where more cows were seen grazing happily.
We were on our way to a small town in Sonoma County...
by the name of Bodega. Movie fans will (hopefully) recognize this iconic house from one of Alfred Hitchcock's famous films...
..."The Birds", which was released the same year that the Beatles released their first two albums (the British versions are much much better, trust me.). The Potter Schoolhouse was built in 1873 and dedicated on October 31 of that year (ooh, Halloween).
It started off as an actual schoolhouse then lay vacant in 1962. The house is the only thing left standing from "The Birds"; other scenes were shot in the town of Bodega Bay, seven miles westward towards the ocean. The playground where the black birds were roosting in the movie is gone. The house was bought in 1966 by a family whose daughter still resides in the house (article linked at the end).
The former schoolhouse was at some points in time, a community center, an inn and even a restaurant. It is now a private residence. There were two dogs that came running outside when they heard TC and Bert running. I was down the hill and asking them to run down like the kids in the movie so I could take a photo. The dogs heard their feet and started running near the fence and then kind of tapered off once they realized we weren't going to "play" with them. Poor dogs.
Behind the house is St. Teresa of Avila church. It was built in 1861 and is believed to be the oldest church in continous use in Sonoma County. One of the church's unique features is that it has no center aisle, but rather two side aisles. This is the back view of the church.
The front view is much more striking and was made famous by Ansel Adams:
(image titled, "Church and Road, Bodega, CA", 1953 from iamjapanese.tumblr.com B-sides post)
Video Roundup:
Someone's relatively short travel video to Bodega and the Birds House:
"This is where Susana Pleshette...met her demise...in the bird attack"...ha ha, said in such a blase manner.
Here is that pivotal scene from the movie. Very creepy! The attacking birds special effects are primitive by today's standards but it is still frightening to even think of this happening in real life!
Now this video matches up all of the scenes with the present day. Herve Attia, the guy who makes these videos does a great job and even incorporates himself seamlessly into the scenes. My favorite video of his is "Stand by Me", but of course, that's a much different movie than this one.
All right. We came. We saw. Now it was time to get out!
Articles and interesting links with even more trivia:
www.GhostHauntings.org
"Schoolhouse last roost for The Birds Museum". SFGate, August 2001 (this is a bit outdated as there is no museum in the schoolhouse at this time)
www.roadsideamerica.com
"Alfred Hitchcock's birds still flutter around Bodega" SonomaCounty.com
www.waymarking.com (this is some sort of ghosthunting site, eeks)
"The Birds and Bodega Bay", www.bodegabay.com
and lastly this cool article featuring the current owners of the house, "Happy haunting at historic schoolhouse?" www.pressdemocrat.com, October 26, 2013
plus a recent visit by Josh of California Through My Lens:
Bodega Schoolhouse: Filming location for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" February 4, 2015
Potter Schoolhouse (now a private residence)
17110 Bodega Ln.
Bodega, CA 94922
(707) 876-3257
bodegaschool.com + reviews from tripadvisor and that four lettered site
Up next...a "sweet" place on TC's list...
2 comments:
How cool, what a neat spot to visit! I remember watching that movie when I was little and it creeping me the hell out. I think I was suspicious of birds for awhile after watching it, haha. So cool to see it's still around.
Dude, if you and Jake ever go on a road trip in the Bay Area, you have to go see this place. The movie still creeps me out. Too bad it's not open to the public but then again, maybe that's a good thing. I felt bad for those dogs that were romping around. They wanted to play with us, ha ha.
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