Seneca Falls, NY — It’s a Wonderful Life Locale

Today, if we’re fortunate enough, we gather with family and friends for a meal, give thanks for what we have, and then relax in front of the TV for some football. Or, perhaps an old-time movie classic will come on such as, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This Frank Capra gem from 1946 stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a banker and owner of the town’s “Bailey Building & Loan Association.” Bailey is Bedford Falls’ white knight, although he doesn’t know it until his angels show him what life in fictional Bedford Falls would be like, if he were not alive.

Yesterday, USA Today ran a story that little Seneca Falls, NY, an upstate town wedged between two of the Finger Lakes about 300 miles northwest of New York, was the inspiration behind the look ‘n feel of Bedford Falls. While no official association can be found, the article lists some similarities that are hard to deny:

• Both have an old steel truss bridge. Bailey jumps off the one in the movie to rescue Clarence (the angel); Seneca Falls’ has a plaque dedicated to a man who died in 1917 while trying to save a drowning woman.

• Both are on a train line in western New York. The film mentions Buffalo, Rochester and Elmira; a reference to Cornell University, 40 miles south of Seneca Falls, was cut from the script.

• Both have affordable, single-family housing developments named for benefactor-founders: “Bailey Park” and “Rumseyville,” which acknowledges Seneca Falls industrialist John Rumsey.

• The town barber in Seneca Falls, Tommy Bellissima, says that in the mid-1940s he cut the hair of a man named Capra who was passing through en route to visit a relative in Auburn, N.Y. Bellissima said he made the connection to the director only after he saw Capra’s name on a movie poster.

Whether Seneca Falls was truly the inspiration or not, the town has made it so with street signs such as “Angel Avenue,” and “George Bailey Lane.”

Seneca Falls is also located in an upstate NY pocket where housing prices have actually gained value, rather than remained flat, according to our Q3 Real Estate Market Reports. For example, Ithaca, NY, an MSA about an hour from Seneca Falls, gained 5.6% in home values year-over-year compared to Q3 of 2007, with a Zillow Home Value Index of $207,000.

Now, let’s talk about another small town that inspired a movie…