Beaver Cleaver's family lived in "Mayfield" in an unnamed state. The Anderson family lived in "Springfield" in an unnamed state. Sheriff Andy Taylor lived in a real state -- North Carolina -- but in an unreal town, Mayberry.
But Dick Van Dyke Show creator Carl Reiner placed his fictional family, the Petries, in a house on a real street in a real city; in fact, on a street on which Reiner had lived: Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle, New York. (The Petries' address of 148, however, does not exist in real life).Here's an aerial view of the neighborhood today. According to tax rolls I found online, the houses shown here are the same ones that existed at the time of the show; most were built in 1954. We learn, in "Your Home Sweet Home is My Home", that Rob and Laura bought their house when it was new, for $27,990. Adjusted for today's dollars, that would be about $234,000 -- yet the tax rolls show the values of the homes on Bonnie Meadow Road today to be a half million dollars and up. It seems the Petries made a good buy.
Please check out a virtual build I did of this house:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/24706947@N05/sets/72157629069510836/
I hope you like it!
Lora
Hi Lora...what software did you use to create your virtual build of the house? It's terrific!
DeleteDavid Van Deusen
The Walnut Times, The Dick Van Dyke Show newsletter
www.thewalnuttimes.com
Your virtual Petrie house is outstanding! Great work.
ReplyDeleteI would quibble with a few things. I don't think any of the houses on the real Bonnie Meadow Road are brick (see the Bing Maps view illustrating this post). Also, you invented two new rooms never referred to on the show. If there had been a formal dining room, surely they would have used it for their formal dinner parties. (And by the way, at least part of the fourth wall of the living room was shown once, in "A Nice, Friendly Game of Cards"). But those are minor things. Your view of the house is correct for you, and mine is correct for me. It's all good fun.
Thank you, Don :) I also very much like your interpretation!
ReplyDeleteI had wondered which way to go on the outside. I assumed that since there is brick on the inside (the fireplace), there might also be brick someplace on the outside. Also, I did a street level Google Maps search of the address and found that the houses just one block over are wood slat and brick. Sadly, Bonnie Meadow itself has no street level view avaliable.
The formal dining room and sunroom were added to give the house a more conventional rectangular shape, since that is how all the houses in the RL New Rochelle neighborhood appear to be structured. I do know people who use their formal dining rooms only for family gathering on holidays, so perhaps that (and a desire for more elbow room) was the Petries' thinking :)
As you well know, translating a shooting set into real life presents all kinds of challenges, since oddly-angled interior walls and very high ceilings are the norm :) I was forced to add a parallel hallway between the living room and master bedroom, since the living room wall and corresponding bedroom wall in the show run at opposite angles.
Anyway, that was how it all rattled through my mind. And I can't thank you enough for your wonderful blog and your devotion to this great comedy series!
Lora
Carl Reiner lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road and the house did have partial brick on the front of the house.
Deletei'm confused...the map you show is from Scarsdale, not New Rochelle...i can find no evidence that a Bonnie Meadow Road exists in New Rochelle today...it may well have in the 1950s/60s....
ReplyDeletei'm confused...the map you show is from Scarsdale, not New Rochelle...while there might have been a Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle in the 1950s/60, i can find no evidence of one exiting today..
ReplyDeleteStolf, I guess either it used to be in New Rochelle and Scarsdale later annexed that area, or it's technically in New Rochelle but the postal address is Scarsdale (as I once lived in University Park, Texas, a town wholly independent from Dallas, but my mailing address was Dallas). I just found a real estate listing for a house on Bonnie Meadow; and, though the address did say Scarsdale, the schools for the house included New Rochelle High School. So, that's all I know about it.
ReplyDeletesolved!...Google Maps does indeed place BMR in Scarsdale, but they are wrong...BMR is within New Rochelle city limits, the northern wedge that is covered by Scarsdale's zip code...that'll teach me to trust Google Maps!
ReplyDeleteIt's true, Bonnie Meadow Road has a Scarsdale mailing address. There are also parts of Eastchester and Edgemont with 10583 addresses. It's confusing, especially in the real estate classifieds, where Scarsdale addresses are considered a desirable boost in prestige. Try Googling "New Rochelle Scarsdale P.O." and you see a bunch of listings that boast the mailing address. So, if you're confused, it's partly because there are people who want you to be confused. There are no shared services between the two towns, so the mailing address has no inherent value. Put another way, "Scarsdale P.O." and about ten bucks will get you a cup of coffee up at the Five Corners.
DeleteI'm glad Rob Petrie was a proud New Rochelle resident and didn't seek some snob appeal with his Scarsdale address!
If you need more addling, the Scarsdale Shopping Center a block away from Bonnie Meadow Road is, of course, in New Rochelle.
48 Bonnie Meadow Road is now for sale for $650,000. Looks like a great house with an amazing history.
ReplyDelete48 Bonnie Meadow Road, New Rochelle is now for sale for $650,000. It even has a rock in the basement and some brick walls just as the TV show. Looks like a great house with an amazing history.
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