The Huxtable Home (The Cosby show)

Brooklyn's most famous brownstone isn't in Brooklyn. For eight seasons, The Cosby Show told America that Cliff and Clair Huxtable — an obstetrician and an attorney raising five kids in style — lived at "10 Stigwood Avenue" in Brooklyn Heights. But the handsome brownstone that actually appears on screen, the one with the classic stoop and wrought-iron railings that became shorthand for upwardly mobile '80s family life, stands at 10 St. Luke's Place in Manhattan's West Village. The Huxtables were Brooklyn on paper and Greenwich Village on camera.

The Scene

The Cosby Show (1984–1992) centers on the Huxtables: Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable (Bill Cosby), his wife Clair (Phylicia Rashad), and their five children — Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. The exterior of their home appears in the show's opening and establishing shots, and the production chose 10 St. Luke's Place for it: an elegant mid-1800s Italianate brownstone on one of the Village's most photogenic blocks, where the entire north side of the street reads as one uniform, gracious row.

The interiors were never in the Village, or in Brooklyn either. The show was videotaped before a studio audience, first at NBC's Brooklyn studios and later at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens — Cosby had insisted it tape in New York rather than Los Angeles, a rarity for sitcoms then and now. So the Huxtable home is a true New York composite: a Manhattan facade, a Brooklyn address that doesn't exist, and Queens soundstages in between.

The Backstory

The Cosby Show was created by Bill Cosby with producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, and it premiered on NBC on September 20, 1984. It ran for eight seasons and 201 episodes, ranked number one in the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons (1985–1990), and is widely credited with reviving both the sitcom form and NBC's fortunes. It won six Primetime Emmys and two Golden Globes, and its portrayal of an affluent, professional Black family reshaped what network television thought a "typical" American family could look like.

The house at 10 St. Luke's Place — sometimes listed as 10 Leroy Street, its other frontage — is part of a row of Italianate houses built in the 1850s, the kind of architecture that made the West Village a magnet for film crews long before and after the Huxtables. The block's quiet, tree-lined uniformity is the whole trick: it reads as timeless, prosperous, and unmistakably New York.

What to Look For

Find 10 St. Luke's Place between Hudson Street and Seventh Avenue South and look for the stoop — the brownstone's entrance, railings, and parlor-floor windows are the giveaway, instantly recognizable from the show's credits. Then look at the whole row: the unbroken run of mid-19th-century Italianate facades is what made this block irresistible to the location scouts, and it's barely changed since the '80s.

This is a private home on a quiet residential block, so keep the visit to the sidewalk: snap your photo, appreciate the architecture, and let the residents live their non-sitcom lives in peace.

Getting There

10 St. Luke's Place, New York, NY 10014 (between Hudson Street and Seventh Avenue South), in the West Village.

Subway: take the 1 train to Christopher Street–Sheridan Square and walk a few blocks east, or the A/C/E to 14th Street and walk south. Private residence — sidewalk viewing only.

Trivia

• The show's fictional address, "10 Stigwood Avenue," doesn't exist — Brooklyn Heights has no Stigwood Avenue.
• Whitney Houston auditioned for the role of eldest daughter Sondra; the part went to Sabrina LeBeauf, who had more acting experience, and Houston went on to become Whitney Houston.
• Theo's dyslexia storyline was drawn from life: Cosby's own son Ennis was dyslexic.
• The fourth season's theme was performed by Bobby McFerrin — yes, the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" guy.
• Much of the art on the Huxtables' walls was by Black artists, including Synthia Saint James and Varnette Honeywood — the set decoration was as deliberate as everything else about the show.

The Hunt Clue

They said Brooklyn, but here's the twist —

The Huxtable stoop was never in the midst

Of Brooklyn Heights. Take Seventh Ave South's cue:

Ten St. Luke's Place, in the Village, waits for you.

A Brooklyn tale with a Manhattan view —

Dear hunter, the brownstone's calling you.

Photo by TheGlowingClown via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0