The Real Life Miracle On 34th Street Movie House

One of House Crazy Sarah’s favorite movies to watch around the holiday season is the original Miracle on 34th Street with Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood.

The 1947 film is mostly set in downtown Manhattan at a pre-war highrise apartment building and of course, at the historic flagship Macy’s store.

The sets for the apartment scenes were nicely representative of the era, but it is Susan’s “dream house” at the end of the film that all us house lovers fell head over heels for.

Young Susan first showed Santa (Kris Kringle) a magazine picture of the house she wanted for Christmas:

(How many children ask Santa for real houses for Christmas? If you are anything like House Crazy Sarah, a pretty house was at the top of your wish list!)

Kris Kringle worked his Santa magic in the film and at the very end, Susan, her mother, and mother’s new love interest just happen to come upon the perfect little Cape Cod style house in the suburbs that coincidentally has a for sale sign in the yard. JUST like the one in the picture.

“Stop the car!” Susan screams.

(House Crazy Sarah can relate!)

The cozy home is perfect for the newly made family and they fall instantly in love with it.

Although the interior shots of the house were filmed on a soundstage, the exterior shots were from a real life house that still stands today.

The home is located in Port Washington, New York.

According the Zillow, it was built in 1943 and is just over 1,700 square feet. The exterior depicted in the movie is only slightly altered after all these years with new shutters and the addition of a second story dormer window.

Here’s a photo of the famous movie house in springtime:

Apparently, the original film crew almost never got the shots they needed of the real life house in Port Washington because it was so bitterly cold that winter day, the cameras froze and had to be unthawed in a house across the street.

Here is the house in the height of summer:

The home has been owned by the same family for several decades. That family – the Frutkins – were interviewed about their home a few years ago by the New York Post.

“We just love this house. We knew it was something special before we even knew it was a celebrity house,” said Orrie Frutkin, 68, and his wife, Goodie, who moved there with their two kids in 1980. “We’re happy to see people’s eyes light up when we tell them it’s the house in ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ but to us, it’s just a cozy, comfortable place to live,” Orrie Frutkin said.

Here are a couple of movie stills from the film that show the home’s supposed interior…

Although these were filmed on a sound stage, they are nonetheless lovely to see.

House Crazy Sarah searched high and low on the interwebs to find some REAL interior photos of the house, but unfortunately, there were none to be found. The Frutkins keep their private spaces private.

A memorable scene in the film is when Susan, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend dash into the newly discovered house and find Kris Kringle’s cane leaning on the fireplace. That’s how they know Santa is real!

The Frutkins’ daughter was so moved by the scene that she bought an identical cane at a thrift shop and placed it in a corner of the living room, just like in the film.

The owners say people drive by their house all the time – from all over the world – to take pictures of the beloved Christmas movie house.