The Famous ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ House Is Up for Sale
The iconic Mary Richards hung the hat that she threw in the air at the beginning of every episode at an apartment in Minneapolis. The Mary Tyler Moore Show filmed the exteriors of that location at a house that happens to be on the market, just as fans mourn Wednesday’s death of the show’s star, Mary Tyler Moore.
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The third story of the Victorian-style mansion played the role of Mary’s apartment. However, the entire home — all 9,500 square feet of it — is available for $1.7 million, according to Zillow. Mary’s home base is actually office space in a house with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
Another feature of the home — notability. Moore herself recalled to the New York Times in January 1995 that the woman who owned the house while the show aired “was overwhelmed by the people showing up and asking if Mary was around.”
The star explained that when producers went back to the house later during the show’s run, the owner “had by way of retribution draped huge ‘Impeach Nixon’ signs all over the house.”
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But Moore understood the appeal.
“The outside of the house was so warm, cozy and soothing,” she told the newspaper. “As the nest of all these characters who invaded people’s hearts, the house was going to receive similar affection.”
Evan Maurer, who owned the home in the ’90s, had never seen The Mary Tyler Moore Show before moving in, but 30 tour buses a day passed by with people who had.
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“In some ways, it‘s like we’re caretakers living inside a monument,” Maurer explained to the Times. “Mary is a myth, but myths have great power. They answer questions, and they set up value systems. There’s something in the Mary ethos that’s very important to very many people. She’s the greatest mythic hero from this region since Paul Bunyan.”
Doug Rosenquist leads a tour of locations from the show, including the famous house, in Minneapolis.
“It’s almost challenging, because people will want to walk up and knock on the door, and of course, there’s regular people who live there now, so I have to keep ’em on the bus,” he told Minnesota Public Radio.
Our suggested solution: Turn the house into a Mary Tyler Moore museum. Who else is in?
