San Francisco – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 3, 2010August 2, 2010

The “Party of Five” House

Sunday night I returned home from my bachelorette party weekend, which turned out to be a surprise Sex and the City-themed soiree thrown up north in San Francisco. Needless to say, I was absolutely FLOORED about it. 🙂 The celebration was, of course, held at a filming location, so I will, of course, be blogging about it, but I am still waiting on some pictures that my friends took before I can do so. In the meantime, though, I thought I’d blog about a location that I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like forever now – the San Francisco home where the Salinger Family – Bailey (aka Scott Wolf), Charlie (aka Matthew Fox), Julia (aka Neve Campbell), Claudia (aka Lacey Chabert), and Owen (aka toddler twins Brandon and Taylor Porter) – lived on the 90’s television series Party of Five. For whatever reason, even though I’ve had the place on my To-Stalk list for ages now, every time I’ve visited San Francisco over the past two years, I haven’t been able to make it out to the house. So, I begged my good friend Nat to take me there the morning following my party and, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited to finally be seeing it in person.

Because I accidentally left my trusty stalking notebook at home, I didn’t have the address of the house with me this past weekend, so, before heading out there, Nat and I did a little cyberstalking to find the address online and as it turns out the property has its own listing on Yelp! Love it, love it, love it!

I am VERY, VERY happy to report that the Salinger house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1994 when Party of Five was filmed. Even the paint colors have remained the same! YAY! The home is absolutely GORGEOUS in person and so quintessentially symbolizes San Francisco that it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as the main residence on the Bay Area-based series.

In real life, the three-story dwelling, which was built in 1900, features seven bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a whopping 6,705 square feet, cathedral ceilings, a four-car garage, an elevator, a gourmet kitchen, a greenhouse solarium, stained glass windows throughout, two decks, and views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and San Francisco Bay. The property was sold to new owners earlier this year for $6,550,000. I can’t even imagine owning an iconic piece of television history like that! So darn cool!

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The house was featured each week in the Party of Five opening credits and in establishing shots throughout the series’ six-year run.

Because parts of the Party of Five pilot were shot on location in San Francisco, I assumed that the real life interior of the house was also used in the filming of that episode. But if you look at this recent real estate listing for the home and compare it to the above screen captures, you can see that that was not actually the case. But I am happy to report that the real life house does boast a small garden courtyard, much like its onscreen counterpart.

You can watch the Party of Five opening credits, which feature the house, by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Nat for taking me to stalk this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Party of Five house is located at 2311 Broadway in the ultra-exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.

May 1, 2009December 6, 2013

San Francisco City Hall

I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve read just about every biography on my girl Marilyn Monroe that’s ever been published. So, imagine my surprise when I came across an article the other day which stated that the starlet married her second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, at San Francisco City Hall. How in the heck did I not know this before??? I grew up in San Francisco for Pete’s sake! City Hall was pretty much right in my own backyard! In fact, I even stalked the place back in October, during my last trip to the City by the Bay. I had yet to blog about it, though, because it was extremely windy the day I was there and I only got out of the car long enough to take one photograph – the one pictured above. Check out my hair! LOL So, the other day, after reading about Marilyn’s San Francisco wedding, I sent my good friend Nat, who lives in the area, on a stalking mission to take photographs of City Hall for me, so that I could finally blog about it. 🙂 Here goes!

San Francisco City Hall was built in 1915 by architect Arthur Brown, Jr., who also designed Coit Tower, the War Memorial Opera House and Pasadena City Hall. The Beaux-Arts style building that stands today is actually San Francisco’s second City Hall. The first, which was built in 1899 and stood at the corner of Grove and Larkin Streets where the public library is now located, was completely destroyed during the 1906 earthquake. Rescue workers were able to salvage the statue that stood atop of the original City Hall’s dome and planned on placing it on the new building. Unfortunately, the statue fell off the back of a flat bed truck while being transported to its new location and was destroyed. LOL LOL LOL How’s that for irony?? The current City Hall measures over 500,000 square feet, takes up two entire city blocks, and cost over $3.5 million to build! Over ten acres of marble were used in the construction. The building’s dome stands at 307.5 feet tall, trumping Washington D.C.’s Capital Building’s dome by 14 inches.

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s wedding took place on January 14, 1954 in the third floor chambers of Judge Charles S. Perry, who was a close friend of Joe’s. DiMaggio’s other good friend Reno Barsocchini and his former manager Lefty O’Doul were the couple’s only guests. Sadly, the marriage was short-lived. Marilyn filed for divorce only 274 days later. City Hall is also the location where Mayor George Moscone and County Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death by Dan White on November 27, 1978.

San Francisco City Hall has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years. The interior of the building’s rotunda showed up at the very end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where it stood in for the Washington D.C. building where Indiana Jones agreed to let Marion Ravenwood buy him a drink (pictured above). City Hall was also used in Bedazzled, The Rock, A View to a Kill, Dirty Harry, Milk, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Towering Inferno, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dharma and Greg (in the “Much Ado During Nothing” episode), Foul Play, and Bicentennial Man, just to name a few!

I highly recommend stalking San Francisco City Hall. It is an absolutely beautiful building and just seeing the dome alone in person is worth a drive by! And, although I didn’t venture inside while I was stalking the place, the first floor area is open to the public. Free tours are also given three times daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m. San Francisco City Guides also offers free interior tours of City Hall every Thursday at 11:00 a.m. You can visit their website for further details.

Big THANK YOU to my surrogate stalker Nat who took all of the above photos. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: San Francisco City Hall is located at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in San Francisco.

April 24, 2008February 17, 2009

The Princess Diaries

This weekend while doing some San Francisco Stalking, I dragged my boyfriend and my friend Nat to the “Grove High School” filming location from the movie The Princess Diaries, which I must confess I was a big fan of. 🙂 I am a total sucker for any teeny bopper movie! When we arrived at Grove High School, I recognized it immediately by its large circular staircase, and was shocked to learn that in reality it is not a school at all, but actually a private residence! The house is incredible in person and way huge!! I can’t even imagine living there!

The home is in a beautiful neighborhood that borders the Presidio of San Francisco. The Presidio is San Francisco’s former Army base and is now a park. The picture to the left is one of “Grove High School’s” neighboring homes. I definitely recommend a drive-by of this location, even for those non-stalkers out there, as the neighborhood is definitely a sight to see! Anne Hathaway’s house in the film is also located in San Francisco, and while I didn’t get a chance to stalk it on this trip, it’s definitely on my list for next time!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Grove High School is located at 2601 Lyon Street, at the intersection of Lyon and Green Street, in San Francisco. Mia and her mom’s home can be found at 724 Brazil Avenue. It is actually a real life former San Francisco fire house that was built in 1911.

April 23, 2008February 13, 2009

Police Doubt Fire . . .

One of my favorite movie lines of all time is “It was a run-by fruiting!” from Mrs. Doubtfire – Robin William says the line to Pierce Brosnan after throwing a piece of fruit at his head at the local pool. LOL So, this weekend, the Mrs. Doubtfire house was on my must-see list of San Francisco stalking locations. The home looks pretty much exactly as it did back in 1993 when the movie was filmed and I recognized it immediately. This location was a snap to find as it is actually referenced in the movie – Miranda gives Mrs. Doubtfire the real address of the home when she tells him where to go for his nanny interview.

The next stop on our SF stalking tour was Robin William’s house, located in the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco. Robin purchased the home in 1991 and lived there with his wife, Marsha, and their children, for the past 17 years. Apparently the house was the site of numerous fund raisers and events hosted by Robin and his wife over the years and was THE place to trick-or-treat in San Francisco. Sadly, Marsha filed for divorce from Robin this past March. You can’t feel too bad for Robin, though, as he pulled a Jude Law back in 1988, when he left his then wife for Marsha, who was his son’s nanny!

Robin’s house is a HUGE pink palace (according to Zillow the place is a whopping 9,310 square feet!) complete with a dinosaur topiary. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a pic of the dinosaur, though, as most of it is hidden behind a large wall. Robin also has an ornate depiction of the comedy/tragedy mask above his front door, which, being an actress, I thought was very cool! I might need to get me one of those for good luck! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mrs. Doubtfire house is located at 2640 Steiner Street, at the corner of Steiner and Broadway, in San Francisco. Robin Williams’ home is located at 540 El Camino Del Mar in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco.

April 22, 2008February 13, 2009

San Francisco Stalking!

This weekend while visiting San Francisco, my friend Nat put together a custom made stalking tour of The City by the Bay for me. She said she had a new found respect for me, as she hadn’t realized how much time and energy finding locations took until she put together the tour for me. I make it look so easy! LOL 🙂

One of the first stops on our tour was the park where the Tanner Family had their famous picnic in the opening credits of Seasons 1-4 of Full House, one of my fave sitcoms of the 80s. The Tanner’s picnic was held in Alamo Square Park, right in front of the famous Seven Sisters homes. The Seven Sisters, or Painted Ladies, as they are more commonly referred to, are a group of seven very famous, very beautiful Victorian homes that were built in the 1890s. The homes are such a huge tourist trap and frequent filming location that they are also known as “Postcard Row.” You can see the picnic location and the Seven Sisters in the opening credits of Full House here.

Our next stop was the Tanner Family home from Full House. Their red-doored house is not one of the Seven Sisters as is commonly believed, but is actually a different VIctorian home located a few blocks away on Broderick Street. The front door is no longer painted red and there is now a large tree blocking most of the front of the home, but it is still very recognizable! You can see the home in the Full House opening credits here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It:The Full House house is located at 1709 Broderick Street, just off Divisadero Street, in San Francisco. Alamo Square Park is located in the Western Division area of San Francisco. Invasion of the Body Snatchers also featured a scene filmed in Alamo Square Park. The Painted Ladies can be found just across the street from the park at 712-720 Steiner Street. The man who built the homes, Matthew Kavanaugh, lived in number 722 during the 1890’s.