In my quest to see NYC-things before I leave NYC, I spent this Saturday cavorting around the city. I went to the Whitney, but that only paled in comparison to the pilgrimage I took with my friend George to see the house where Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums was filmed. The house (not on Archer Avenue, not in an inconspicuous city) is actually on 144th and Convent Ave in Harlem.
“Though we never call it New York in the film, I was looking for a certain feeling of living in New York, not the real New York, more a New York of the imagination.” — Wes Anderson, mooviees.com
One thing I discovered on my trek was that Alexander Hamilton also lived on Convent Ave (his house is a National Monument, btw). (So, the Tenenbaums & Hamiltons lived on the same street in Harlem — who’d of guessed?!)
Actually, the weirdest thing about the trip was Harlem itself: I’ve never been that far North! At that point, Manhattan starts to feel as small and level as the other boroughs. Some of it is bedraggled, but when you get to just around the point where the fake Archer Avenue stands, it becomes suddenly very dainty and cute (it’s known as “Hamilton Heights”). In this way, you feel doubly out of place, and doubly not-quite-in-Manhattan.
“It was apparent that the house was one of the characters in the movie.” — David Wasco (production designer for RT), mooviees.com
If you want to visit, you can take the A, B, C, or D to the 145th Street stop or the 1 to the 145th Street stop (way up there, the 1 isn’t even underground yet!).
As a warning, this is not some kind of *actual* landmark, and you can’t go inside! According to our friends at The Rushmore Academy (if you want to visit more Wes Anderson or Tenenbaum landmarks, that’s the site to check!), it’s a private residence so don’t go insane or hold a seance.
After the jump, some pictures of the house from the beginning of the movie, and a few other treats for Wes Anderson fans!
The mooviees.com article I keep quoting has some pretty good info about how Wes chose some of his filming locations.
“…somewhere along the line I decided that we had too much fantasy and that we should go in the opposite direction to ground the story in the fact that the house really existed, that the streets really existed. So ultimately we decided to shoot entirely on location in New York. You might not necessarily recognize it as New York but you’d know that the place is real and the characters existing in it are real.” — Wes Anderson, mooviees.com
Finally, a randomly related update: the best Wes Anderson fan site (The Rushmore Academy) has just gotten a new banner from one of my favorite artists, Ian Dingman, who also designed the Criterion Collection art for Bottle Rocket, and who we once interviewed with great gusto here on S&D.
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14 Responses for "Places & Spaces: The Royal Tenenbaum House"
Oh wow. I’m a little jealous that I can’t go on nyc adventures like you.
You can go on Chicago adventures! Tons of poets are from Chicago. Carl Sandburg wrote a book aptly titled, “Chicago Poems.”
Awesome. Did I miss something—you’re leaving NY?
Ian: Your banner is wonderful!
Also, yes, I am leaving NY — I am going to the University of Virginia for an MFA in making up stories! Funny, it seems I have to leave NYC to become a writer…
Perfect, perfect!
[...] Over on Stickers and Donuts, Maria documents her pilgrammage to the Tenenbaum house in Harlem: [...]
Thank you. Best of luck!
Thank you so much for posting this. I’m in New York and googled “where is the (RTB) house?” and you came right up! The pilgrammage begins…
wow you are genius. I love Wes. We must befriend each other. Gorgeous website! Best wishes for MFA. I love writing plays. Moving to NYC in 7 sleeps to study M.A. (Modern Art) write to me & also i’m @ http://www.twitter.com/hello_margot xxoo
this house is so beautyful.it just has a 1950-1960′s look to it.and it looks so much bigger then it did in the movie,i want to style my house just like this one.and the royal tenenbaum’s came out in 2001 when i was in 3′d grade,and i still love it !
if you want to talk to me,add my facebook
Richard Guiliano
we can talk about the movie.just say your from this site :) <3
[...] Wes Anderson, Ben Stiller, Gene Hackman, Luke Wilson and Gwenyth Paltrow filming in New York City, 2000. See an some exterior shots of the Royal Tenenbaum’s house in Harlem here. [...]
Maria, I live across the street from the RT house. There are rarely tourists here on a weekday but on Sunday they come by the hundreds to see the local churches and attend services (likely to see the gospel choirs). It has gotten so bad that some of the churches create lines for the tourists in order that the locals can all get seats. Standing out from the tour buses and church lines yesterday I saw two women taking photos of the RT house. Since I have lived here I have known that the corner place was the RT house but no one else seems to notice it or talk about it. Seeing those women taking the pics piqued my interest again so I Googled “Royal Tenenbaum house” and your post came up near the top. After reading it I felt like a tourist in my own neighborhood. It’s like old NY up here. Not too many chain stores and real neighborhoods full of people that grew up in this area. There are a couple of celebrities that live on the block and Law and Order: SVU films here (along with a number of movies) every couple of months or so. I remember seeing Ice-T walking back from the set on Hamilton Terrace (which reminds me…..the RT house is not on the corner of 144th and Convent Ave., it’s on the corner of Hamilton Terrace and Convent) to his cherry-red Bentley while Richard Belzer had a driver take him the two blocks to his porta-dressing room. BTW, after all these years I have never seen anyone enter or leave the RT house. It’s always very quiet there. I will have to watch the movie again this week and then open my curtains and look at the house just because I can! Thanks for your detailed post.
Oops. Walked by this morning on my way to the subway. It is 144th. Hamilton Terrace actually starts a half-block away. What the hell kind of way to act is that?
Hey Rob, thanks for your great comment! I had no idea the neighborhood was that popular — and I’m surprised more hipster Wes Anderson geeks don’t trek up that way. I’m really happy that you found the post and got to re-explore your neighborhood. It’s a very interesting area. I am so curious about who lives in that house now. When I went to visit, I seem to remember seeing some people moving around upstairs, and I wondered what it looks like on the inside — did they paint over the scenes on the walls, etc? Who are these people? Did they buy the house because it was the RT house or just because it’s a beautiful house? Weird that you’ve never seen anyone go in or out of it!
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