October 2015 – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 30, 2015August 16, 2018

The “Ghost Dad” House

Long before I ever moved to Southern California, I purchased the Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book and was absolutely mesmerized by what I found inside. One whole chapter of the tome is dedicated to filming locations in Pasadena and its environs and when my family and I did relocate to the Crown City in 2000, my mom and I spent many of our first days there driving around visiting locales mentioned in the book. We had such a blast doing so and found that stalking was a great way to explore our new hometown. One of those early stalks was of the home belonging to the Hopper family – dad Elliot (Bill Cosby) and his children, Diane (Kimberly Russell), Danny (Salim Grant), and Amanda (Brooke Fontaine) – in the 1990 comedy Ghost Dad. The photos I took of the place were of the old school, 35mm variety, though, so figuring that the residence would be perfect for my Haunted Hollywood postings, I recently added it to my re-stalk list. As fate would have it, I had to drive my mom out to a doctor appointment in Pasadena last week, so we swung by the Ghost Dad house afterwards and also did some other stalking in the area. It was just like old times.

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In Ghost Dad, which was directed by Sidney Poitier (!), the Hoppers supposedly live in Seattle, Washington. Aside from a few establishing shots of the city skyline, though, the movie was shot in its entirety in Los Angeles. It is not very hard to see how the home pictured below came to be used in the film, as it does have a very Pacific Northwest feel to it.

In real life, the house, which was built in 1908, boasts four bedrooms, two baths, 2,306 square feet of living space, and a 0.18-acre lot.

The picturesque residence looks very much the same today as it did when Ghost Dad was shot 25 years ago.

The home, which was pretty much the main location used in Ghost Dad, was featured countless times throughout the movie.

I originally thought that the actual interior of the dwelling was utilized in the movie, but now I am not so sure.

From the way the scene below was shot, it would seem that the real interior was used.

But the shaping and placement of the windows shown in some interior scenes does not seem to match the windows at the actual home. And unfortunately, I could not find any photos of the inside of the house, so I cannot say for certain either way.

As was depicted onscreen, the dwelling belonging to Joan (Denise Nicholas) in Ghost Dad can be found directly next door.

That property also has a very Pacific Northwest feel to it and reminds me quite a bit of the house where Jessica (Gaby Hoffman) lived in Sleepless in Seattle.

The Ghost Dad houses are located on Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena, one of L.A.’s most oft-filmed streets.

Several other residences on Bushnell have been featured prominently onscreen in productions such as thirtysomething, Back to the Future, Old School and Teen Wolf. The addresses of those homes are listed in the “Stalk It” section below.

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a fabulously spooky holiday!

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

Big THANK YOU to my mom, my original stalking partner-in-crime, for stalking this one with me! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Hopper family home from Ghost Dad is located at 1621 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Joan’s house from the movie is located next door at 1615 Bushnell. The Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School can be found just a few doors down at 1803 Bushnell. The property located at 1727 Bushnell was used as both Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house in Teen Wolf and Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) 1955 home in Back to the Future. George McFly’s (Crispin Glover) 1955 home from Back to the Future is located at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809. And at 1710 Bushnell is the property that was featured as the Steadman house in the television series thirtysomething.

October 29, 2015September 29, 2017

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About Hotel Cortez from “American Horror Story: Hotel”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine article, about the various locations that mask as Hotel Cortez on American Horror Story: Hotel! My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.

October 28, 2015September 29, 2017

Chateau Bradbury Estate from “The Craft”

I am devastated that the month of October is almost over! It seemed to come and go so fast this year! But I do have to say that I am really excited for Halloween (T minus two days and counting!), even though the end of October is always bittersweet for me. Especially since I have so many Haunted Hollywood locales left over in my stalking backlog. I always tend to overdo things when it comes to those particular posts. I currently have a “stalkpile” of over fifty (!) spooky locations and only two days left to blog about them. Yet I know that won’t stop me from over-stalking Haunted Hollywood locales again next year. It’s a habit I can’t shake. One spot that I stalked last October, but never got around to blogging about is a massive residence known as the Chateau Bradbury Estate that has appeared in countless productions over the years, many of them of the horror variety. Last week, while watching The Craft prior to writing my post about the El Adobe Studio Building, I was shocked to see the Chateau make an appearance. So I knew I couldn’t postpone covering it any longer.

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The Chateau Bradbury Estate was originally designed in 1912 by architect Robert David Farquhar for Minerva Polk. Minerva was the daughter of Colonel Lewis Leonard Bradbury, who established what is now the city of Bradbury when he acquired 2,750 acres of the Rancho Azusa de Duarte land grant in 1881. I had actually never heard of Bradbury, which sits nestled between Monrovia and Duarte, prior to researching this post. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. While the municipality is continually ranked one of the wealthiest in the entire nation, it is also one of the tiniest. The city (and yes, it is a city – it was incorporated in 1957) boasts only 900 residents and measures a scant two square miles. And while it does have a city hall, it lacks a post office, library, school, gas station and coffee shop. (No Starbucks? Egads!) Ironically enough (and I am guessing due to some sort of subdivision or annexation of land that occurred at some point), the Chateau Bradbury Estate is not actually situated in Bradbury, but in its neighbor to the south, Duarte.

According to Zillow, the French Normandy-style manse boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 5,625 square feet of living space, and a 2.06-acre plot of land.

The Chateau Bradbury Estate has gone through several owners over the years and for a time grew dilapidated and run-down. According to this website, local kids used to refer to the place as a haunted house. Love it! The property was purchased by a new owner in the ‘90s, who rehabilitated it and leased it out regularly as a wedding venue/special events location. Today, the site is some sort of religious space known as the Hon Los Temple. Unfortunately, virtually none of it can be seen from the street.

Not even through the front gate.

In The Craft, which premiered in 1996, Chateau Bradbury was where Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk) got revenge on Chris Hooker (Skeet Ulrich) by hurling him out of a window while at a party.

The home’s interior was also used in the filming. You can check out some photographs of that interior here. It is pretty spectacular.

I first found out about the Chateau Bradbury Estate thanks to The Location Scout website, on which the residence’s many horror movie appearances are chronicled. Much of the filming information below I learned from The Location Scout, so a big thank you goes out to them! In the Season 1 episode of Tales from the Crypt titled “Lover Come Hack to Me,” which aired in 1989, the manse stood in for the abandoned house where Peggy (Amanda Plummer) and Charles (Stephen Shellen) took shelter after being stranded in the rain on their honeymoon.

The interior of the manse also appeared in the episode, though all of the scenes were rather darkly lit.

In the 1994 made-for-television movie Confessions of Sorority Girls, Chateau Bradbury was the home of Mrs. Masterson (Natalija Nogulich).

The property masked as Hochstatter Mental Hospital that same year in the straight-to-video Ghoulies IV.

The residence’s interior was also utilized in the flick.

In 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank, the Chateau Bradbury Estate served as the home of Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver). It is featured several times throughout the movie, most notably in the ending scene in which Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack) saves Debi’s father’s life.

The property’s interior was also utilized in the film.

In the 2000 thriller The Stray, the mansion belonged to Kate Grayson (Angie Everhart).

The interior was used in that movie, as well.

In the Season 3 episode of Bones titled “Death in the Saddle,” which aired in 2007, the mansion stood in for the Ambassadora, a country inn in Virginia that caters to people interested in “pony play fantasy.” Oddly enough, while the exterior was used in the filming . . .

. . . the establishing shot shown was of a different residence. That property, which was where Reed Standish (Christopher McDonald) lived in Dutch, can be found at 20181 Northridge Road in Chatsworth.

The interior of the Chateau Bradbury Estate also appeared in “Death in the Saddle.”

The residence masked as Cherrymount Academy for Girls in 2003’s Scream Bloody Murder.

In the 2005 television series South of Nowhere, Ashley Davies (Mandy Musgrave) lived at Chateau Bradbury.

The pad appeared as two different locations in the Season 7 episode of 24 titled “Day 7: 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.” The front exterior . . .

. . . and the interior first popped up as the home belonging to Senator Blaine Mayer (Kurtwood Smith).

And the back of the property later appeared as a café in the episode.

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

Big THANK YOU to The Location Scout website for much of the filming information that appears in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chateau Bradbury Estate, aka the party house from The Craft, is located at 2232 California Avenue in Duarte.

October 27, 2015September 29, 2017

Hall of Justice

In the early hours of August 5th, 1962, screen star Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood home. Later that same day, her body was brought to the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles for an autopsy. I only learned that factoid a couple of years ago and immediately became fascinated with the building. Upon doing further research, I became even more enthralled with the structure thanks to its long-standing connection to L.A.’s criminal element and dark underbelly. Figuring the place would be perfect for a Haunted Hollywood post, I set out to stalk it last fall. I was obviously having a blond moment that day, though, and mistakenly stalked the Los Angeles County Hall of Records instead. But this year I got it right!

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The Hall of Justice was designed in 1925 by the Allied Architects Association and, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy website, is “the oldest surviving government building” in L.A.’s Civic Center.

The granite exterior of the Beaux Arts-style structure is comprised of four identical facades.

The 14-story building was originally constructed to house the Los Angeles county court and jail facilities. Upon its completion, it contained 750 jail cells, 17 courtrooms, a morgue, and office space for court employees and law enforcement officers.

The top four floors of the structure housed the jail facilities, which, at one point or another, were home to some of the city’s most notorious criminals including Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, and Bugsy Siegel. A few celebrities also did time there, such as Evel Knievel, who was jailed on assault charges (and famously hired twenty limousines to transport each of the inmates who were released the same day he was) and Robert Mitchum, who, as detailed in this Los Angeles magazine post, served an almost sixty-day sentence for smoking marijuana.

Countless famous trials took place at the Hall of Justice, as well, including those of Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, and Charlie Chaplin. Oh, if those walls could talk!

The morgue facilities were housed in the Hall of Justice’s basement. It was there that Marilyn’s autopsy was conducted by deputy coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who determined the star’s cause of death as probable suicide from acute barbiturate poisoning. That determination has been disputed by fans, armchair detectives and conspiracy theorists alike ever since. So much so that District Attorney John Van de Kamp ordered a review of Marilyn’s death in 1982. The resulting 29-page report on the matter, which took three and a half months to compile, stated that “no credible evidence” of foul play was found. Doubters and theories continue to abound, though.

Dr. Noguchi also performed the autopsy of Robert F. Kennedy at the Hall of Justice on June 6th, 1968.

The Hall of Justice was severely damaged during the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and was subsequently shuttered for the two decades following. Beginning in 2004, the building underwent a massive 10-year, $231-million restoration and finally re-opened in late 2014. While many historic décor elements were left intact, including the ornate columned loggia, several areas were gutted. The morgue where Marilyn’s autopsy was conducted was a casualty of the renovation. The majority of the courtrooms and jail cells were also removed. One block of cells, which is said to include the cell where both Manson and Sirhan Sirhan were incarcerated, was kept intact and moved to the basement (yes, the same basement where Marilyn was autopsied) and will eventually be part of a public exhibit. You can check out some great pre-renovation photos of the building here (man, I would have loved to have toured it during that time!) and some fabulous post-renovation photos here.

The Hall of Justice is also a filming location!

The building was featured numerous times in establishing shots on the television series Perry Mason.

And it appeared each week in the Season 3 and 4 opening credits of Get Smart.

The building was also featured in The Big Fix, The Distinguished Gentleman and Absolute Power, none of which I had copies of with which to make screen captures for this post.

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 Hall of Justice is located at 211 West Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles.

October 26, 2015September 29, 2017

The Occult Store from “The Craft”

I often receive emails from fellow stalkers who are planning trips to Los Angeles and want some help in tracking down a favorite film or television location. The emails always give me a pang of recognition. I was that stalker once upon a time. During one of my first trips to L.A., I was absolutely desperate to see the Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210. I had forgotten my trusty tour book at home, though. This was long before the days of filming location blogs and websites, so without the book I was pretty much out of luck. I knew the house was somewhere in Altadena, so my mom and I headed that way and I asked literally everyone I encountered if they could point me in the right direction. No one could, but I did finally make it to Casa Walsh that day and finally seeing it in person was worth all the work it took to get me there. Assisting fellow stalkers in similar quests is one of the reasons I started this site. So when I received an email back in May from a reader named Nathan who was desperate to track down the occult store from the 1996 horror/fantasy flick The Craft before an upcoming trip to L.A., I promised him I would help. I was having a little trouble finding the place, though, so I called upon expert stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and he wound up tracking it down within minutes. Thank you, Mike! Nathan was floored over Mike’s find and ventured over there while in town this past July. I loved hearing about his visit and how meaningful it was for him to be there. Figuring the place would be perfect for my Haunted Hollywood posts, I, too, ran out to stalk it recently.

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The occult shop from The Craft is located in Hollywood’s El Adobe Studio Building. The small Spanish-style strip mall was originally built in 1928 and, according to the You Are Here website, was designed by architects Arthur Kelly and Joe Estep.

In the book The Story of Hollywood, author Gregory Paul Williams contends that the site was the “world’s first mini-mall,” constructed on farmland owned by D.P. Baldwin. Of the evolution of the property, Williams says, “The original farmer’s stalls later became a grocery store. Baldwin created the L-shaped building around it as rental spaces for artists who worked in the movies.” That grocery store, El Adobe Market, still operates on the premises today. You can check out a 1935 image of the El Adobe Studio Building here and one from 1970 here. As you can see, not much of the complex has changed over the years.

Along with the El Adobe Market, today the center houses a pharmacy, a furniture store, and several live-work studio office spaces. You can check out some interior photos of an El Adobe office that is currently for rent here. What an incredibly cool place to work!

The occult store makes a few appearances in The Craft. It first pops up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell), and Rochelle (Rachel True) take Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney), the new girl in school, shopping. The women return to the store several times throughout the flick.

Though the whole El Adobe Studio Building is featured in the movie, the actual storefront that served as the occult shop is located in the northwest corner of the complex.

I originally thought that the storefront was a part of the Adobe Pharmacy, which stands at the southwest corner of the El Adobe Studio Building, but Nathan ventured inside the drugstore while he was there and that does not appear to be the case. The Craft occult store seems to be a separate space. (Big THANK YOU to Nathan for the photos below!)

I am unsure if the interior of that space was used in the filming of The Craft or if the inside of the occult shop was just a set.

From the way things were shot, though, I would guess interiors were lensed in the actual space.

Unfortunately, that particular unit sits behind a locked fence which bars the interior from view, so I was unable to catch a glimpse of it. I am also unsure of what the space currently houses, but I believe it is some sort of office.

I am fairly certain, though, that if the actual interior was used that it was dressed considerably for the filming and looks quite a bit different in person. I would also guess that the stained glass window shown at the top of the stairs in the movie was a fake.

I am also fairly certain that the occult store from The Craft was based upon Panpipes Magical Marketplace located at 1641 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. The site, which was originally founded in 1961, has the distinction of being the oldest occult shop in the U.S. And it is also a filming location! Panpipes has appeared in such productions as Unsolved Mysteries, Witchboard 2, Dream On, The Rockford Files, Hardball and North Mission Road. The owners also regularly serve as consultants for television shows and movies that deal with metaphysical themes. Interestingly, Fairuza Balk spent quite a bit of time at Panpipes while researching her role for The Craft and wound up buying the place in 1995. The actress owned it through 2001, before selling it to its current owners.

The mural that Sarah and the girls walk by on their way to the occult shop in The Craft is real, though it has been changed since the movie was shot in 1996.

The mural actually appears to change regularly. As you can see below, it looked completely different when Nathan stalked the El Adobe Studio Building in July . . .

. . . than it did when I was there earlier this month.

The cast of The Craft also posed for a promotional still in front of the mural during the filming, which I was pretty floored to come across while researching this post.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Nathan for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for tracking it down! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: El Adobe Studio Building, aka the occult shop from The Craft, is located at 5201-5209 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz.

October 23, 2015September 29, 2017

The Rindge House from “The Brasher Doubloon”

There are few things the Grim Cheaper loves more than historic sites. So when we came across a massive dwelling that appeared to have a past while on our way to stalk the Beckett Residence in September 2012, we stopped to take a closer look. Figuring the place had appeared onscreen at some point, I also snapped some photos of it. I didn’t end up doing much research on the home until recently, though. As it turns out, the property is known as the Rindge House and it was built at the turn of the 20th Century for one of L.A.’s most prominent citizens.

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The Rindge House was originally constructed in 1903 for wealthy businessman Frederick Hastings Rindge. Frederick not only co-established the Union Oil Company and the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company, but his family was largely responsible for developing Malibu. (I blogged about Frederick’s daughter’s home, the Adamson House, here.)

The property was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, the same architect who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Come, the Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and Castle Green in Pasadena (an oft-filmed locale that I have yet to blog about).

Sadly, Frederick Rindge passed away in 1905, just two years after the manse was completed. His wife, May, continued living on the premises until she, too, passed away in 1941. After May’s death, the property was utilized for a time as both a convent and a home for women. At some point, it was reverted back to a private residence and it remains so today. You can read a more detailed history of the Rindge House on the Big Orange Landmarks blog here.

According to Zillow, the Chateauesque-style pad, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1972, boasts 15 bedrooms, 9 baths, 11,704 square feet of living space, and 1.73 acres of land.

The GC and I had a blast walking around the perimeter of the property and looking at all of its unique detailing, like the mailbox and light post pictured below.

Because of its massive size and its age, the Rindge House definitely gives off an ominous aura. The huge spider we spotted hanging out on the fence outside didn’t help to combat that image.

A man named Mike had commented on the Big Orange Landmarks post that he used to live at the Rindge House and that many productions had been shot there. I got in touch with him in the hopes that he might remember some of the productions lensed on the premises and not only did he get back to me right away, but he proved to be a vast wealth of information! As it turns out, the property has a film resume that dates back to 1947! That year, it masked as the Murdock mansion, which is said to be located “all the way out” in Pasadena, in the noir The Brasher Doubloon.

The eastern portion of the residence, as well as the front porch and doorway were featured in the film.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Murdock mansion was a set. You can check out what the real life interior of the Rindge House looks like here.

In the Season 3 episode of Wonder Woman titled “The Man Who Could Not Die,” which aired in 1979, the Rindge House served as the residence of evil scientist Joseph Reichman (Brian Davies).

Ironically enough, though the home was said to be in Topanga Canyon in the episode, a sign with its real life name and address was shown pretty prominently in a scene. (Love the special effects below!)

The interior of the Rindge House was featured quite prominently in “The Man Who Could Not Die.”

As you can see, it is absolutely stunning inside!

The property’s large guest house was also visible in the episode.

In the 1980 CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Haunting of Harrington House,” the home masked as Harrington House, an old hotel that Polly Ames (Dominique Dunne) investigates for paranormal activity during a break from boarding school. For whatever reason, an establishing shot of the residence is never shown in the episode. Only close-ups of the porte-cochère . . .

. . . and the interior appeared onscreen.

That same year, the Rindge House was featured in another CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” In the episode, the property masqueraded as the Winterborn Public Library. Sadly, as Mike informed me, during the filming a 40-year-old stuntwoman named Odile Astie was killed while performing a stunt in which she was supposed to fall off the roof of the home onto airbags situated twenty-five feet below. Some plastic padding that Astie was wearing caught on the gutter during the sequence, though, causing her to land on the ground instead of the airbags. You can read more about the tragedy here.

The inside of the Rindge House masked as two different places in “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” It first appeared as the interior of the Winterborn Public Library.

And it was also featured as the interior of Alpheus Winterborn’s former house.

I was shocked to discover while watching that the exterior of the Winterborn home was none other than the Weller Residence, which I blogged about on Wednesday.

And I was further shocked to discover that the episode starred Keith Coogan, who is married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog!

In the 1982 comedy (and I use that term loosely) Slapstick (of Another Kind), the Rindge House was where twins Wilbur (Jerry Lewis) and Eliza Swain (Madeline Kahn) lived.

The interior of the home was also featured in the movie.

For Pat Benatar’s 1982 “Shadows of the Night” music video, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the Rindge House were turned into a Nazi compound.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

In 1983’s Private School, the interior of the Rindge House stood in for the interior of Cherryvale Academy for Girls.

Oddly enough, two different exteriors were shown as the outside of Cherryvale Academy in the movie, neither of which was the Rindge House. The first exterior shown was that of the “Batman mansion” in Pasadena, which I blogged about here.

The other exterior shown was that of a house located at 4839 Louise Avenue in Encino. That same residence was also where Roger Azarian (Matthew Perry) lived in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “April Is the Cruelest Month.” You can read a post I wrote about it here.

The close-ups of the exterior of Cherryvale Academy were shot at the Rindge House, however.

Mike also informed me that the Rindge House appeared in another episode of CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre, but he could not remember which episode, and in the 1980 made-for-television movie Scout’s Honor, which I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike for all of the help he provided with this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Rindge House, from The Brasher Doubloon, is located at 2263 South Harvard Boulevard in the Adams-Normandie area of Los Angeles.

October 22, 2015September 29, 2017

New “L.A.” Mag Post About “The Postman Always Rings Twice” Train Station

Be sure to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine article, about East Los Angeles Union Pacific Station, an abandoned train depot from The Postman Always Rings Twice!

October 21, 2015September 29, 2017

The Weller Residence from “Castle”

What is it about Victorian-style dwellings that lends itself so well to scary movies and television shows with a spooky theme? I so often find myself blogging about Victorians this time of year. (There’s the Mills View House from House, the Blankenhorn Lamphear House from Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and the Miller and Harriott House from the Halloween themed episode of Modern Family titled “Open House of Horrors,” just to name a few.) Today’s post is in that same vein. Last May, I happened upon an absolutely uh-ma-zing Queen Anne residence while stalking the Girls United group home from The Fosters. Figuring it had to have acted as a filming location at some point, I snapped some photos of it and was floored to later discover that not only had it appeared onscreen, but as a spooky old hotel no less!

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In real life, the house is known as the Weller Residence and it was built in 1894 for a businessman named Zachariah Weller. In the book Beautiful America’s California Victorians, author Kenneth Naversen suggests that the property may have been fashioned upon a design found in a pattern book created by mail-order architect G.F. Barber.

Oddly, when the Weller Residence was originally built it stood in a different location, at what was then 401 North Figueroa Street in Echo Park. That address is now 401 North Boylston Street. In 1900, the area became populated with large oil derricks, several of them popping up around Zachariah’s home. It was not a pretty sight. You can see a photograph of what it looked like at that time here. So Weller did the only rational thing – he broke the house into two pieces and moved it about 3,000 feet north to a vacant plot of land at 824 East Kensington Road. He also had the property wired for electricity at that time. The Weller Residence has the distinction of being the first home in the area to feature electrical power.

Zachariah Weller passed away in 1903. The home remained in his family through 1953, when it was purchased by Albert and Helen McNellis. Their son still owns it to this day.

The Weller Residence was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1979.

The two-story house boasts ten rooms, pocket-wood doors, vintage crystal chandeliers, hardwood flooring, a large front porch, a second story balcony, and a peaked tower.

The property is absolutely spectacular in person! It is easily one of the most beautiful Victorians I have ever seen. Not to mention one of the largest. You can read a more in-depth account of its history on the Big Orange Landmarks blog.

The Weller Residence was featured in the Season 5 episode of Castle titled “Scared to Death.” In the episode, which was an homage to horror movies (Wes Craven even had a cameo!), Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) investigated the death of a young girl, Val Butler (Alison Trumbull), who died three days after receiving a DVD that predicted her exact time of death, a la The Ring. Images of the dwelling appeared in the DVD that Val was sent, which Castle watched at the beginning of the episode.

Beckett’s team later discovers that the Victorian pictured in the DVD is Port Campbell’s Brunswick Inn. To convince Beckett that the property deserves investigating, Castle tells her, “The inn must be the place where some unspeakable horror befell the spirits. Think about it! The Ring, Psycho, The Shining – it’s when we get to the creepy old motel that everything starts really going south.” Love it!

The interior of the Weller Residence also appeared in the episode. While Beckett is exploring the hotel with Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas), she says, “It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here.” To which Javier says, “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here this century!”

On a side-note – I’m pretty sure that Matthew Del Negro (whom I met recently – you can see my photo with him here) had a featured extra role as a policeman in “Scared to Death.”

The Weller Residence also appeared as the old Winterborn house in the 1980 CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Treasure of Alpheus T. Winterborn,” which I was floored to discover starred none other than Keith Coogan, who is married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog.

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 Weller Residence, aka Brunswick Inn from Castle, is located at 824 East Kensington Road in Echo Park. The Girls United group home from The Fosters is located just up the street at 766 East Kensington.

October 20, 2015September 29, 2017

New Discover L.A. Post About Film Noir Locales

I had to take my mom into Los Angeles yesterday for a doctor appointment, so I do not have a new post for today . . . but I do have a new post up at Discover Los Angeles. It’s about film noir locations, so be sure to check it out.

October 19, 2015November 3, 2017

The Phillips Mansion

The Grim Cheaper always tells me that it is not about the destination, but the journey. He’s right. Getting lost can have its perks. While driving around looking for Spadra Cemetery (which I blogged about on Friday) a couple of weeks ago, we happened upon a seemingly abandoned mansion set back from the road behind a chain link fence. The site appeared to be beckoning to me, so we pulled over for a closer look.

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As it turns out, the property is known as Phillip’s Mansion and it is one of Pomona’s oldest residences. The pad was originally constructed in 1875 by a wealthy rancher named Louis Phillips, who I wrote about in my Spadra Cemetery post.

According to the The Historical Society of Pomona Valley, the three-story, eight-room estate was built in the Second Empire or “Classic Haunted Mansion” style of architecture (I didn’t even know there was such a thing, but LOVE it) at a cost of $20,000. The exterior was fashioned out fired bricks that were hand-made on the premises, while the ornate interior featured gas lighting, sixteen-foot tall ceilings, a whopping six fireplaces (!!!!), and cherry and maple woodwork. Phillips, who in 1892 the Los Angeles Times named the “richest man in Los Angeles County” with an estimated net worth of around $3 million, lived there until his death in 1900. His wife continued to reside at the mansion until she passed away in 1918. Both are buried at Spadra Cemetery. Their tombstone was, sadly, upended by vandals a few years back, the sight of which only adds to the spookiness of the graveyard.

After it was sold, Phillips Mansion was used for a variety of purposes. At one point in time, the site was turned into apartments and then it later served as a dorm for Cal Poly Pomona foreign exchange students. Over the years, the property fell into disrepair and in the ‘60s was bought by an industrialist who planned to demolish it in order to build a factory. Thankfully, the Historical Society stepped in and purchased it in 1966, rescuing it from the wrecking ball. The organization immediately set about renovating the structure with the hopes of turning it into a museum. The project took years and the museum finally opened to the public in 1978. Sadly, it has not had much luck since that point. Phillips Mansion, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, suffered severe damage in both the Upland earthquake of 1990 and the Sierra Madre earthquake of 1991. The Historical Society began to restore the wreckage in 2002 and was even hosting special theatrical productions titled “A Premature Burial” on the premises each Halloween, but then tragedy struck in July 2008 when the property was damaged yet again in the Chino Hills earthquake. The group is still currently working to repair the manse and return to its original glory.

While stalking it, I felt like I was standing in front of the Bates’ house from Psycho. The two properties look so much alike!

Supposedly, two movies, one starring Buster Keaton and the other starring Tom Mix, were shot at a barn located on the Phillips Mansion property in the 1930s. I am unsure of the names of the films, though, and, unfortunately, the barn is no longer standing.

Fellow stalker Darnell let me know that the mansion itself appeared in the 2005 horror movie Mortuary as the home where Liz (Alexandra Adi) lived.

While researching the mansion for this post, I was floored to discover that there is a dilapidated residence located directly behind it. I had not noticed the second property while I was there, which is unfortunate being that not only is it fabulously run-down, but it was also featured prominently in Mortuary. The dwelling is known as the Currier House and it was designed by architect Ferdinand Davis for local politician/philanthropist Alvin Tyler Currier in 1907. The home, which cost $12,000 to construct, was originally located about 15 miles west in the City of Industry. In 2004, after standing vacant for over a decade, the City of Industry gave the house to the Historical Society of Pomona Valley and paid to transport it to the grounds of the Phillips Mansion.

In Mortuary, the Currier House masked as the abandoned Fowler Brothers Mortuary.

I am unsure if the real life interior of the Currier House was used in the filming. Being that the interiors shown in the movie do not appear nearly as run down as the exterior of the home, I am guessing that a set was used for all inside filming. That is just a hunch, though.

Update – my friend Scott Michaels, of the FindaDeath website and Dearly Departed Tours, recently got a chance to visit both the Phillips Mansion and the Currier House and was kind enough to share the photos he took with me to add to this post.

During his tour, Scott got to see the interior of both residences. The inside of the Phillips Mansion is pictured below.

The Currier House could not be more fabulously dilapidated!

I am in love with the photo below! Scott thinks the happy face might have been left over from a filming of some sort, but he isn’t sure. Either way, it’s spectacular! Thank you, Scott, for the great pictures!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Phillips Mansion is located at 2640 Pomona Boulevard in Pomona. The Currier House is located directly behind it.