The Apthorp from “Funny Farm”

I am the first to admit that, though I am not a natural towhead, I am a dumb blonde through and through.  The Grim Cheaper often kids that all of the hair dye I’ve used over the years has obviously gone to my brain.  Case in point – during a 2008 trip to New York, the two of us came across a massive and beautiful building on the Upper West Side.  We were both struck by the structure’s size and elegance and stopped to peer through its front gates at the gorgeous and also massive central courtyard.  I made a mental note of the property’s name, The Apthorp, but did not take many photographs of it because, at the time, I did not realize it was a filming location.  Later that same year, I read the novel Black  & White by Dani Shapiro, in which the main character, Clara Dunne, grew up in The Apthorp.  The building served as an almost character in the story and I became even more fascinated by it.  Flash forward to our recent trip to the Big Apple.  While planning our visit, I came across a blurb about the building in a movie locations book – or at least I thought I did.  The book actually referenced another striking and similarly-named Upper West Side structure, The Ansonia, with a mention that Single White Female had been shot on the premises.  So I added The Ansonia’s address (2109 Broadway) to my To-Stalk List and dragged the GC and our friends Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, Lavonna, Kim, and Katie out to see it our second day in the city.

As soon as we walked up to the building, though, I realized I had gotten my wires crossed somewhere, as it wasn’t the place I had remembered.  While gorgeous and grand in size, The Ansonia (pictured below) lacked that stunning central courtyard that the GC and I had been so enamored with.  Thoroughly confused, I apologized to the group and pulled out my trusty iPhone to figure out where I had gone wrong.  A woman happened to overhear my musings over the mistake and mentioned that there was another spectacular structure located nearby named The Dorilton.  She figured it might be the place I was looking for.  So our group walked a few blocks south to 171 West 71st Street to see if it was the spot the GC and I had visited all those years ago.  (And don’t worry, I will be doing a blog post on The Ansonia and its many onscreen appearances soon.)

The Dorilton (pictured below) proved to be a bust, too.  Though the building is undoubtedly stunning and huge, and even boasts a courtyard, I knew right away it was not the correct place.

Feeling like a complete and total dolt, I was ready to throw in the towel when Owen mentioned another stately Upper West Side building, The Apthorp, that boasts a large central courtyard.  He knew of the locale thanks to its appearance in the 1988 film Funny Farm.  So our poor group once again turned around and headed eight blocks north to take a look.  Sure enough, Owen had hit the nail on the head!  The building I had remembered was The Apthorp!  I later mentioned to Owen that I felt like we were playing “musical buildings” that day.  Huge thanks to him for finally leading us to the right spot!

Commissioned by the Astor family, The Apthorp was designed by the Clinton and Russell architecture firm in 1908.  The 12-story Italian Renaissance Revival-style structure, which occupies an entire city block, originally consisted of 103 uniquely-designed units, each with eleven-foot ceilings and eight-foot windows.  The building, which for a time was New York’s largest apartment complex and even today remains one of its most luxurious, is best known for its grand entrance featuring a spectacular curved limestone ceiling and an intricate wrought iron gate, as well as the 12,000-square-foot courtyard that serves as its centerpiece.

Sadly, the courtyard is closed off to the general public.  The glimpses that can be gleaned, though, show that it is strikingly beautiful and sprawling.

Considering its lavish appointments, it is no surprise that The Apthorp has been home to many celebrities and notables throughout its history including Al Pacino, Lena Horne, Joseph Heller, Rosie O’Donnell, Conan O’Brien, Nora Ephron, and Cyndi Lauper, who in an absolutely ridiculous move in 2005 sued the building’s owners to have the rate on her rent-stabilized unit lowered from $3,750 to $989 a month.  Even more ridiculous – she won the case.  As an article in The New York Sun about the verdict stated, “So New Yorkers can sleep easy in their (excessively expensive) bedrooms tonight, knowing that the truly needy are getting affordable housing.”

In 2006, The Apthorp was purchased by a developer, who set about turning the units into condos.  Cindy’s wasn’t the only apartment to be rent-stabilized, so as you can imagine, the transition did not go smoothly.  What followed was several years worth of fighting with the many tenants opposing the change, the Attorney General who not only shut down the sales office for a time, but fined the developers $190,000, and the brokers who at one point all resigned.  The conversion was so fraught with drama that Curbed New York dubbed their series of reports on the story “As the Apthorp Turns.”

The condo conversion did eventually go through and the husband-and-wife architecture team of Ingrid Birkhofer and Fernando Papale were commissioned to bring each unit back to its original glory.  The result of their efforts is nothing short of spectacular.  You can check out some images of the re-vamped building here and here.   As Jason Sheftell wrote in a 2009 Daily News article, “Determined not to turn the Apthorp into the next Plaza Hotel, where New York history was massacred by poor layouts and claustrophobic rooms, owners and architects executed a long-term project, with skilled artisans restoring apartments as they become vacant.”  I am so thankful that such care was taken to conserve the building’s past.  As I noted in this 2009 blog post, I was not at all impressed with the conversion of the Plaza and wholeheartedly agree with Sheftell’s assessment that the hotel and its history were “massacred.”  Today, The Apthorp boasts four lobbies, 161 units, a private spa, a gym, a yoga studio, a steam room, a sauna, an entertainment suite, and a kids’ playroom.  What I wouldn’t give to live there!

The Apthorp has been featured in countless productions.  According to a 1986 The New York Times article, at that time around 30 films were shot on the premise each year!  Though I could never properly chronicle all of the movies and television shows shot at the building, read on for a list of a few of the highlights.

The building was featured in the opening scenes of Funny Farm as the New York home of Andy (Chevy Chase) and Elizabeth (Madolyn Smith Osborne).  The front exterior of The Apthorp . . .

. . . as well as the courtyard were featured in the flick.

In the 1976 movie Network, The Apthorp served as the home of Max Schumacher (William Holden).

According to the book Mad as Hell, Apartment 9F was utilized in the filming.

The exterior of the building was also shown briefly in the film.

I was floored to learn while researching for this post that The Apthorp was featured briefly as the home of John Russell (George C. Scott) in my favorite scary movie of all time, 1980′”‘”‘s The Changeling.  For those who have never seen the film, I cannot recommend it more.  It'”‘”‘s absolutely terrifying!

Interestingly, it appears that 9F, the very same unit that was featured in Network, was also utilized as John'”‘”‘s apartment in The Changeling.  As you can see below, the living room areas from both films are an exact match.

As are the kitchens.

Vera Cicero (Diane Lane) lived at The Apthorp in 1984’s The Cotton Club.

Nora Ephron not only lived in the building for a time, but she also filmed a movie there.  In the 1986 dramedy Heartburn, Rachel Samstat (Meryl Streep) heads to the home of her father at The Apthorp after finding out that her husband is cheating on her.

Supposedly, the interior of an Apthorp unit was used in the filming of the 1986 comedy The Money Pit, but because all of the apartments in the building were individually designed and bear very different looks, it was impossible for me to verify that information.

The Apthorp was used regularly on the 2009 NBC series Kings.

Though its roofline was digitally altered on the show.

Horvath (Alfred Molina) and Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) are released from their ten-year imprisonment in an urn while at The Apthorp in the 2010 adventure film The Sorcerer'”‘”‘s Apprentice.

In the Season 1 episode of Person of Interest titled “Super,” which aired in 2012, John Reese (Jim Caviezel) moves into The Apthorp to investigate the building’s longtime superintendent, Ernie Trask (David Zayas).

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for not only figuring out which building I was looking for, but for letting me know of its appearance in Funny Farm and for providing the screen captures from the movie that appear in this post. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Apthorp, from Funny Farm, is located at 2211 Broadway on New York’s Upper West Side.

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