A monumental Sierra Madre Victorian that figured prominently in two old Hollywood features has hit the market, offering buyers a chance to not only own a striking example of Queen Anne architecture but a celebrated piece of movie history, as well! Known as the Pinney House, both Barbara Stanwyck and Bob Hope called the place home onscreen, the latter as Eddie Foy in the 1955 comedy “The Seven Little Foys.”
The biographical film chronicles the story of the popular vaudevillian who became most famous for a later-in-life act in which his seven children, from four-year-old Irving to 16-year-old Bryan, sang, danced and cut up alongside him. Per the Travalanche website, “The kids would come onstage in matching clothes, arranged in descending order of height except for Irving, who would pop out of a small carpetbag. The children would sing songs. Bryan and Charley would do impressions. Eddie would make jokes like ‘If I move to [city where they were performing], it will be a big city!’ The act was clean and wholesome and appealed to all ages.” The show became a hit with audiences and enjoyed a lengthy ten-year run, though Eddie gained a reputation for being rather strict behind the scenes, which was depicted quite starkly in “The Seven Little Foys.”
As a 1955 The New York Times review bluntly opines, “The attempts to inject some standard sentiment into the relationship of the father and his kids have not sufficient substance or sincerity to offset the taste of bile.” Harsh words, but not off base. The film definitely has an “oddly unpleasant quality,” as the review further states. Its one saving grace – besides Foy’s fun tabletop dance-off with George M. Cohan (James Cagney)? The beautiful residence at its center.
Said to be in New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York (where the Foy family lived in real life), the Pinney House can actually be found set far back from the road on a grassy plot at 225 N. Lima St., just a few blocks northwest of Sierra Madre’s quaint downtown.
Currently offered at a cool $2.99 million, the listing is held by Celine Peng and Luis Hong of KW Executive.
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Image Credit: Zillow The striking abode was initially constructed as the Sierra Vista Hotel, commissioned in 1887 by Connecticut-born physician Dr. Elbert Pinney to host the many East Coasters who were descending upon the area during the L.A. land boom of the late 1880s. According to a 2012 Los Angeles Times write-up, “The structure’s three-story tower offered a view of the railway station, a mile away, so the proprietor would know when the train had arrived.”
Completed in 1888, the massive 10,124-square-foot structure was designed by Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom, the same architect brothers who gave us Monrovia’s famed Idlewild estate.
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Image Credit: Zillow As originally designed, the home’s façade was much simpler than it is today (as can be seen in this image). Per David Gebhard and Robert Winter’s esteemed An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, the exterior that currently greets visitors was the work of none other than a production crew! While the film is not named, the tome states, “In the 1930s, a movie company added the outsized spindle work on the porch and the equally mannerist swan’s neck pediment, both from a house being demolished on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.”
The Underappreciated Legacy of Historic Los Angeles website breaks away from Gebhard and Winter’s contention a bit, identifying the porch as originally being affixed to the Charles Capen Residence, a stunning structure that once stood, not on Wilshire Blvd., but at 818 W. Adams Blvd. in the North University Park neighborhood. Whether re-located from that property or simply replicated from it, the Capen Residence’s elaborate former entry is a perfect match to that of the Pinney House, as The Underappreciated Legacy website demonstrates via numerous photos.
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Image Credit: Zillow The interior of the Sierra Madre estate is quite simple in design, though no doubt handsome. And with a whopping 10 bedrooms and 11 baths, is exceptionally spacious, as well. The numerous living areas include a formal dining room, a sunroom, a library and a parlor with a fireplace and elaborately bordered tray ceiling.
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Image Credit: Zillow Plenty of original details are dotted throughout the structure, which is a City of Sierra Madre Historical Landmark, including etched transom windows, spindlework, stained glass and wainscotting.
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Image Credit: Zillow Per the listing, the kitchen has been updated, as have the home’s electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, ensuring buyers a comfortable mix of modern and historic surroundings.
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Image Credit: Zillow Much of the Pinney House’s interior still resembles a hotel, 133 years after its inception, and, indeed, up until hitting the market in November 2019, the home’s ten bedrooms (all ensuite and boasting separate electric meters) were being leased out as short and long-term rentals.
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Image Credit: Zillow Though the pad’s original 35-acre parcel has been subdivided down to a significantly smaller 0.47 acres, there is still plenty to be had there, including an English garden, a sprawling front veranda, parking for seven cars and a broad grassy patch.
Considering the Pinney House’s picturesque exterior and former large expanse of land, Hollywood was bound to come a-calling!
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures -
Image Credit: KW Executive In “The Seven Little Foys,” Eddie purchases the property as a surprise for his wife, Madeleine Morando Foy (Milly Vitale), and their septet of children. Though Madeleine, who has always wanted a place in the country, is immediately enamored with the dwelling, Eddie has some unchoice words for it, describing it as a “breakaway house” and “an apple knocker’s haven, ten miles to the nearest glass of beer.” Quite a harsh description for such a beautiful site.
The Foy family’s actual former home, a 20-room mansion that Eddie purchased in 1903 and dubbed “The Foyer,” is today the site of the Eddie Foy Park. According to the In the Garden City website, of living there, the comedian often joked that “the population of New Rochelle doubled when the Foys showed up.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures -
Image Credit: Zillow Only the exterior of the Pinney House appeared in ”The Seven Little Foys.” Interiors were shot on a studio-built set that was designed to be far more elaborate than the real thing, as evidenced by the movie still as compared to the MLS image above.
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures The Pinney House also popped up as the home of centenarian Hannah Sempler Hoyt (Barbara Stanwyck) in the 1941 film “The Great Man’s Lady.” In an interesting move, the property was made to look as though it sits amidst skyscrapers on a bustling downtown street in the movie and not on a sleepy road in Sierra Madre. As was the case with “The Seven Little Foys,” only the exterior was utilized in “The Great Man’s Lady.” Interiors were filmed on a much more elaborate looking studio-built set.
Disclaimer: Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.