Posted by Fred Ahmazd (68.36.92.169) on April 13, 2002 at 08:50:52:
Home sweet home on Downtown movie set
Jersey Journal
04/13/02
By Jason Fink
Journal staff writer
For sale sign on Paulus Hook brownstone
Brownstone was used in 'Beautiful Mind'
'Beautiful Mind' house is put up for sale
'Beautiful Mind' house has for sale sign
If you have a couple hundred thousand dollars to spare, you can buy Jersey City's most recent Hollywood prop: a Paulus Hook brownstone whose interior was used in the Academy Award-winning film "A Beautiful Mind."
The three-story building, which sits next to Paulus Hook Park on Grand Street, off Washington Street, has been put on the market by owner Michael Tong. Tong declined to discuss the home or the terms of his offer. No asking price is listed on the "for sale" sign in the window.
City tax records list the value of the brownstone at $200,000, but it is likely to fetch far more on the open market. Paulus Hook, with its proximity to the Hudson River and to many of the high-end residential and commercial buildings either recently opened or under construction, is among the city's most desirable neighborhoods.
The red-brick corner house sits on a street lined with similar brownstones in an area designated by the city as historic. The small park next door is one of several open recreational areas in Paulus Hook, where the streets are lined with trees and nearly every house has a front stoop.
Despite a rash of construction that has brought scaffolding to several sidewalks and a near-constant daytime din of heavy materials being hoisted on cranes, the neighborhood is generally quieter and certainly more residential than the nearby Exchange Place financial center.
"A Beautiful Mind," which won the Best Picture Oscar at this year's awards, was directed by Ron Howard and stars Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash Jr., a mathematician who suffers from schizophrenia.
The interior of the Grand Street house was used to film scenes set in the home lived in by Nash and his wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, whose performance won the Oscar for best supporting actress.
Much of "A Beautiful Mind," which is based on a true story, takes place in Princeton, where Nash taught.
Other portions of the film were shot in a studio at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, formerly the Military Ocean Terminal.