Owners of famous homes have certainly taken to embracing their property’s celebrity status as of late. The pad where Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) lived in “Twilight” is currently being operated as a vacation rental themed after the 2008 hit. And the haunted house that inspired “The Conjuring” is also being offered for short-term lease, along with functioning as a special events venue. But while touting a residence’s filming history may seem like a no-brainer of a marketing strategy, when it comes to real estate sales, it is oddly not one always employed by agents. Case in point – when the handsome Harlem brownstone that served as the home of Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) on the CBS series “Elementary” hit the market last summer (the first time it had been offered for sale since 1990!), nary a word of its screen fame was mentioned in the listing details!
The dwelling apparently did not sell and floated off the market just as quietly as it had floated on. There’s no telling if including the information would have facilitated some offers, but considering “Elementary” was a mainstay of CBS’ prime-time lineup from 2012 to 2019 and garnered both positive reviews and steady ratings, it is a distinct possibility.
The popular procedural, which is currently streaming on Hulu, is a lighthearted modern-day reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed detective series that sees Holmes as a recovering addict living in Manhattan where he consults for the NYPD’s 11th Precinct with his sober-companion-turned-crime-solving partner, Watson. At the show’s outset, Sherlock’s wealthy father, Morland (John Noble), sets the two up in one of the many dwellings he owns in New York – “the shoddiest and the least-renovated” of his properties, from which the now-sober Sherlock will be evicted if he ever chooses to use again.
Said to be located at 42 Stanford Ave. in Brooklyn Heights (an address that doesn’t actually exist), the Neo-Grecian/Renaissance Revival-style structure can actually be found at 11 W. 121st St. in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park Historic District, a neighborhood that has been called the “brownstone capital” of New York City. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
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Image Credit: CityRealty The handsome townhouse, which towers five stories above the tree-lined street below, was originally designed in 1897 by the Cleverdon & Putzel architecture firm. Featuring seven bedrooms and six baths in a very spacious 6,600 square feet, the pad offers plenty of room to house both Holmes and Watson, as well as their practice dummy, Bob, and turtle, Clyde. (The rooftop where Sherlock keeps his habitat of bees can be found a good five miles away at a building overlooking the East River at 10-10 44th Ave. in Long Island City.)
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The property initially hit the market to very little fanfare last August for a cool $5.2 million before being delisted for unknown reasons less than a month later.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com According to the marketing information, the brownstone has been “fully renovated by two of Harlem’s most celebrated artists,” though no mention is made of which artists in particular. The result of the unnameds’ efforts is a gorgeous aesthetic offering myriad textures, finishes and furnishings, seamlessly blending modern updates with classic architecture.
Intact original details include handsome woodwork, vintage mirrors, thick-manteled fireplaces, mahogany and oak wainscotting, vibrant stained glass windows and a slew of built-ins.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The whimsically rustic living spaces can be found throughout the lower two levels and consist of a front and rear parlor featuring 12-foot ceilings, a formal dining room and an eat-in kitchen with exposed brickwork, vintage appliances and hardwood flooring. The home also boasts a kitchenette on the fourth floor.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The property makes good use of its scant 0.05-acre lot with the rear portion devoted to a tranquil, leaf-filled garden that feels miles removed from the bustling city situated just steps away.
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Image Credit: CityRealty One look at the brownstone’s striking façade with its unique cutouts, carvings and curved front staircase, and it is not hard to see how the place was chosen to portray the home of the eclectic Sherlock on “Elementary.” The site made countless appearances throughout the series’ seven seasons in both establishing shots and on-location scenes set outside on the front stoop.
Only the exterior of the residence was featured on “Elementary,” though. The interior of Sherlock and Watson’s pad was a set created by production designer Andrew Bernard at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.
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Image Credit: StreetEasy Interestingly, the set (which Liu once gave audiences a virtual tour of) was based upon the interior of another Harlem brownstone. As so often happens in television production, a different property was utilized as Sherlock and Watson’s home in the pilot. In this case, initial filming took place at a picturesque but somewhat dilapidated property located at 319 Convent Ave. in Hamilton Heights (pictured above). Once the series was picked up by CBS, exterior filming switched to the brownstone that “Elementary” fans know and love today and Bernard’s set was created for interior scenes.
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Image Credit: StreetEasy An image of said set as compared to an MLS photo of the Convent Ave. home’s parlor are pictured above, evidencing how strongly the latter influenced Bernard in his design. Holmes’ single-minded focus on his work also informed the set’s overall look and feel. As Andrew explained to the Los Angeles Times, “Sherlock is all about function over form, so the unrenovated house suits him. He’s the sort of guy who, if he’s working on a case and sitting in a particular chair while he’s doing that, he’ll just do everything from that chair: Work his iPhone, look things up on his computer, even eat and sleep in that spot. He doesn’t really think about his surroundings; he just wants to keep his brain happy.”
Though dark, dingy and dilapidated, the set also somehow manages to be cozy and aspirational at the same time – a place most wouldn’t mind living. As noted by the Must-Hear TV blog, Bernard set out to ensure that “Holmes’s home reflects the great man’s passions – and lack thereof – all while still making it an attractive space where more than 12 million viewers want to spend an hour every Thursday night.” Mission definitely accomplished, I’d say!
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Image Credit: Netflix Directing your attention back to 11 W. 121st St., “Elementary” is not the place’s only small-screen credit! The brownstone was also regularly featured as the home of Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) on the Marvel series “Luke Cage.” For whatever reason, though, that information was left out of last year’s listing details, as well. Considering the countless legions of steadfast Marvel fans out there, mentioning that factoid seems like it would have been, well, elementary!