant is dropped into place on a vacant lot, that information is incorrect. As you can see below, the eatery in Avalon looks nothing like the Hollywood Diner (not only do the windows not match, but neither does the general shape of the structure). Not to mention that by the time Avalon was shot, The Kids’ Diner had already been installed at its downtown location and in full operation for over six years.

In the Season 2 episode of The Wire titled “Duck and Cover,” which aired in 2003, a drunken Detective James “Jimmy” McNulty (Dominic West) heads to the Hollywood Diner for coffee and winds up going home with his waitress.

Hollywood Diner provided the setting for the 2017 short film The Dark of Night, directed by Robin Wright.

The restaurant also reportedly appeared in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, though I am unsure of which episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hollywood Diner, aka Capital Diner from Sleepless in Seattle, is located at 400 East Saratoga Street in Baltimore. The restaurant is currently closed.

July 19, 2017July 19, 2017

Frank and Claire’s Townhouse from “House of Cards”

It is a rare occasion for me to lay eyes on a Hollywood-designed set and not immediately want to move in. But such was the case with the townhouse belonging to Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and his wife, Claire (Robin Wright), on the Netflix series House of Cards. While I love the handsome brick exterior of the politico couple’s pad (who wouldn’t?), the inside is just a bit too cold and a bit too stark for my tastes. Though undeniably beautiful, Frank and Claire’s décor and furnishings look like something straight out of a magazine – not lived in, very impersonal, and all sleek, shiny and straight lines. The aura the home gives off is a huge testament to the talent of the House of Cards set designers because cold, stark, sleek and shiny are characteristics that perfectly describe Claire and Frank. The townhouse is an exacting reflection of its occupants and, as such, is one of the series’ most notable locations, despite only being featured in two out of five seasons. So it was, of course, on my list of spots to stalk while I was in Baltimore, where House of Cards is mainly lensed, last fall.

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Said to be located at 1609 Far Street NW in Washington, D.C. on the series, in real life, Frank and Claire’s townhouse can be found at 1609 Park Avenue in Baltimore’s Bolton Hill neighborhood.

The 4,600-square-foot, 4-level dwelling features 4 bedrooms, 5 fireplaces (though this article mentions 6 bedrooms and 7 fireplaces, so I am unsure which figures are correct), 3 baths, 12-foot-high ceilings, pine flooring, a rear patio, a 2-car garage with a rooftop deck, a 3-story lightwell, and dual staircases.

Originally built in 1880, the 20-foot-wide townhouse had not only been transformed into a 3-unit apartment building, but had also fallen into serious disrepair by the time Jeff and Norma Epstein purchased it in 1995. The couple spent the next two years restoring it back to its original grandeur, with Jeff, a licensed contractor, doing most of the work himself.

Though the remodel was a labor of love for the couple, they recently decided to move out of state and put the residence up for auction last month with a starting price of $500,000. There do not appear to have been any takers, though, and it looks like the home is now on the market for $824,900.

The townhouse is located in a gorgeous neighborhood . . .

. . . situated directly across from a median that has been fashioned into a park, complete with a sparkling fountain.

The scenery looks like it was taken straight out of the opening credits of Friends.

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It took all I had not to jump in the fountain and start dancing. Winking smile

The townhouse was only utilized during the first and second seasons of House of Cards. By the end of Season 2, Frank and Claire had upgraded their digs by (spoiler alert!) moving into the White House upon Frank taking over the presidency. (When Season 3 began airing, HotPads humorously ran a fictional article about the Underwood residence being available for rent.) Surprisingly, the townhouse’s exterior was rarely shown on the series . . .

. . . and when it was, it was typically in dark, nighttime shots, so not much of it was ever seen onscreen.

The interior, however, which was just a set located at the Joppa, Maryland warehouse where the series is lensed, was featured regularly. Production designers are said to have modeled the set after the actual inside of the Bolton Hill townhome, but as the property’s MLS photos attest to, said interior is staggeringly different from its onscreen counterpart. Most notably, the inside of the actual home is much smaller and much less ornate than Frank and Claire’s residence. For this post, I thought it would be fun to do a little set vs. real life house tour, so here goes! We’ll start with the entrance hall. Though both boast wood embellishments, the Underwood’s hallway is more grand and quite a bit wider than the hallway of the actual home.

A view of the respective entrance halls from the opposite direction is pictured below.

Aside from similar fireplaces, the two living rooms don’t resemble each other at all.

As you can see below, the Underwood living room is much wider than that of the actual townhome.

The same is true of the dining rooms – the set dining room is much wider than the real life residence’s dining room.

Though both boast a white color scheme, the Underwoods’ kitchen is much larger and much more modern than that of the actual townhome.

Another major difference – while the Underwoods’ kitchen is located on the main level of their house, the kitchen of the real life property is, oddly, situated in the basement.

Though the Underwoods do have a basement, it is only semi-finished and, as you can see, looks nothing like the townhome’s actual basement.

Claire and Frank’s master bedroom is much more subdued than its real life counterpart, though, once again, the fireplaces are very similar.

The Underwoods’ patio, one of my favorite aspects of the property, is covered with picturesque foliage and enclosed by a large stucco wall. The actual patio is much less lush and is instead enclosed by a wooden fence, giving it a very different look, though the window and door are similar to those of the set.

Sadly, Frank and Claire’s dining room “smoking window,” which was situated next to the fireplace in the set’s dining room, is nowhere to be found in real life.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frank and Claire’s townhouse from House of Cards is located at 1609 Park Avenue in Baltimore’s Bolton Hill neighborhood.

July 17, 2017July 14, 2017

Freddy’s BBQ Joint from “House of Cards”

I have never been a fan of dark TV shows or movies. Surprising, I know, considering my love for true crime and all podcasts, documentaries and news stories related to the subject. But when it comes to fictional TV and movie watching, I prefer a much lighter fare. One exception to this rule is House of Cards, which the Grim Cheaper and I got really into a couple of summers ago. The Netflix original series is undeniably dark and exceptionally heavy, but the smart writing, incredible acting, and biting political storylines sucked us right in. Another draw is the myriad of dynamic characters, my favorite of which [aside from Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) – his Southern drawl is fabulous, and that ring knock!] is easily Freddy Hayes (Reg E. Cathey), proprietor of Freddy’s BBQ Joint, the hole-in-the-wall rib restaurant Frank regularly frequents. Not only is Freddy’s advice uniquely sage and storytelling top-notch, but his friendship with Frank is just so endearing. So, last summer, when I found out we were heading to Baltimore, where House of Cards is largely lensed, I told the Grim Cheaper there was no way we were leaving town without stalking Freddy’s – or the storefront used to represent it, I should say.

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Though I knew that Freddy’s BBQ Joint was obviously not a real spot, I figured that the production utilized an actual restaurant of some sort to shoot the scenes taking place there. Sadly, that is not the case. Freddy’s is a completely fictional eatery created by the House of Cards crew at a vacant space on Greenmount Avenue in Baltimore’s Better Waverly neighborhood – a fact I gleaned from this Mix 106.5 article while preparing for my trip. Despite my disappointment over learning the news, I was still absolutely thrilled to see the site in person.

Freddy’s BBQ Joint first popped up in the House of Cards pilot, titled “Chapter 1.” In the episode, Frank makes an early pit stop at the restaurant and, in one of his superb asides, explains, “My one guilty pleasure is a good rack of ribs, even at 7:30 in the morning. I have the whole place to myself. Freddy sometimes opens up just for me. Where I come from in South Carolina, people didn’t have two pennies to rub together. A rack of ribs is a luxury, like Christmas in July.”

Freddy’s goes on to appear regularly on the series, becoming one of its most notable locations.

Well, throughout the first two years, anyway. Towards the end of Season 2, in the episode titled “Chapter 22,” Freddy is (spoiler alert!) caught in the middle of Frank’s political schemings and is forced to sell his restaurant.

In person, the rundown storefront used to portray Freddy’s BBQ Joint looks much the same as it does onscreen.

The Freddy’s signage is missing, of course, but otherwise the site appears as if it jumped right off of the television screen.

I absolutely love that the place’s weathered look is authentic and not a design element fabricated by the House of Cards crew.

I was especially obsessed with the storefront’s tarnished roof eave.

In the House of Cards pilot, Frank does not venture inside Freddy’s, but instead chooses to eat on the restaurant’s side patio.

He mainly dines indoors in the episodes that follow, though.

Mahmut Nazli, owner of the Greenmount Avenue storefront, told the Independent in 2014 that the House of Cards crew re-designed his shop in preparation for filming, installing walls and shelving, which alludes to the fact that the interior was used in the production. Several other articles I’ve come across, though (like this one and this one), stipulate that the inside of Freddy’s BBQ Joint was a set built at the 300,000-square-foot Joppa, Maryland warehouse-turned-soundstage where the series is lensed.

Of the crew’s re-design, Nazli went on to say, “They were supposed to change it back, but I asked them not to,” which leads me to wonder if maybe a couple of House of Cards’ early episodes were shot on location inside of the actual Greenmount storefront and then a set modeled after the site’s interior was eventually built at the Joppa warehouse. I scanned through all of the episodes featuring Freddy’s, though, and never noticed any changes or discernable differences to the interior that would point to a change in filming venues. So I am unsure on this one.

Per the Independent article, the Greenmount Avenue space has previously served as a fried chicken restaurant, a book store, and a community center over the years, though Google Street View shows it as being vacant since at least 2007.

Nazli put the storefront up for sale in 2014 for $119,000, but, despite the locale’s onscreen fame, it does not appear as if there were any takers.

In this fabulous 2014 TODAY article, Reg. E Cathey talks about House of Cards and the Freddy’s BBQ Joint site, stating, “I’ve shot three projects in that same neighborhood, even that same corner.” Though he mentions Homicide: Life on the Street, The Corner and The Wire, because I have never seen any of those productions, I am unsure which of the three were lensed in the vicinity of Freddy’s, nor could I find any information online about filming on that same block of Greenmount Avenue, unfortunately.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The vacant storefront that masks as Freddy’s BBQ Joint on House of Cards is located at 2601 Greenmount Avenue in Baltimore.

February 27, 2017February 23, 2017

Baltimore’s Washington Monument from “Sleepless in Seattle”

Most people know about the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., but what few realize is that there is another memorial honoring America’s first president located nearby and that it actually predates the District one. It is a filming location, to boot – from Sleepless in Seattle, one of my favorite movies, no less! So I just had to do some stalking of it while I was back east last September.

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The original Washington Monument, which was constructed from 1815 to 1829 and was the first public memorial to pay homage to George Washington, stands about forty miles outside of the nation’s capital in Baltimore, Maryland’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. The structure was designed by architect Robert Mills, who also designed its D.C. counterpart, though that one did not begin to take shape until 1848 and was not completed for another 37 years after that.

Manufactured out of marble from three local quarries, the monument stands at 178 feet, 8 inches tall.

The focal point of the memorial is a towering Doric column positioned at the center of a rectangular base. Inside of the base is an exhibit about the monument and its surrounding neighborhood. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a stalking fail with this particular location because until I started doing researching for this post, I was unaware that visitors could not only venture inside the structure, but to the very top of it! The tower’s apex apparently provides some fabulous views of the city, so I am really disappointed the Grim Cheaper and I did not head inside.

Affixed to the exterior of the monument’s base are eight bronze captions denoting important events in Washington’s life.

And holding court at the top is a sculpture designed by Italian artist Enrico Causici that represents the moment when Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on December 23rd, 1783. Why did Causici choose to immortalize that particular occasion? As History.com explains, “Washington’s willingness to return to civilian life was an essential element in the transformation of the War for Independence into a true revolution. During the war, Congress had granted Washington powers equivalent to those of a dictator and he could have easily taken solitary control of the new nation. Indeed, some political factions wanted Washington to become the new nation’s king. His modesty in declining the offer and resigning his military post at the end of the war fortified the republican foundations of the new nation.”

The detailing of the statue cannot be seen from ground level, which is quite possibly a good thing. The Baltimore Business Journal’s Kevin Litten got a close-up view of the piece in 2014, while the monument was undergoing a $5.5-million, 19-month restoration, and as he humorously reported, Causici’s rendering of the nation’s first president depicts him with “a wide, googly-eyed stare” that “looks a lot more like the late actor Jack Elam than the father of our country.” Who is Jack Elam, you ask? Litten explains, “Elam was known both for his frequent depiction of evil characters in western films, and for having what the New York Times called a ‘leer, bulging eye’ that ‘conveyed villainy as surely as [Jimmy] Durante’s nose suggested humor.’” I mean, try to look at this photo and not laugh. I’m literally in hysterics as I write this.

In 1917, it was decided that a statue of Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who fought alongside Washington during the Revolutionary War, would be added to the site. Sculptor Andrew O’Connor was commissioned to create the instillation and architect Thomas Hastings was enlisted to re-design the area surrounding the Washington Monument to better suit the new piece. The statue was eventually dedicated in 1924.

Surrounding the monument are four gorgeously manicured park-like squares.

Lined with trees, the squares feature fountains, shaded paths, and benches and chairs where visitors can enjoy quiet respite from the bustle of Baltimore.

It truly is a gorgeous site and fitting homage to the father of this great nation.

Towards the beginning of Sleepless in Seattle, Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) and her BFF Becky (Rosie O’Donnell) pass by the Washington Monument on their way to have lunch at the Women’s Exchange, which I blogged about last week.

In the scene, the two ladies are shown walking from the east side of the monument to the south side, past the Marquis de Lafayette statue.

Baltimore’s Washington Monument has popped up in a few other productions over the years.

In the 1979 thriller . . . And Justice for All, Arthur Kirkland (Al Pacino) takes a spontaneous jog around the monument and Marquis de Lafayette statue.

Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) and Rachel F. Banks (Lisa Bonet) have a clandestine meet-up at the Washington Monument in 1998’s Enemy of the State.

That same year, the memorial was featured briefly in the opening scene of the John Waters comedy Pecker as the spot where Pecker (Edward Furlong) caught a bus.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Washington Monument, from Sleepless in Seattle, is located at 699 Washington Place in Baltimore. Several other filming locations can be found in the same vicinity, including the Women’s Exchange, also from Sleepless in Seattle, at 333 North Charles Street; the George Peabody Library, again from Sleepless, at 17 East Mount Vernon Place; Terry Lambert’s (Steve Guttenberg) apartment from The Bedroom Window at 12 East Mount Vernon Place; and The Helmund from He’s Just Not That Into You at 806 North Charles Street.

February 17, 2017February 15, 2017

The Women’s Exchange from “Sleepless in Seattle”

Last year, I had incredible luck getting access to filming locations typically closed to the public. While visiting New York in April, I was granted tours of three non-accessible places that I literally would have given my eye teeth to see. Thankfully, none of my friendly tour guides collected on that offer. (And yes, I will be blogging about those sites soon.) One spot I was not as fortunate with was the tea room at the Women’s Exchange in Baltimore, which was featured briefly in Sleepless in Seattle. I was thrilled to come across information about the place while researching Charm City filming locales prior to my September trip back east, and was even more thrilled to discover that the space, though closed, was still in existence and used as a special events venue. While I contacted the Women’s Exchange a few months prior to my visit to see if a tour might be arranged, unfortunately the staff was not able to make that happen. But I still ventured over to stalk the outside of it while in town.

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The Women’s Exchange was established in 1880 as a place where Civil War widows and impoverished females could make money outside of the workplace by selling handmade goods. The non-profit organization, initially called the Women’s Industrial Exchange, was founded by G. Harmon Brown and originally operated out of her private residence. The program quickly proved successful, was incorporated in 1882, and moved to its current home, a five-story former boarding house on Charles Street that was constructed in 1815, five years later.

The organization purchased the picturesque property, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, in 1889.

In 1900, a consignment boutique was opened on the premises and the building’s stately dining hall was transformed into a tea room.

The eatery, which featured white and black checkered flooring, a tall fireplace, and red leather booths, became a popular spot for society women, as well as D.C. politicians, to “lunch.” Amazingly, it remained in operation until 2002 (more than a century!), at which point it was shuttered due to a decline in patronage.

Various restaurants were opened in the tea room space by outside companies in the ensuing years, but, sadly, none took.

Woman’s Industrial Kitchen, which debuted in 2011, was the last eatery to operate in the historic venue, but it was shuttered in 2014 and the site has remained closed, outside of hosting special events, ever since.

Closure of the Women’s Exchange consignment and gift store occurred shortly thereafter and, although a pop-up shop was opened on the premises during the holiday season in 2015, for the most part the locale has remained dark and its future currently appears uncertain. You can see some photographs of the tea room over the years here and here.

In Sleepless in Seattle, Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) and Becky (Rosie O’Donnell) grab lunch at the Women’s Exchange tea room. While there, Becky calls Annie out on her crush on the “Sleepless in Seattle” radio caller.

According to a 2012 The Baltimore Sun article, Sleepless director Nora Ephron became a huge fan of the Exchange after visiting it while scouting locations for the movie, so much so that she wound up eating lunch on the premises daily during the shoot. Ephron had a particular affinity for the tea room’s orange cupcakes and had them delivered by the dozen to the set on a regular basis for the cast and crew to enjoy. She was most taken by the place’s historic aesthetic, though, telling a reporter in 1992 that “It was out of time,” which fit perfectly with her vision of creating an enduring love story. She explained, “We had to do a movie about love that was also about movies about love that I want people to watch for 20 years. I don’t want them to say, ‘Oh, that was made in ’93.’” In my opinion, she succeeded. Sleepless in Seattle is just as touching and poignant today as it was when it first premiered 24 years ago. (Fun fact – Ephron cast longtime Exchange waitress Marguerite Schertle as Annie and Becky’s server in Sleepless. When the director asked her to say a few lines and to “pat” Annie and Becky in the scene, Schertle refused, saying, “Look, just let me do it my way.” She’d been an employee of the tea room for 45 years by that time, after all, and knew how to play the part. That’s her below in the blue uniform, which was her actual work attire.)

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Women’s Exchange, from Sleepless in Seattle, is located at 333 North Charles Street in Baltimore. You can visit the exchange’s official website here. The property, including the tea room and the store, is currently closed to the public.

February 15, 2017February 15, 2017

The George Peabody Library from “Sleepless in Seattle”

The Grim Cheaper has never been much interested in filming locations, as I’ve mentioned many times before. He does love stalking them with me, though, as doing so usually involves seeing historic and unique spots. One site that absolutely bowled him over during our trip back east last September was the George Peabody Library in Baltimore. The locale first came on my radar way back in 1993 thanks to its appearance in fave movie Sleepless in Seattle. Once I started researching and viewing photographs of it online prior to our trip, I became a wee bit obsessed with its staggering beauty and knew I wasn’t leaving Charm City without stopping by.

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In February 1857, philanthropist George Peabody announced his plans to create a cultural center for the citizens of Baltimore consisting of an art gallery, a music school, and a library – but not just any library. As George conceived it, the place was to be an “extensive library, to be well furnished in every department of knowledge and of the most approved literature, which is to be maintained for the free use of all persons who may desire to consult it.”

HIs vision became a reality in 1878 when the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore opened to the public. Designed by local architect Edmund George Lind, the Renaissance Revival-style structure, while pretty, is rather non-descript on the outside.

It is the interior that had my tongue wagging.

Dr. Nathaniel H. Morison, the first provost of the Peabody Institute, wasn’t speaking in hyperbole when he described the library as a “cathedral of books.”

The building’s atrium-like interior is a dazzling array of cast iron balconies;

towering stacks featuring more than 300,000 volumes of books;

gold leaf columns that stretch six stories;

black and white marble flooring;

and a paned skylight that looms 61 feet above the ground, casting the space in gorgeous natural light.

As I walked through the library’s entrance doors, my jaw dropped to the floor.

I truly felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast.

The George Peabody Library is easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in my life.

In 1967, the City of Baltimore acquired the property and it became part of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Johns Hopkins University took over the space in 1982 and continues to own it today.

Open to students and visitors alike, the library is also used as a special events venue.

Not surprisingly, the George Peabody Library has become one of Baltimore’s most popular wedding locations.

Also not surprisingly, it has popped up numerous times onscreen.

In Sleepless in Seattle, Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) heads to the Peabody Library to visit her brother, Dennis (David Hyde Pierce), who works on the premises. While there, the two discuss Annie’s recent obsession with a widower she heard on the radio who lives in Emerald City. Dennis’ advice on the matter? “It rains nine months of the year in Seattle!” According to a 1992 The Baltimore Sun article, Sleepless director Nora Ephron was so enamored of the grand library that she changed Dennis’ profession in the script from a psychiatrist to a musicologist so that scenes could be shot there.

The library’s exterior was used in the movie, as well. In the scene, Annie drives west on East Mount Vernon Place and parks in front of the building. In reality, that move wouldn’t be allowed. Mount Vernon Place is a one-way street on which cars are only permitted to drive east.

In the 1990 drama Men Don’t Leave, Beth Macauley (Jessica Lange) rather loudly delivers a catered lunch from the bakery where she works to a music rehearsal taking place at the Peabody.

The Peabody Library very briefly appears as a Parisian music store where Catherine Sloper (Jennifer Jason Leigh) shops in the 1997 drama Washington Square.

The building pops up twice as the University of Baltimore’s library in 1999’s Liberty Heights.

The rear side of the Peabody, which can be found on Centre Street, masks as Hotel Cotesworth, where Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) hosts a large charity gala – and outsmarts some protestors, as well as a hotel union – in the Season 1 episode of House of Cards titled “Chapter 5.”

The Peabody’s lobby area also appeared in the episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The George Peabody Library, from Sleepless in Seattle, is located at 17 East Mount Vernon Place in Baltimore. The site is open Tuesday through Friday and admission is free. You can visit the library’s official website here. Terry Lambert’s (Steve Guttenberg) apartment from The Bedroom Window is located right across the street at 12 East Mount Vernon Place.

November 21, 2016November 20, 2016

Annie’s House from “Sleepless in Seattle”

We all have those movies – the ones that affected us so much upon first viewing, they left a lasting imprint on our hearts. Sleepless in Seattle is one such movie for me. As I mentioned in this 2010 post about the houseboat from the 1993 romcom, I still remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it and have my ticket stub tucked away in a box. The film had an immediate visceral effect on me – and still does to this day. So when I found out that the Grim Cheaper and I were heading to Baltimore, where Sleepless was partially filmed, this past September, I started putting together a list of must-see locales from the movie, namely the gorgeous brick townhome where Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) and her fiancé, Walter (Bill Pullman), lived.

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Annie’s residence has been well-documented online for years, so I did not have to do any sleuthing to hunt it down.

Miraculously, the dwelling looks almost exactly the same today as it did 23 years ago when Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.

Even the duck boot scraper visible in the bottom right of the above screen capture is still intact.

Annie’s house was featured several times throughout Sleepless in Seattle.

In real life, the three-story property, which was originally built in 1900, houses 1,995 square feet of space and 3.5 baths.

Though I do believe the structure was a private residence at one point, today it serves as an office, housing the Baltimore branch of Captel, a fundraising and membership development company.

Only the exterior of the site was used in Sleepless in Seattle. While I always assumed that the charming interior of Annie’s home was a set, my friend/fellow stalker David, who is a denizen of the Pacific Northwest, has heard that interiors were shot at an actual residence in West Seattle. So the jury’s still out on that one.

If interiors were shot at a real place, what I wouldn’t give to track it down!

The pier just outside of Annie’s home was also used in the filming.

In one particularly memorable scene (well, to me, anyway), Annie walks to the end of the pier and sits on a bench located there, while Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) does the exact same thing more than 2,000 miles away at a dock in Seattle. (As you can see in my images above and below, a car commercial was being shot on the pier the day we were there! Apparently, Broadway Pier, as it is known, is used for filming quite often.)

Unfortunately, the bench where Annie sat in the scene was just a prop.

But that didn’t stop me from posing for a photo there. Smile

Broadway Pier was also used very briefly in the “ . . . if she’s not sleeping with you” vignette from He’s Just Not That Into You. The building visible in the background of the scene has been remodeled in recent years and looks quite a bit different today than it did in 2009 when HJNTIY was shot, so I’m using a comparison image below from Google Street View that was taken in 2011.

Broadway Square, which is located just about one hundred feet north of Annie’s house, was also featured in He’s Just Not That Into You, as the spot where Connor (Kevin Connolly) called Mary (Drew Barrymore) to discuss the placement of his real estate ads. In the scene, Connor sat at the southern end of Broadway Square, just east of Admiral Fell Inn.

I recently discovered a couple of other He’s Just Not That Into You locales in the same vicinity. Duda’s Tavern, which is located about 500 feet west of Annie’s house at 1600 Thames Street, served as the exterior of City Supper Club, the bar owned by Alex (Justin Long) in the flick.

And The Waterfront Hotel, located about 300 feet east of Annie’s house at 1710 Thames Street, masked as the exterior of The Huntsman’s Den, where Alex gave Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) some pointers on reading body language.

The entire area around Annie’s house is absolutely adorable.

Unfortunately, we did not get to spend a lot of time there, but I found myself wishing we had stayed at one of the hotels lining the main drag as there are so many shops and restaurants in the cobblestoned vicinity.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Annie’s house from Sleepless in Seattle is located at 904 South Broadway in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood. The spot where Connor sat in He’s Just Not That Into You can be found about one hundred feet north at Broadway Square, just east of the Admiral Fell Inn at 888 Broadway. Duda’s Tavern, which was used as the exterior of City Supper Club in HJNTIY, is located one block west of Broadway Square at 1600 Thames Street. And The Waterfront Hotel, which masked as the exterior of The Huntsman’s Den in HJNTIY, is located one block east at 1710 Thames Street.

November 14, 2016November 10, 2016

Connor and Gigi’s Date Restaurant from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

Not every location from He’s Just Not That Into You was a challenge to track down. [As I mentioned yesterday and the day before, both Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben’s (Bradley Cooper) home and Conor’s (Kevin Connolly) row house listing proved to be real thorns in my side.] Case in point, the exterior of the restaurant where Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Conor went on a date in the 2009 flick. That site, which was actually the heavily dressed entrance to two neighboring Mount Vernon eateries named Thairish and The Helmand, was spelled out in a 2007 The Baltimore Sun article that was written while the cast and crew were in town shooting portions of the movie. I came across the piece shortly after I first saw He’s Just Not That Into You and jotted down the addresses in case I ever traveled to Baltimore, an opportunity that finally arose this past September.

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Gigi and Conner’s date restaurant, shown to be named “Red Seven,” only popped up once at the very beginning of He’s Just Not That Into You. As you can see below, due to massive set dressing, the locale looks quite different in person than it did onscreen. For the shoot, the exteriors of Thairish and The Helmand were covered over and made to appear as if they were one large brick and glass-clad space. The Baltimore Sun column states, “While the entrance of Thairish only was covered with cardboard, The Helmand underwent more drastic changes. The Helmand’s manager, Assad Akbari, says contractors with the film changed its sign and swapped out the front door.”

Another Sun article from around that same time went into further detail, stating, “In Mount Vernon, restaurants Thairish and The Helmand were temporarily redecorated Saturday with new lights, a new door and a new name: Red Seven.”

Thairish, a Thai eatery, was shuttered in 2016 and today Khun Nine Thai occupies the space. The Helmand, though, is still going strong. Originally opened in 1989, the Afghan restaurant is something of a Baltimore institution.

Unfortunately, there was a sidewalk fair set up right in front of the two restaurants when we showed up to stalk them, which made getting photographs rather difficult.

The neighborhood where The Helmand and Khun Nine Thai are located is absolutely adorable – and boasts quite a view of the Washington Monument, as you can see below. The Grim Cheaper and I spent quite a bit of time there, exploring the shops and admiring the handsome brick buildings.

Only the exterior of Khun Nine Thai and The Helmand were utilized in He’s Just Not That Into You.

At the time I started researching the movie’s locales, I was unsure where the interior of Conner and Gigi’s date scene was shot. Finding the right spot proved to be a snap, though. One look at photographs of the inside of both The Helmand and Thairish told me that interior footage was lensed elsewhere. My guess was that filming had most likely taken place in Los Angeles, where the majority of the romcom was shot. Red Seven, the name that producers had given to their fictional restaurant, seemed unusual to me. So unusual that I figured it was likely the moniker of a real place – either an actual Baltimore establishment filmmakers wanted to pay homage to or, possibly, the site in L.A. where interiors were filmed. Fingers crossed, I Googled “Red Seven,” “restaurant,” and “Los Angeles” and discovered that there is indeed an eatery by that name in West Hollywood! Images of it matched perfectly to the spot where Gigi and Conor enjoyed a beer and a Ketel-soda. Why the crew went to all of that trouble and did not just use a fake name or no name at all is beyond me, but I’m grateful they did as I might never have found the location otherwise.

As you can see below, filmmakers also went to the trouble of matching the entrance door of their fake restaurant to the actual walls of Red Seven.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The exterior of Connor and Gigi’s date restaurant from He’s Just Not That Into You was created outside of both Khun Nine Thai and The Helmand, which are located at 804 and 806 North Charles Street in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, respectively. Interiors were filmed at Red Seven, which is located at 700 North San Vicente Boulevard, in the Pacific Design Center, in West Hollywood. You can visit Khun Nine Thai’s official website here, The Helmand’s here and Red Seven’s here.

November 10, 2016November 9, 2016

Conor’s Row House Listing from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

He’s Just Not That Into You was the thorn in my side prior to my recent trip back east. As I mentioned yesterday, the 2009 romcom is one of my all-time favorites and before heading to Baltimore, where the film was set and partially shot, in September, I got a bit obsessed with tracking down its locales. After a rather long and arduous pursuit to find Ben (Bradley Cooper) and Janine’s (Jennifer Connelly) stately home, I set my sights on the row house that real estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly) was trying to sell – and that he also wanted to buy for Anna (Scarlett Johansson) – at the end of the movie. It proved just as difficult to locate and, once again, I found myself watching and re-watching the flick, looking for a clue I knew I was missing.

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During my umpteenth re-watch of the one scene involving the house (I saw it so many times, I can pretty much recite it from memory), I spotted a barely-visible address number displayed on the residence next door.

Though the number was not clear in the streamed version of the movie I was watching (which is where the above screen capture came from), I knew it would be via Blu-ray, so I popped in my DVD and, sure enough, there was the address 3104, clear as day. (Unfortunately, I cannot make screen captures of the Blu-ray version of the film as my computer does not have a Blu-ray drive).

It was also clear in the scene that the house was located on a road that ran perpendicular to a one-way street (as you can see in the background below). So I started searching 3100 blocks in Baltimore that abut one-way streets and fairly quickly found the right spot.

Though He’s Just Not That Into You was only filmed six years ago, I was nevertheless thrilled to see that Conor’s listing still looked exactly the same as it had onscreen.

In real life, the property, which was originally built in 1880, just sold to new owners in July of this year for $279,000. Per the listing, the pad boasts 2.5 baths, 1,920 square feet of living space, a brand new kitchen with Caesar stone countertops and stainless steel appliances, updated bathrooms, a brick patio, refinished hardwood flooring throughout, and custom built-ins. The listing information also states that the home has two bedrooms, but from looking at the photographs I believe there are actually four.

I was shocked to discover that the listing even makes mention of the property’s appearance in He’s Just Not That Into You. Really wish I had happened upon it prior to spending so many hours searching for the place!

The real life interior of the home was also used in the filming, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the real estate listing photos below.

While the kitchen has since been remodeled, its layout remains the same.

Despite the renovation, the built-in ironing board that Anna fawned over in the movie remains intact! Love it! There seems to be some sort of placard affixed to it, too. I wonder if it says something along the lines of, “Scarlett Johansson touched this.” Or “Screen-used ironing board.” Or “Our ironing board is famous.” Man, I wish the real estate listing had provided a close-up photograph of it.

One thing I did spot in the listing photographs – which floored me to no end – was the “For Sale” sign that was affixed to the front of the house in the movie! Apparently the owners were allowed to keep it and chose to display it on their wall, which is so incredibly cool.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Conor’s row house listing from He’s Just Not That Into You is located at 3102 O’Donnell Street in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood.

November 9, 2016November 9, 2016

Janine and Ben’s House(s) from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

You know those crime novels where a main character is trying to solve a case and there is some niggling clue that tugs at them throughout the story – an important piece of evidence that would solve the whole mystery, but which remains elusive until the final pages? That was how I felt while trying to track down the Baltimore row house where Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben (Bradley Cooper) lived in He’s Just Not that Into You. Though the 2009 film was largely panned by critics, it is one of my favorite romcoms of all time and prior to our recent trip to Charm City, I set out to track down its locations, namely Janine and Ben’s handsome brick townhome. Try as I might, though, I could just not locate it. During the tail end of my search, I found myself sitting at my computer staring at a screen capture of the residence for what seemed like hours, aware of the fact that I was missing something, but unsure of exactly what. Then finally, something clicked!

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All of a sudden, I noticed that a fire hydrant was visible on the street corner next to Janine and Ben’s pad. I swear, I started to hear angels sing when I realized that said hydrant was painted red, white, and green. That could only mean one thing – the house had to be located in Little Italy! Not being familiar with Baltimore, I wasn’t even sure if the city had a Little Italy neighborhood, but a quick Google search told me that it does. So I started searching the area via Street View and found the place within minutes.

Throughout He’s Just Not That Into You, Janine and Ben’s dwelling is under extensive renovation.

Because of the work being done, it is not until the end of the movie that we actually get a clear view of the property’s exterior. Aside from the front door being changed, the structure looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

Something I did not notice until making screen captures for this post (despite my many viewings of the movie) is that Janine and Ben actually owned two neighboring townhomes that were being combined into one, hence the scaffolding on the two residences you see below. (And yes, I realize how blonde that makes me sound being that, as stated earlier, I spent a considerable amount of time staring at a screen capture of the house during my search for it. In my defense, though, I was looking at the grab pictured above, which is from the scene in which the remodel has already been completed.)

Because I did not realize that both properties were used in He’s Just Not That Into You, I only shot photographs of the residence that Janine walked into towards the end of the flick.

Per Zillow, that handsome pad, located at 226 South Exeter Street, boasts 1,508 square feet of living space, 2 bathrooms, a 0.02-acre lot, a fireplace, and a 325-square-foot finished basement.

The property, which was built in 1860 (yes, 1860!), last sold in December 2002 for $135,000.

While the exterior of Janine and Ben’s residence is quite stately, it is the interior that I fell in love with. I mean, #housegoals, right? All of the exposed brick, built-in shelving, and woodwork had me drooling.

Sadly, I am fairly certain that it was all a set built on a soundstage in Los Angeles, where the majority of the movie was lensed. Only two weeks of filming took place in Baltimore, which is far too short a time for the interior house sequences to have been shot at the actual residence. Add to that the fact that, from most of the articles I’ve read, it does not seem that Bradley Cooper, who was present in many of the home scenes, traveled to Baltimore for any filming. I believe Kevin Connolly, Scarlett Johansson, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly were the only cast members who were in Charm City for the on-location portion of the shoot.

I have to give major props to the production team for their seriously keen eye for detail. In the scene at the end of the movie in which Ben comes home and discovers (spoiler alert!) that Janine is divorcing him, a panoramic photo of the actual houses located across the street from 226 South Exeter was displayed as a backdrop outside of the set windows. As you can see below, the residences visible through the windows of Janine and Ben’s dwelling match perfectly to the properties located across the street in real life! A generic backdrop featuring random homes could just as easily have been used in the scene, so I am extremely impressed that the production team went to such trouble to be authentic.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Janine and Ben’s houses from He’s Just Not That Into You are located at 224 and 226 South Exeter Street in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood.