The House by the Railroad – Haverstraw, New York - Atlas Obscura
Places near me Random place

The House by the Railroad

Haverstraw, New York

This house was the subject of an Edward Hopper painting, which in turn helped inspire the design of the Bates house in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho.' 

View all photos
The Haverstraw house that inspired a painting and a film. Robert Ehrenbeck (Creative Commons)
The Haverstraw house that inspired a painting and a film. Robert Ehrenbeck (Creative Commons)
Edward Hopper's 'The House by the Railroad' (1925) Edward Hopper/Public Domain
The 'Psycho' set house at Universal Studios Hollywood Diego Delso/CC BY SA
21 September 2024 EmilGH (Atlas Obscura User)
50
160
Top Places in New York
(Flickr/4rilla)
5 Pointz
Queens, New York
Red Hook Ball Fields Food Vendors
Brooklyn, New York
The Wishbones of McSorley's Old Ale House
New York, New York
 See All

In 1919, Rockland County Attorney General, Thomas Gagan, bought this house along Route 9W in Haverstraw, New York. His daughter, Amo, lived there for 50 years. According to local history, as a 13-year old, she saw Edward Hopper seated at his portable easel on the gravel sidings of the train track creating the painting that would become a masterpiece of American art and the prototype for an iconic image from American cinema.

The house was built in 1885 and still stands today, with a railroad on one side. Hopper painted The House by the Railroad in 1925 (nearly two decades before he produced his best-known painting, Nighthawks). Like many of his other works, this painting has a sense of loneliness and mystery about it.

That sense of mystery may be why the director Alfred Hitchcock based the Bates Mansion in his 1960 film Psycho on Hopper’s painting. Some details were changed: the Bates house is darker and surrounded by trees, but retains the shape and many of the architectural details of the house in Haverstraw.

Know Before You Go

The house is a private residence, please observe from a respectful distance.

Atlas Obscura Experiences

Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Frankenstein

Brooklyn, New York
Free
art history paintings film houses architecture
Nearby
Letchworth Village
3.00 miles
Old Letchworth Village Cemetery
4.33 miles
Double Arch Bridge
6.00 miles
Want to see fewer ads? Become a Member.
Near This Place
Letchworth Village canteen and kitchen
Thiells, New York

Letchworth Village

Decades after testing the polio vaccine on unwitting patients, this historic mental hospital sits in ruin.
No names. Just numbers.
Stony Point, New York

Old Letchworth Village Cemetery

Hundreds of numbered stakes hidden in the woods mark the graves of the lost souls of a nearby asylum.
Ossining, New York

Double Arch Bridge

At this site, two historic stone bridges spanning the Sing Sing Kill—one right on top of the other.
Mount Moor Cemetery.
West Nyack, New York

Mount Moor Cemetery

A historic Black graveyard hidden in the parking lot of one of America's largest malls.
Related Places
Entrance to the house.
Mexico City, Mexico

Monumental House of Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez

Resembling a 15th century medieval fortress, this home once belonged to a legend of Mexican cinema.
Cour Royale de Tiébélé.
Nahouri, Burkina Faso

Cour Royale de Tiébélé

In this African village, the walls of the chief's compound are painted with beautiful traditional designs.
The Egasse-Braasch House at sunrise
Los Angeles, California

Egasse-Braasch House

The house where Good Will Hunting was written is a surreal fairytale abode.
The Olana mansion.
Hudson, New York

Olana

The Hudson River School comes alive at this palatial estate.
In partnership with KAYAK

Plan Your Trip

From Around the Web