The Casa Walsh Garage – A Distant Memory

Like Mike, from MovieShotsLA said yesterday, it’s officially the end of an era.  While the two of us were out doing some Pasadena area stalking on Sunday, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Walsh House from Beverly Hills, 90210 and saw a very sad sight, indeed.  In fact, Mike was so out of sorts over the whole thing that he almost crashed the car upon viewing it.  Not kidding!  Apparently, just last week, Jack, the real life owner of Casa Walsh, tore down the Walsh garage – the hallowed spot where Brandon and Jim’s famous basketball hoop used to hang.  🙁  Mike and I actually knew this was coming, as Jack had mentioned he had plans to install a new garage on the property last December during our interior tour of the home, but it was still sad to see nonetheless.  I am not a person that handles change very well anyway, and being that my parents just last week decided to sell the house we’ve lived in ever since moving to Southern California a decade ago, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of it lately.  Granted I moved out of that house a year and a half ago, but that’s entirely beside the point.  😉  So, when I saw that my beloved 90210  house had also been altered, it was almost too much to bear.   And while Jack says that some change can actually be for the better, I’ll take the status quo over something new any day.  🙂

Pictured above is what’s currently left of the Walsh garage.  I told Jack he should seriously consider selling pieces of the rubble on eBay, like the pieces of the Berlin Wall that were sold back in the 90s, but I don’t think he took me seriously.  😉

And here is the empty footprint where the Walsh garage – and basketball hoop – used to stand.

Pictured above is the garage area as it appeared in December of 2008.

And what it looks like today.  So sad.  See what I mean?  It truly is the end of an era!

Jack also removed the little patio area that used to be located just outside of the Walsh’s backdoor – an area which the producers of 90210 had built especially for the filming of the show.   🙁

Pictured above is what that patio area used to look like.

Our visit to the Walsh house wasn’t an entirely sad event, though.  As always, Jack regaled us with some fabulous tales from the days when the show was filmed on his property.  And, let me tell you, I just cannot get enough of those stories!  I could literally listen to Jack talk all day long!  Which Mike and I pretty much did – we were there for close to two hours!  Not kidding!  Jack has to be one of THE nicest guys on the planet, I swear!    One story he told us had us absolutely cracking up.  Apparently, a few months back, a fan from Belgium came to the house and asked to see the inside.  Jack’s wife was hesitant about doing so, but the girl was very persistent, so she eventually showed her the area just inside the front door.  Well, the girl took one look at the inside and completely burst into tears.  Apparently, she thought the show was actually filmed inside of the real life house and expected it to look exactly the same in person as it does on TV and she became terribly upset when that was not the case.  If only she had read my blog before stalking the house, she would have been saved some heartache. 😉   One interesting little tidbit of information that Jack shared with us that I found fascinating was that there were actually three houses being considered for the Walsh residence once the series got picked up by Fox.  The three residences were Jack’s house, which ended up being chosen, Jack’s neighbor’s house directly to the east (pictured above) . . .

. . . and the house located across the street (pictured above).  I think they made the right choice, don’t you think?  How different the show would have been – at least to me – if one of the other houses had been chosen.  The house across the street from Jack'”‘”‘s was eventually used as both the residence of Melissa, aka 90210’s  Baby Mama, in the Season One episode entitled “One Man and a Baby” and the backyard area was used as Tiffany Morgan’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Every Dream Has Its Price”, both of which I blogged about here.

Ironically enough, Jack also told us that the very same backyard also stood in for Steve Sander’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Higher Education”.

Another little bit of 90210 trivia that Jack clued us into was the fact that the front yard of the house located directly west of Jack’s masqueraded as the backyard  of Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s home in the Season 10 episode entitled “The Easter Bunny”.

In the episode, Steve and Janet erroneously believe that her parent’s dog, whom they are pet-sitting at the time, killed their neighbor’s pet rabbit, so the two of them concoct a plan to replace it with a new rabbit.  Because Jack’s neighbor’s house doesn’t have a backyard with much open space, producers dressed the front yard area – just to the west of the home’s front door – and added a fence and a gate to make it appear as if it was really the home’s backyard.   So interesting!

One thing I noticed while in Jack’s backyard was that the Walsh house actually has two small upstairs balconies, not just one as I had previously believed.  I recognized the smaller of the two balconies from the Season One episode entitled “Isn’t It Romantic” the last time I stalked the house.  And this time, I immediately recognized the other balcony from the Season One episode entitled “Seventeen Year Itch”, which I had randomly watched the night beforehand.  🙂   In the episode, Cindy Walsh is shown pining over her former fling Glen Evans while standing out on the balcony looking up at the stars.  And while the balcony looks a bit different today than it did when it appeared on 90210 – a cement awning has since been added – it was still very cool to see it in person nonetheless.  🙂

And another little bit of trivia – according to Jack, the exterior light located just to the left of the balcony door is the very light that used to be located on his front porch during the 90210 years.  It was purchased by producers to match the light located on the front porch set that had been built at the studio.

The highlight of the day, though, had to be when – are you sitting down for this????? – Mike asked Jack if the two of us could each possibly have one of the roof tiles from his former garage.   Jack thought we were incredibly silly to want such a thing, but he happily obliged.  Thank goodness we stalked the place before all of the rubble had been removed!  And, to top it all off, he even signed the tiles for us!  Can you believe it?????  I was absolutely DYING!  I mean now I can actually say that I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210  HOUSE!!  I OWN  A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!!!!!!!!  How incredibly cool is that???  I was literally pinching myself the whole drive home and I almost still can’t believe it happened!!!!!  🙂  So, I guess what Jack said is actually true – some change can be for the better, because had he not dismantled his garage, we never would have been given a part of it.  And while I, of course, would prefer that the Walsh garage was still standing, being given a real piece of the show isn’t such a bad consolation.  🙂  And I will of course take photographs and report back to my fellow stalkers once the new Walsh garage has been completed – it'”‘”‘s going to look totally different, by the way – but according to Jack, that won’t be for about six months.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Casa Walsh is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena.  Please keep in mind that this is a private residence and please do not disturb the owners.  It was a fluke that Mike and I were lucky enough to have been given a tour of the home, but this is not a regular occurrence.  I’d hate to have people bothering Jack for tours due to the fact that I put this information on the internet, so please be respectful of his privacy.  🙂  The two houses which producers also considered using as the Walsh house can be found at 1689 and 1690 East Altadena Drive.  1690 East Altadena was also used as 90210’s  Baby Mama’s house and its backyard was used as both Steve Sander’s backyard and Marianne Moore’s backyard during Season One.  The house which stood in for Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s house in “The Easter Bunny” episode can be found at 1665 East Altadena Drive.

‘