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This amazes me. The Carpenters were a very well-known music group. Yet it seems they chose to live and purchase a house on an ordinary street in Downey. How did they manage to live there without weirdos coming around and stalking them? I read in one interview that there was at least one man who came up to the house and talked to Harold asking to see Karen and yelling her name outside for her because he wanted to marry her?!? It did cause Karen concern.

I have seen the house in pics and there are no gates. I am shocked that they would actually have their house photographed on their music album too. Was it just less scary in the 1970s, that they didn't have to worry about this sort of stuff? The thing I wonder most is about their neighbors on the same street? Did they see Richard and Karen arrive to and from that house regularly? Strange to imagine. Didn't someone here even meet Agnes by chance of coming up to the house and knocking on the door? Wish I could have done that when Karen lived there then!

I agree with your comments, that house sits right on the street, and I know many a fan who has walked right up in to the porch to get a photograph taken outside the front door. I couldn't believe how accessible it was when I first saw it.

I think the neighbours accepted them for who they were, Downey was a pretty conservative place to live in the 70s, probably still is, but they did attract their fair share of attention, from that nutter who was shouting Karen's name, to kids knocking on the door to ask Agnes and Harold when the next little record (i.e. single!) was going to be put out. I think a lot of fans met Agnes that way in the 90s, by knocking on the door. Usually either Agnes or Evelyn Wallace would answer and stay talking a while, sometimes giving out some Carpenters literature. I know of one person who said while they were talking, he spied Karen's Grammy award sitting in the background!

I guess the 70s was a more innocent time to have lived

Stephen

Karen has "KAC3" as her Jag private license plate. And I read that Karen went to an radio station alone to appear, without a manager or a guard.

Olivia Newton-John fan said that Olivia drove her car with "ONJ" in '80s or '90s.


Hundreds of kids visited Newville House on Halloween.


Sakura

That sounds pretty insecure - I guess they knew what they were doing. I HOPE so anyway.

Simon

Leanne ~ the person who ended up at the house was me. I don't know who was more surprised - me or Agnes

She was very sweet, even though she couldn't give us directions back to where we wanted to be



Love Ellie xxx

That's a great story.

I mean even know if you erite RC you get some kind of response.
I think he really appreciates his fans, and that's really something rare today in
music ( I mean if I was as rich as RC I would be at the on Cumberland Island in Georgia 24/7 )

I think the accessibility of the house is yet another example of how K and R remained ordinary people despite their outrageous success. And I suspect it had a great deal to do with their parents' influence. My understanding is that when Karen moved to her condo it was highly secure, to the point where we don't even know which building she lived in.

As far as the Downey house today, who owns it? I understand it's open for tours, kind of like a museum. Am I wrong?


Linda

linda76, on Feb 25 2005, 09:12 AM, said:

I read that fans asked Richard and Richard called the owner then they can enter their house.
The owner didn't know that the Carpenter family lived there when they bought the house.

I think I posted which building Karen lived in before, answering Maureen's question. I read what floor but the writer wasn't sure.

Sakura

Thanks Sakura!

Linda

linda76, on Feb 25 2005, 02:12 PM, said:

Interesting to note that the second time I visited in 2000, I saw a little old Japanese lady looking down at me from the bedroom window upstairs. I wondered whether to wave, but thought better of it

I don't think the house is open for general tours, the owners have graciously opened up the house once or twice e.g. when the big 1999 convention hit town. But that was in response to a specific request in writing from Newville Avenue fan club (now defunct). They were all set to go and hadn't received a reply, when it suddenly came in at the last minute and the tour of the house was added back onto the itinerary.

What I find amazing is that inside, the new owners have changed next to nothing. It's like Richard removed the family furniture, but the new owners didn't replace it?? The pool table is still there, sitting in an otherwise empty room and minus all the pictures on the wall. The recording room is still there, complete with plush red carpet, but remains completely empty (what a waste!?), and the lounge area is still there, again just sitting void. I remember reading on leadsister.com that the owners shut a large part of the house off, because it was just too big to maintain.

Shame really.

Stephen

That is very cool, how they could pull it off though. Can you imagine today if a music star always mentioned where they lived, had a house without a security gate and featured their home on their albums? No doubt fans would harrass the doorbell or worse! Maybe they just attracted conservative fans who wouldn't do that sort of thing.. that's it.

By the way, I figured out who the nutter was who was shouting for her... it was Bachelor #1 from the Dating Game. He really seemed to love saying her name repeatedly and was probably feeling really jilted the first time over.

I definitely find it odd how they didn't have more problems with people and the house than they did back then. If that was the case now it would probably be highly unsafe but at least they were overall safe! BTW Here's a site that has a little home video clip of that 1999 tour of the house.

http://www.tvparty.c...carpenters.html

rmjoots, on Feb 25 2005, 12:11 PM, said:

I remember when I was younger around 12 or 13, thinking that I would go to California and marry Karen somehow. I didn't have a plan, I just thought I must do it (this is why I'm a big fan of the Graduate). Of course being so young, I didn't stand a chance. Basically,....I don't blame the guy.

I'll bring back some recent pictures of the house hopefully.

Certainly then ...we look back ...and see Carpenters home -Newville as being too accessible & ordinary compared to music & film stars vast mansions / estates owned... now

Really the emphasis is on HOME ....this was a family residence ...rather than an investment or a huge property to show off to fans , media & on-lookers ....and this continues with Richard ....while his homes have grown larger with his expanding family...these are still places to enjoy & rest up as required ....not real -estate investments as with others.

Richard & Mary are not interested in Beverly Hills , Bel-Air, Malibu (Herb Alpert & Jerry Moss live there) grandiose places ....and thank goodness for that ...having seen several on trips to LA / California ...these in the main are just ego -trips for their famous & infamous owners ...

Agree with Stephen ...the main surprise ....when we visited Newville both in 1996 & 1998 is that so much both in the gardens & main house has stayed similar to how Harold & Agnes kept the house until Agnes death in late 1996 ....furniture , layouts of rooms, colour schemes ...almost strangely so ....

Peter...Newville Memories....

Peter

Interested in your comments, can you provide any idea as to how each room led into another? That house always fascinated me - not the obvious main area i.e. living room (to the left) or the glass table dining area, which was straight in from the front door. I always wanted to know which way you turned to get to the pool room, the bar, sound proofed studio...I assume they were to the left of the house (as you look at it), as the right hand side was taken up by the triple garage.

I assume the upstairs was 4 bedrooms, two to the front and two to the back?

Stephen