Fayette County’s Buffalo Bill house is ready to welcome guests (really)
It’s an iconic moment in Hollywood, a classic twist that ramps up every viewer’s pulse, even today, 30 years after “The Silence of theLambs” was released.
Spoiler alert in case you’re among the handful who haven’t seen the 1991 thriller that cleaned up at theOscars: Rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster, is on the trail of Buffalo Bill, a serial killer played by Ted Levine. Director Jonathan Demme leads the audience to believe Starling’s boss, Jack Crawford, has cracked the case. Starling, it seems, is just tying up looseends.
Then, she knocks on a door.
Buffalo Bill’s house — door included — is in the small town of Perryopolis, Fayette County, outside Pittsburgh. Now that Chris Rowan, a film industry art director from northwest New Jersey, bought the century-old Queen Anne Victorian in January, you can spendthe weekend there.
“I saw that it was for sale in 2020 and immediately started having ideas about what this place could be,” saidMr. Rowan, 39.
The horror movie buff immediately made an appointment to tour the three-story home on the Youghiogheny River.
He bought the four-bedroom home for $290,000 and set about turning it into what he calls a“boutique accommodation .” He’ ll soon be letting groups rent out the whole home. He has not determinedthe pricing yet.
Mr. Rowan said he also plans to offer guided tours and on-location filming. While “The Silence of the Lambs” is set elsewhere, much of the movie was filmed in the Pittsburgh area. It’s unclear how they settled on the Perryopolis home, which was built in 1910.
“They liked the aesthetics of the region, the long, winding roads and the style of the homesthemselves,” he said.
The home, Mr. Rowan said, does not include Buffalo Bill’s infamous basement. The place where he cared for his death’s-head hawkmoths and sewed his skin suits, as well as the deep hole where he made his victims moisturize, were all part of a set. But give Mr. Rowan time, he said. He’s got plans for the basement.
“I’m going to try to recreate the well and his workshopof horrors,” he said.
With the recent 30th anniversary of the film and the debut of the CBS series “Clarice,” Mr. Rowan thinks the nostalgia will last a long time.He may even try to lure Mr. Levine to the home for a weekend event or two, ideally to tell guests to put the lotion in the basket of the makeshiftpit.
For the loved ones of the film’s fans, there’s at least a poolout back.