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.)