Developed by Jacob D. Butler and designed by Adolph Hoak, the 6,000-square-foot property located at 339 Convent Avenue was the home of U.S. attorney Charles H. Tuttle. Several prominent New York personalities, such as Fiorello LaGuardia and James Russel Parson, were regular guests as well. According to Anderson, the mansion was at first vacant when he and his team discovered it, though it had just been purchased for $460,000. The buyer, Willie Woods, allowed Anderson to rent the property for six months.
“It needed to be a New York house that wasn’t stereotypical,” Anderson said in an Observer interview from the time of the film’s release. The Flemish Revival mansion includes six bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, a formal living room, a formal dining room, a butler’s kitchen, family room, a chef’s kitchen, and a garden. The first three floors are also served by an elevator. Anderson and his team were able to adorn the walls and halls of the film with the many quirks and character details that populate the movie. “There’s a part [of the film] that’s set in the past, and that’s when we spend time on each of the characters,” said Mr. Anderson. “In the script, there’s this attic bedroom for one of the characters, and it purposely has this really low, sloping ceiling. And one of the bedrooms was just perfect for it.” Fans of the 2001 film in New York will also be in luck in another way next month, as a 20th-anniversary reunion of “The Royal Tenenbaums” will be held live and virtually and will include director Wes Anderson and select members of the cast including Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Danny Glover. More details on that here.
— Notebook (@NotebookMUBI) May 14, 2021 Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
