This Old House Locations

I’ve been a fan of This Old House since the very beginning (and where I first became acquainted with Norm). At one time I would have sworn I’d seen every episode, but in truth, I know I’ve missed a few over the years, although I’m certain I’ve seen at least part of every project. As I’ve enjoyed the revival of the later projects in the This Old House Classics episodes on DIY channel (and others), I’ve gotten curious about the actual locations of the projects. You know—maybe do a drive-by of some of them sometime when I’m in New England (the majority—38—of the projects are in Massachusetts, all but two of those within 30 miles of Boston). Well, one thing from that germ of an idea led to another, and the next thing you know I was plotting locations onto my Street Atlas USA mapping program. In the chart below you’ll see what success I’ve had. And that success has run the gamut of unable-to-locate to specific addresses.

The fact of the matter is, I had to employ a number of tricks to come up with many of these. Some of the locations are explicitly stated on the program (not all together, I don’t think—but a house number here, a street name there, glimpse of architect’s drawings, street number visible on the door, glimpse of street sign, etc.), others were tracked down by using the owner’s name and the phone book, still others needed some sleuthing of property records. I also got some assistance watching Inside This Old House episodes. I’m actually quite proud of my efforts—they’ve included interpreting aerial or satellite photopraphs and comparing public record floor plans.

Now, I’ve never subscribed to the concept that people somehow give up their right to privacy by nature of their celebrity, however fleeting or inadvertant, so you won’t find any actual addresses or even anything more specific than what I’ve already divulged. In fact, at the This Old House website, one of their FAQs says:

I just thought you might be interested in what information is available and some other conclusions I’ve drawn from the effort. It’s been a fun piece of detective work. And apparently, I’m not the only This Old House “stalker.” I got a note from a visitor a while back, who not only filled in some gaps I had in my information, but has actually driven by many of the projects. It helps that he lives in New England, but he’s also been to the San Francisco house as well as the Napa Valley house. Since I first put up this page, I’ve driven by the West Palm Beach house. It’s a lot smaller than it appeared on TV. My visitor friend tells me that’s been his impression of all of them he’s seen.

Flash!! Another stalker has appeared. His email indicated that he likewise has visited several sites and filled me in on a couple I didn’t have. Just recently, he made a trip to England and got a picture of the Pembridge Place project which we had collectively sleuthed via email earlier this year. This has been great fun!

Flash again!! Yet another one has contacted me. New data reflected below.

By the way, I don’t know if it’s possible to recreate this body of work today. Some of the necessary data is still available online, but I relied on watching a lot of episodes (too many, my kids would likely say) of both This Old House Classics (the HGTV version) and Inside This Old House for a good bit of my clues. ITOH was off the air for some time, then resurrected, then removed. I still picked up some useful stuff when it was back on.

TOH Classics hadn’t shown anything before the Concord Barn (the Vila years) in the past decade, as I recall, and is no longer in the HGTV lineup. Currently PBS is re-airing some of the most recent projects, as is their practice. Other recent projects have been airing on DIY Network, plus another (first Winchester, then Manchester, Concord Cottage, and most recently the Carlisle house/barn) is seen at the rate of an episode per week on some independent stations. Furthermore, in the update of the TOH website in 2008, some of the material that was pertinent to my work has disappeared.

The final tally on this colossal waste of time: 61 located of 64 projects. That’s >95%.

Color key indicates project was hosted by:   Kevin O’Connor ,    Steve Thomas ,    Bob Vila 

Thanks to my friends Pete Randall, Buddy Turney, and Brian Hunt for filling in some holes in my data with their own sleuthing.

Last updated: 7 September 2011