‘Thrill seekers’ won’t leave the ‘Mare of Easttown’ house alone and Delco cops aren’t having it
That mega-popular HBO series about a fictional Delco detective has spawned a plot twist that’s crazier than Episode 5.
That mega-popular HBO series about a fictional Delco detective has spawned a “really weird” sequel that has real Delco cops involved.
The Wallingford home — or at least the outside of it — that guest-starred in Mare of Easttown as the residence of Kate Winslet’s Mare Sheehan has turned into a tourist attraction to the chagrin of the people who actually live there.
The owners evidently have had plenty of unwanted company since the address was identified in an article on a “voyeuristic” website, published in late April, and circulated elsewhere.
“We have received several complaints regarding incidents at the site of the filming,” said Nether Providence Police Chief David Splain. Police began patrolling the area around the property on Monday, and Splain implored “thrill seekers” to stay away.
“Mare’s not there,” said Micah Knapp, a Wallingford resident and township commissioner.
In an interview with 6ABC, the owner said that in one instance a person approached the house late at night “to look in our front window.” (Not much to see; the interior scenes were shot elsewhere.) She said that one day when she was playing with her daughter in the front yard, she asked a woman to please stop taking pictures. The woman cursed at her.
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It is not unusual for tourists to take photographs of iconic movie locations, said Sharon Pinkenson, director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office. But she was taken aback by the behavior in Wallingford.
“Never have I heard that one!” she said. “That is really weird.”
The owners have erected no-trespassing signs, and police say they will enforce the law. In Pennsylvania “defiant trespass” is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of a $2,500 fine and a year in jail.
No one has yet been booked, Splain said, but he suspects the gawkers aren’t Wallingfordians. “I would speculate that they are coming from outside the area,” he said.
The series has been praised for evoking True Delco Grit in the detective series in which Mare aims to solve crimes while keeping her immensely complicated personal life in tact.
» READ MORE: Kate Winslet on HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown’ and that Delco accent: ‘I’m an actor who doesn’t like to get things wrong’
In real life, Wallingford is an affluent community constituting about 90% of Nether Providence Township where the median income is more than $120,000, twice the state average, according to Census figures.
About the only violent crime this year involved a domestic stabbing incident in which the victim was hospitalized, said Knapp.
The area is in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, one of the region’s academically elite districts.
The object of curiosity is a 2,400-square-foot split-level, built in 1967 on a third of an acre, sold for $360,000 in 2015, according to county property records.
It would not fit the image of the conventional historic landmark. On the outside, it is quite similar in appearance to other homes in the neighborhood.
Knapp said that while the series gave the impression that Mare resided in one of the county’s traditionally industrial river towns, such as Tinicum and Ridley Townships, the township was grateful for the appearance on the national radar.
He added that the township had no issues during the actual filming.
He did raise one issue about the way star Kate Winslet pronounced “home” — with an extra long o, as in hohm.
No, he had never heard anyone in Nether Providence pronounce it like that.