Mary’s House from “Why Women Kill”

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Today marks the third time I’m blogging about Why Women Kill, which is a bit surprising considering I’ve barely watched any of the 2019 CBS All Access series.  But while scanning through episode 6, “Practically Lethal in Every Way,” making screen captures for my recent post on Bistro Garden, the image of a massive Craftsman home came into view, and my heart was set aflutter!  I stared in awe at the home, which belongs to Mary (Analeigh Tipton) and her abusive husband, Ralph Vlasin (Scott Porter), on the 1963 portion of the show, and decided to track down it right then and there.  Thanks to its Arts and Crafts architecture, I had a feeling the pad was located in the Pasadena area, though I had never come across anything quite like it in all my years living there.  I did a Google search for “Why Women Kill,” “filming,” and “Pasadena,” which garnered no fruitful results.  Firm in my assertion that the house was in Crown City and knowing that productions sometimes shorten or abbreviate longer titles, I did a second search for “WWK,” “filming,” and “Pasadena,” and, sure enough, an article came up which stated that in June 2019 the series spent two days shooting on the 200 and 400 blocks of Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena.  I headed right on over to the 200 block via Street View, dropped down the little yellow man, and there was Mary’s Craftsman at 224 Oaklawn!

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I had never visited the street before and, in fact, only first heard about it last December thanks to my friend/fellow stalker Owen who emailed to alert me to another of its famous Craftsmans – 216 Oaklawn, aka the Browning residence from Zathura: A Space Adventure.  (I’ll be covering that property in a later post.)  The enclave, which consists of a small 0.2-mile curved stretch of road with a smattering of about thirty dwellings at South Pasadena’s northern edge, was established in 1904.  Oaklawn was the brainchild of the South Pasadena Realty and Investment Company and Henry and Charles Greene, the prolific architects responsible for the vast majority of the area’s landmark Craftsmans.  The brothers designed the layout of the street, which was initially centered around a large oak tree that no longer stands (hence the name), as well as a reinforced concrete footbridge leading to Fair Oaks Avenue (where residents could access local streetcars) and a waiting station.  Lots were sold undeveloped.  The subdivision was referred to in early advertisements as “Suburb de Luxe” and the homes eventually built there certainly lived up to the hype!  I was flabbergasted wandering the neighborhood, gawking at the massive, architecturally stunning properties surrounding me.  From Craftsman homes to Tudors to mid-century manses, each one is more spectacular than the last!  Two that caught my eye during my visit are pictured below.

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As Owen pointed out to me last December, Oaklawn also boasts a striking entrance feature.  He wrote, “When making screenshots, I noticed something in the background that I couldn’t ID.  I was like, ‘What the hell are boulders doing on a residential street?!’  I went to Google’s street view to check it out, and I came across something interesting and unusual that I had never known about.  You may be well aware of it, of course, but at the end of Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena, near the Zathura house, are rustic portals on each side of the street.  These picturesque portals, which look like something straight out of a lifestyle magazine, were also designed by Greene and Greene.”  I had not been aware of the portals – as I said, I had never even heard of the street before! – but was intrigued and had to take a look while stalking the neighborhood.

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The elaborate stone structures, initially designed to frame the central oak, were constructed long before any homes lined the street and, per the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, “served as advertisements to the undeveloped lots.”

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Today, they welcome visitors to the picturesque idyll.

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Despite their substantial influence on Oaklawn, there’s no concrete evidence that Greene and Greene designed any of the enclave’s homes (though one resident speculates the street boasts as many as four properties that can be attributed to the brothers).  The majority of the lots were sold off in 1907 to various builders, including G.W. Stimson.  His son, architect G. Lawrence Stimson, is credited with designing many of the houses, including Mary’s from Why Women Kill.

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In real life, the 1910 home features 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,930 square feet, a dining room with a cast aluminum ceiling, a carriage house designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, a fireplace with Grueby Faience Company tile, intricate Craftsman detailing, hardwood flooring, built-ins galore, a butler’s pantry, a 0.45-acre lot, and a backyard pond.

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You can check out interior photos of the massive abode here.

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The property pops up numerous times on Why Women Kill, first in the scene in which Beth Ann Stanton (Ginnifer Goodwin) introduces herself to Mary and Ralph, her new neighbors, in episode 6, “Practically Lethal in Every Way.”  The residence is said to be situated across the street from Beth Ann’s supposed Pasadena estate, so it is rather ironic that neither property is actually in Crown City.  Mary’s pad is, of course, in South Pas and Beth Ann’s, the mansion at the center of the series’ storyline, is a good 15 miles away at 113 Fremont Place in Hancock Park.

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Mary’s house goes on to appear in the episodes “I Was Just Wondering What Makes Dames Like You So Deadly” and “Kill Me as if It Were the Last Time.”

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The home is just as incredible in person as it is onscreen.

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The interior, namely the living room with the Grueby tile fireplace, is also featured on the show, as you can see in the screen capture below as compared to the MLS image from 2012, when the pad was last on the market.

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On Why Women Kill, Mary’s staircase (which is visible just beyond the front door) is very Craftsman in style with a natural wood finish, but, per the listing photos, at the time it was on the market it was painted white.

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I am not sure if the new owners changed the coloring back to the original wood or if the show’s production team did, but either way, it was a good move!  The natural wood is so much more appropriate to the architecture of the home, not to mention infinitely prettier.

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Mary’s house from Why Women Kill is located at 224 Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena.  The home from Zathura: A Space Adventure can be found right next door at 216 Oaklawn.

Jessica’s House from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

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Another Crazy, Stupid, Love. location that I stalked recently was the residence where the Riley family – babysitter Jessica (aka Analeigh Tipton) and her parents, Bernie (aka John Carroll Lynch) and Claire (aka Beth Littleford) – lived.  And I just have to say here that now that the flick has been released on DVD, I have watched it about 100 times!  OK, OK, I am exaggerating slightly, but I do have a serious problem!  If anyone out there knows of a support group for Crazy, Stupid, Love. addiction, please, please let me know!  But I digress.  Anyway, I was informed of this particular location thanks to a helpful Crazy, Stupid, Love. crewmember and, even though it appeared only briefly, because I thought Analeigh Tipton was absolutely phenomenal in the movie, I just had to go stalk it.  Truth be told, though, every actor in Crazy, Stupid, Love. was phenomenal!  In most movies there are certain roles in which an actor seems to be perfectly cast, but in the case of Crazy, Stupid, Love., everyone – right on down to the bit players – seemed tailor-made for their role.  If only there were Academy Awards for casting!

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In Crazy, Stupid, Love., the Riley house first appears in the scene in which Cal Weaver (aka Steve Carell) drops Jessica off after an evening of babysitting and she tells him that his wife is “bat-sh*t crazy” for wanting a divorce.

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The abode next shows up in the scene in which Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie (aka Jonah Bobo), delivers some second-hand flowers to Jessica’s front door, while she is making an, ahem, present for Cal.

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And lastly, the home was used in the scene in which Bernie finds out about Jessica’s present for Cal.  I do not want to say anything else about that particular scene as I do not want to spoil the movie for those who have yet to see it.

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In real life, the Riley home, which was built in 1947, is absolutely adorable and boasts a whopping 7 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 3,875 square feet of living space.

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And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the house was also used in the flick, I could not find any interior photographs online with which to verify my hunch.

Analeigh Tipton from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” on “America’s Next Top Model”

On an Analeigh Tipton side-note – while researching this post, I discovered that the actress starred in the Eleventh Season of America’s Next Top Model, during which she placed Third.  You can watch a clip of her on the show by clicking above.  As you can see, she is much more mature, confident, and wise than the character she played in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Like I said, the woman is phenomenal!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Jessica’s house from Crazy, Stupid, Love. is located at 2564 Boulder Road in Altadena.