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Hitchcock’s “The Birds” schoolhouse now quirky home

The iconic building was nearly sold for lumber before “the master of suspense” stepped in

The schoolhouse scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"
The schoolhouse scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

The quaint 19th-century schoolhouse featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic “The Birds” has undergone a stunning residential makeover.

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The 141-year-old school building is located in Bodega, Calif., and was saved from being sold as lumber when Hitchcock selected it for a scene in his film, according to Curbed. Since then, it has seen a full renovation into a quirky but elegant 6,000-square-foot single-family home.

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“The last class was in 1959,” owner Leah Taylor told Houzz. “It needed retrofitting that the city couldn’t pay for. It just didn’t make sense to keep it open.”

In Hitchcock’s film, children are removed from the schoolhouse only to be attacked by a murder of menacing birds. So while it might not be the ideal home for the ornithophobic (those suffering from fear of birds), it is a great example of an imaginative renovation.

“There are places where kids carved their names into the walls,” Taylor said. “We left them, as my mom considered it part of the history of the school. Today some of the boys who did that are grown men who live in the community.” [Curbed | Houzz] – Christopher Cameron