Once Kevin McCallister gets settled into his suite at the Plaza Hotel in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, he rummages through his father’s backpack. Taking stock of what supplies he can use to help navigate New York City, he finds his dad’s address book. Listed inside, Kevin notices an address for his Uncle Rob: 51 West 95th Street. The townhouse at that address between Central Park West and Columbus Ave is now for sale, but it’s not the home you see in the movie.
In the film’s climactic battle between Kevin and The Sticky Bandits, Kevin lures the criminals away from Duncan’s Toy Chest to his uncle’s gutted townhouse on the Upper West Side. His Aunt and Uncle are out of town while renovations are being done, so Kevin has the freedom to fill the empty house with boobytraps.
Film and television shoots will often capture establishing shots of an exterior location and shoot interior scenes on a set, such as in Brooklyn Nine-Nine where a real NYPD station house was used in conjunction with a set in California. In Home Alone 2, however, no part of Uncle Rob’s townhouse was shot in New York. While the film used a real address for the home, exterior and interior shots were filmed on a set in California. The facade is located on a stretch of scenery called Brownstone Street on the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles. Many other television shows and movies have used Brownstone Street as a stand-in for the real New York City including Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, The Mindy Project, and Gone Girl.
Image Courtesy of Vandenberg
Even though the actual townhouse at 51 West 95th Street doesn’t appear in the film, that hasn’t deterred fans from showing interest in and affection for the home. More than two decades after the film’s 1992 release, “the townhouse owners still get letters from children at their address. Also, just a few days ago a couple from Germany stood outside, taking photos,” the listing agents Dexter Guerrieri and Nicole Kats of Vandenberg, The Townhouse Experts TM, told Untapped New York. Home Alone 2 was shot at many iconic sites around New York City including Radio City Music Hall, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and the Twin Towers.
51 West 95th Street is currently listed for sale. It boasts 4 bedrooms and 5 baths spread over 4,776 square feet just steps away from Central Park. There are no gaping holes in the floor or bare studs as seen in the film. Dark wood floors, tall windows, high ceilings, a garden, a wine cellar, and a working fireplace are all amenities you can enjoy if you’ve been really good this year and asked Santa for $6.7 million dollars.
Nicole Saraniero is the Insider-in-Chief at Untapped New York, leading our Untapped New York Insiders membership program. Nicole graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor of Science in Televis
