That craftsman house on a leafy Harrison street? Millions of Apple TV+ viewers know it as Mel Cooper's home on "Your Friends and Neighbors," the drama starring Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet set in the fictional suburb of Westmont Village.
Harrison, Purchase and Rye residents have lived alongside the show's production crews for multiple seasons, and season 3 crews returned to Rye's Purchase Street and Purdy Avenue on June 23.
Articles published the week of Aug. 16 in Social Life Magazine and the Patch AM newsletter are mapping the real addresses behind the fiction, putting local neighborhoods in a national spotlight.
A craftsman, not a McMansion
Production designer Anu Schwartz told People magazine she chose the Harrison craftsman specifically to set Mel Cooper apart from the area's larger, newer builds. "McMansion is always the word thrown around," Schwartz said ahead of the April 3 season 2 premiere. "So Mel's home was one that we found in this kind of craftsman style with classic lines, beautiful finishes, a great color."
The exact Harrison property has not been publicly identified, according to Robb Report. But two other character homes are in Purchase: Samantha Levitt's house in the Stone Manors enclave, a roughly 10,100-square-foot property that last sold in July 2022 for $3.29 million, and Nick Brandes's Georgian-style estate on about five acres, which sold in 2010 for $6.4 million.
Why Westchester, not a soundstage
Unlike productions that use the suburbs as a generic stand-in, "Your Friends and Neighbors" came to Westchester to be Westchester, according to Westchester County Tourism. The show films across Harrison, Purchase, Rye, Eastchester and Briarcliff Manor, where the historic Sleepy Hollow Country Club doubles as the series' exclusive club. Scenes along Purchase Street in Rye and at Playland also appear in the series, according to the county tourism site.
The show depicts a world of hedge fund wealth and social reinvention. Hamm plays Andrew "Coop" Cooper, who loses his job and begins burglarizing friends' homes to keep up appearances. James Marsden joined the cast as billionaire Owen Ashe for season 2.
Season 3 already filming locally
MyRye.com reported that cast and crew took over Purchase Street and Purdy Avenue in Rye on June 23 for season 3 filming.
Coming up: Jay Estate reception Sept. 10
The same Westchester architecture that drew the show's location scouts also anchors one of Rye's oldest landmarks. Residents can visit the Jay Estate, 210 Boston Post Rd., for a free reception with artist Jorge Otero-Pailos on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 5:30 p.m. Otero-Pailos, a Rye resident and Columbia University professor of historic preservation, installed his "Analogue Sites" sculptures on the 23-acre grounds. The steel works were created in 2019 from fencing salvaged during the preservation of the U.S. Embassy in Oslo. The exhibition is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
