This three-story Queen Anne Victorian was serial killer Buffalo Bill’s house in the 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs. It sits on nearly 2 acres in Pennsylvania along the Youghiogheny River.
Kristie Forsman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices tells me, “To add to the spook level of this home, you can only access it through an historic and very rare steel truss, one-lane tunnel bridge. You literally have to pull over and look through the tunnel to make sure no one is coming on the other side of the tunnel.”
I’m sure you’re wondering, so let me reassure you upfront: there’s no dungeon-like basement in the real house. Those scenes were filmed on a soundstage. Many of the other rooms inside the house were used for the movie, however, and are easily recognizable today.
The house is on the market, so let’s compare how it looked in the movie to the listing photos!
“The Silence of the Lambs” House For Sale
The House Today:
The three-story Victorian was built in 1910. Current owners Scott and Barbara in 1976 and were married in the foyer.
A movie producer knocked on their door one night as they were eating dinner and asked if she could take some pictures.
“They were looking for a home in which you entered the front door and had a straight line through,” Barbara told the newspaper Trib Live. “They wanted it to look like a spider web, with Buffalo Bill drawing Jodie Foster into the foyer, into the kitchen, then into the basement.”
Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling entering Buffalo Bill’s house:
Don’t go in the house alone, Clarice!
The foyer in the listing with oak-paneled walls:
It took a production crew about six weeks to prep the house for filming and three days to shoot.
The Dining Room in the Movie:
You can see the same fireplace and china cabinet in the listing:
The kitchen in the movie:
It’s a lot cleaner now!
Kristie tells me, “The home was built in 1910 and still has been basically unchanged. Most of its interior elements are original: unpainted plaster walls, windows with distorted glass, hand-grained woodwork, southern pine floors, built-in cabinetry and the grand staircase.”
Butler’s Pantry:
The house has 4 bedrooms:
Realtor Dianne Wilk says she wouldn’t be surprised if someone turned it into a horror-themed bed and breakfast or something: “People love to be scared. I could see somebody doing something fun with this.”
An octagon-shaped upstairs hallway:
Working gas fireplace in the “Winter Parlor” and door to the rear staircase:
Dome-shaped gazebo on back of the house:
An original Chessie System caboose doubles as the pool house:
“It’s rather bittersweet,” Barbara says. “We got married in this home, we raised our son in this home, but we are ready to move on.”
Thanks to Kristie Forsman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices for telling me about it.
For more photos and information, check the listing and Trib Live.
Visit my Movie Houses page to see more I’ve featured, including
the ones from Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Hocus Pocus.
Great wrap around porch, and it’s nice to see that the owners didn’t paint over all the beautiful woodwork.
Thankfully I never saw the movie.
I’ve never seen Silence of the Lambs, so I have no qualms about the idea of living in this beautiful house. I agree that the wallpaper in some of the rooms would have to go, but I think it has a lot going for it!
That was definitely not a romantic comedy!
“Put the lotion in the basket…”
AHHH!
Price seems reasonable to me given its size, movie status, pool, original details, etc. And a back staircase…swoon!
I’m amazed that more of your readers haven’t seen this movie. I think I’ve watched it about 100 times. FYI to those who haven’t: It’s more of a psychological thriller than a gore-fest. And the performances are brilliant… actually everything about the movie is amazing.
I wouldn’t be edgy about living there, as they creeped it out enough in the movie that the house as it is doesn’t exactly resemble the Silence of the Lambs version. It retains a lot of it’s vintage charm. I’m personally not a fan of all that wallpaper, but the woodwork is beautiful. Bet you could do some great things with this house at Halloween! 🙂
I agree, brilliant performances and it looks nothing like it did in the film! That being said, all that wallpaper is driving me nuts LOL
I completely agree with Dean, the Silence of the Lambs is a fantastic movie and I too have watched it many, many times. It is a tense, psychological thriller that is well deserving of the Academy Awards that it won for producing, directing, acting, screenwriting, etc. I thought that Buffalo Bill’s house in the movie was a triumph in set design as it definitely set the tone for the fear that Jodie Foster’s character would have been feeling while she was in there. It is neat to see the house as it really is and I don’t think I would have recognized it from the movie if I hadn’t been told beforehand. I am a little disappointed to find out it doesn’t actually have the big creepy basement from the movie. Imagine the storage! 😉
Ha! So true. You could probably store a lot in that pit! 😉
Great movie, and the perfect setting for it as well. You had me at single lane tunnel access….creepy! You’re right, Julia, the idea of removing all that wallpaper terrifies me almost as much as the movie did! Amazing original woodwork, though. This has a lot of potential.
I have seen that movie over 50 times! I love all the beautiful wood work. I think I would be alright living there. I hope no one turns into a house of horrors themed B & B! I would keep every inch of the original wood.
“…stripping off all that wallpaper..” Why? Why not leave the wallpaper, up? Wallpaper is cool! and expensive. I can see wanting to dump a 1980s, geometric-techno design, but this stuff is (mostly) 1910-ish style. The wallpaper borders which remind me of ghastly early ’90s though.. (anyone remember those styles? The country crafts: “WELCOME FRIENDS” flowery-bedecked goose tschochkes, the mirrored walls, the wreaths of old dried sticks, cheap Pier One Import baskets everywhere) it all reminds me of women’s clothes with shoulder pads and bowl haircuts. It was an ugly time.
The wallpaper is so 1910s, and goes with the decor. 1910 house, 1910 style. I wouldn’t change a thing except remove obvious non-period wallpapers and replace the stove with a vintage one even.