“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Basketball Court

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I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how my friend Owen found the basketball court from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  (That’s Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for those who don’t read my site regularly.)  Back in June 2011, he became bound and determined to track down the court, which was featured prominently each week in the popular NBC series’ opening credits.  At the time, it was one of Owen’s top three most-wanted yet-to-be found spots, the two others being the Three’s Company apartment building (which he wound up tracking down in March 2012) and Brooks Memorial Home for the Aged from Miracle on 34th Street (which remains a huge thorn in his side – do any of my fellow stalkers know where it is??).  He was fairly certain the court was located in Philadelphia, where TFPOBA was set, and not in Los Angeles where the series was lensed.  So he began scouring Google Maps aerial views for basketball courts in Philly and then compared Street View images of the spots he came across to screen captures from the opening credits.  After looking at a LOT of different courts, he finally pinpointed the right place – Roberto Clemente Playground at 1800 Wallace Street.  It’s not in West Philadelphia, as Will Smith so famously raps in the theme song, but in North Philadelphia – Spring Garden to be exact.

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Because it is not a New York or Los Angeles locale, Owen did not think I would be interested in the court, but he passed along the address anyway.  And interested I was!  Not only did I love The Fresh Prince growing up, but Philadelphia had long been on the Grim Cheaper’s bucket list of travel sites, so I knew we would be heading there at some point in time.  Though it was five years before we actually did so, Roberto Clemente Playground was still high up on my list of Philly Must-Stalks.

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The 2.5-acre site, which is also known as Clemente Park and Playground, was named in honor of baseball player/humanitarian Roberto Clemente, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates for 18 seasons, beginning in 1955.

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Though the park was a center of drug and gang activity for a time, thanks to the efforts of a woman named Sara Hirschler, who formed the Friends of Clemente group, the property was cleaned up and renovated to the tune of $600,000 in 2011.  Such features as a water spray park, a jungle gym, modern fencing, a new entrance, and green space were added during the renovations.

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But thankfully, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air basketball court was left intact . . .

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. . . and it looks much the same today as it did when the opening credits were shot in 1990.  (Yep, it’s been 26 years since The Fresh Prince started airing.  I’m not even sure how that is possible!)

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So much so that it proved impossible not to sing out, “In West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days, chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool, and all shooting some b-ball outside of the school . . . “ several times while we were stalking the place.

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Amazingly, even the eagle painting visible in the background of the opening is still there, though foliage largely blocks the view of it from the court.

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But you can catch a glimpse of it in my photos below.  The eagle is painted on the rear side of Laura Weller Waring School, an elementary school that is situated adjacent to the playground.

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The park’s small rec center building, which is visible on the right hand side of the screen capture below, also remains intact.

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Though it looks a bit different today due to the murals that are painted all over its exterior, it is still very recognizable from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air opening credits.

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Most amazing of all, though (to me at least), is the fact that the actual basketball hoops and backboards still look exactly the same!  I am shocked – and thrilled – that they weren’t modernized during the renovation.

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Alas, there are a few things that have changed over the years.  The tall row houses seen in the background of the opening credits were torn down to make way for The Spring Gardens, a community garden maintained by 180 local citizens that was started in 1995.

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The benches where “a couple of guys who were up to no good” sat have since been swapped out with new ones.  Unfortunately, I did not get a photograph matching the exact angle shown in that portion of the credits, but the area that was visible still looks very much as it did onscreen.  The building seen in the background to the left in the below image is the rear side of Enon Baptist Church.

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I captured the church on the right hand side of my photos below.

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You can watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air opening by clicking below.

Boyz II Men also shot their 1992 “Sympin” music video at Roberto Clemente Playground.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!  Smile

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: Roberto Clemente Playground, aka The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air basketball court, is located at 1800 Wallace Street in Philadelphia’s Spring Garden neighborhood.

Mansion Bel Aire

A few weeks ago, while searching for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air house, fellow stalker Kerry told me about a mansion in Glendale that she calls the “Tara House” that she thought might be the home used in Fresh Prince. So, of course I had to run right out to stalk it. It wasn’t the FP home, but I was so happy to have stalked it anyway as it is an absolutely ginormous mansion that I never would have found otherwise. Thanks, Kerry!

According to one of my fave tour books, Bel Aire, as the mansion is called, was built in 1922 by Mattison Boyd Jones, a highly successful Glendale area businessman and politician. It was since named a historic landmark and is frequently used as a filming location, most prominently as the main home in the Aaron Spelling produced TV Series Flamingo Road. Legend has it that the mansion was also used a filming location back in 1938 during the filming of Gone With the Wind, but that claim has never been substantiated.

The house is truly amazing as it looks like it belongs on a large Southern plantation, not on a normal street in Glendale among normal sized homes. The mansion sits far back from the road on what has to be at least 3 acres of sprawling lawns and gardens. I highly recommend stalking this location as it is truly one of a kind! And, it is very stalker friendly as it is not hidden behind tall gates or trees.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: “Bel Aire” is located at 727 Kenneth Road in Glendale. After stalking Bel Aire, head over to the new Americana at Brand shopping center located on Brand Boulevard. Just opened this month, it was built by Rick Caruso (no relation to David), the same man who built LA’s celebrated The Grove shopping center.

Fresh Prince House – For Real This Time!

Major Fresh Prince of Bel Air fan Bryan posted a comment on my original Fresh Prince post asking me to please, please, please find the actual location of the mansion used as the Banks’ house on the 90s show. Bryan told me he had been looking for this location for years and every tour book seemed to have gotten it wrong. Being that I know the feeling of complete desperation in not being able to find a location, I made it my mission to find the house for him! I am sad to say it took me a really long time! I have literally stopped to take a picture of every single colonial style mansion I have driven by over the past month to compare to a picture Bryan had sent me of the Fresh Prince house. I was absolutely convinced I had located the right house on two separate occasions, but after coming home to compare pictures, I found I was completely wrong.

Then the other night, a lightbulb went off in my head. I decided to look at a filming locations website – the same one where I located the Shark House. Why I didn’t think of this sooner, I have no idea, because in a matter of minutes I was pretty sure I had found the house! I immediately emailed a picture of the house to Bryan and he confirmed it for me, as did the location company. Then I set off to Brentwood (NOT Bel Air) to stalk the house.

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Unfortunately my pictures came out absolutely horrible!! There are many trees in front of the Banks’ mansion and I could not get my camera to focus correctly on the house through the trees. My dad, who has a much better camera than I do, has promised to stalk the house with me later to take some better pics. The good news, though, is that if you drive by the house, you can definitely see it clearly through the trees and I am so happy to report that it looks EXACTLY the same as it did back in the Fresh Prince days. I was just standing there waiting for a taxi cab to drive up with dice in the mirror. 🙂

An ironic side note – I randomly watched the pilot episode of 90210 the other night and featured on that episode, big as life, was the incorrectly identified Fresh Prince house from my first post! It was used as the location of the Beverly Hills mansion where Brandon and Brenda attend their first West Beverly High party. Since both the pilot episodes of 90210 and Fresh Prince were filmed around the same time back in 1990, my thought is that people and neighbors saw 90210 being filmed at the house and since neither show was well-known at all at that time, heard it was a show about “Beverly Hills” and got it confused when a show about “Bel Air” premiered. Through incorrect word of mouth and communication error, the location wound up in tour books as the Fresh Prince house. That’s my theory anyway. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Fresh Prince house is located at 251 N. Bristol Avenue, at the corner of Bristol Avenue and Parkyns Street, in Brentwood. Katherine Heigl’s sister’s house from the movie Knocked Up is located just up the road at 531 N. Bristol, but unfortunately that home is now gated and not much can be seen at all from the street. The incorrectly identified Fresh Prince house, where the Walsh twins went to their first Beverly Hills party, is located in Bel Air, at 417 Amapola Lane.

How I Became Prince of a Town Called Bel Air

Fresh Prince House? Got a challenge from Byron a couple of weeks ago to find the house from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. According to several Hollywood tour books, including my fave, the location on the left was the home used in the filming of the TV sitcom. However, after watching a few clips of Fresh Prince on YouTube, I am not convinced that it is truly the house. It doesn’t match up perfectly. There are a few reasons why this might be. It is quite possible that the owners of the home changed the exterior after the filming took place and it is also possible that the producers actually changed or added elements to the facade of the real house during filming which changed its appearance. It is also entirely possible that the tour books might have just gotten the location wrong – which does happen on occasion.

You can see clips of the Fresh Prince here and here and judge for yourself. But it looks like I have to do a bit more research on this stalking location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The supposed Fresh Prince house is located at 417 Amapola Lane in Bel Air. Amapola Lane is a very small street just off Copa De Oro Road. The house located at 363 Copa De Oro Road has been owned by several celebrities including Nicolas Cage, Tom Jones and Dean Martin. The Bel Air Hotel is not too far from this location. I highly recommend stalking the hotel – it is one of the most beautiful locations in Los Angeles.