Buffalo Bill never told Clarice he had a nice big pool behind.
To be honest, the fictional serial killer and main villain in the 1991 thriller horror film “The Silence of the Lambs” was doing other, more horrible things.
But for fans of the terrifying classic, which was released on Valentine’s Day 30 years ago, the house where FBI agent Clarice Starling finally captured Buffalo Bill will not only be available to tour – you can spend the night.
“It was really something to behold, by doing the walkthrough with the realtor,” said Chris Rowan, a New York native, artist and stylist who recently built the house in Circle St. 8 in Perry Township, Fayette County. .
Rowan turns it into a bed and breakfast, even though it’s a (fictional) messy past.
If one did not recognize the façade and the entrance of the film, the house from 1910 is otherwise absolutely beautiful, with an enclosed porch, decorated dark wood-cut appointments, wallpaper in vintage pattern, a living room, several fireplaces and pocket doors .
“It’s great,” Rowan said. “The style is a Victorian Victorian Anne, 2400 square feet with four bedrooms.”
And of course, just across the cozy kitchen, is a slightly less ornate staircase that leads down to the basement, where Buffalo Bill has a young woman at the bottom of a well in the movie.
But despite an ominous ring on the basement floor, the scenes that filmed Bill’s underground lair are elsewhere.
However, that doesn’t stop Rowan, 39, from considering a bit of a makeover in the basement.
“With my background as an art director and stylist, I plan to recreate, manufacture and install the well,” he said. “I’m not going to dig into the ground, but I want to install something in the line of the film and give fans a unique photo opportunity.”
It’s almost too good to be true, but Rowan bought the house from a former FBI agent.
For the seller David Villareal, the house was more about the location than the ‘former tenant’.
“From the porch you can watch kayakers and canoeists (on the Youghiogheny River),” Villareal said as he put the house on the market last fall. “It’s a paradise on earth.”
And if Clarice Starling had sneaked through the back door into the house, she might have seen the large pool in the backyard, along with the vintage railroad cabos near the train tracks that surround part of the property.
“I was told that these particular kaboes were cargo-related at the time, about the middle of the century, and that he ran on this line,” Rowan said. “Ultimately, we want to turn it into a kind of pool house.”
On Saturday, Rowan offered a short media tour of the house, just in time for the film’s 30th anniversary.
‘Silence of the Lambs’ was released on Valentine’s Day 1991.
And while it may not be most people’s idea of a good date night movie, the terrifying story, Jodie Foster’s confident turn as FBI student Starling, and Sir Anthony Hopkins’ brilliant portrayal of the very polite cannibal Hannibal Lecter, the film much higher. its genre.
“It went from a movie to a part of pop culture,” Rowan said. “Sketching is still done on it, and it’s still relevant today.”
Rowan is hosting a contest to choose who will be the first to spend the night in the newly christened Buffalo Bill’s House. Those interested can sign up via the social media links at BuffaloBillsHouse.com until February 26th. A winner will be announced in March, and Rowan hopes to start regular discussions within a few months.
“The house has retained its aesthetics of the film itself,” he said. “Buffalo Bill did not keep it in a bad state, but all the places he and Jodie Foster talked to each other are just as you remember.”
For more information, see BuffaloBillsHouse.com. Or, if you want to make your first date your last date, rent ‘Silence of the Lambs’.
Patrick Varine is a writer on the staff of Tribune-Review. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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