Halliwell Manor is a fictional house, an important setting for the WB

The WB Television Network

The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...

 television series Charmed

Charmed

Charmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the now defunct The WB Television Network. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M...

. Members of the Halliwell family have owned the Manor property for four generations. The fictional address of the house is 1329 Prescott Street, San Francisco, California.

Manor history

This existing structure was built in 1906 after the Great Earthquake of San Francisco.Paige mentioned to inquiring reporters that the original house was built in 1898.

Professor Whittlesey of Berkeley University visited the Manor and noted its location and beautiful Victorian architecture

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

. Since the ground is exactly situated at the center of five essential life elements

Five elements (Chinese philosophy)

The Wu Xing, also known as the Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, and the Five Steps/Stages, are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, in many traditional Chinese fields....

 (wood, earth, water, fire, metal), it is considered to be a spiritual nexus. The power encased in the Nexus can be accessed by good or evil. The Charmed Ones' great great grandparents, the Baxters, bought the land and built the manor to prevent it from falling into evil's control. There had been several times that demons have attempted to control the power of the Nexus

Nexus (Charmed)

A Nexus is a place equidistant from the five elements as explained in the TV series Charmed. Using this as a point of reference, it is quite possible that there could be several Nexus points of power scattered throughout the Charmed world, though rare. The one used by the Halliwell family in the...

, including Cole

Cole Turner

Cole Turner is a fictional character on the WB television series Charmed, portrayed by series regular Julian McMahon between seasons three and five. McMahon returned for a guest appearance in the show's seventh season, for its 150th episode. Charmed is a series which focuses on three good witches,...

 and Zankou. These attempts were defeated when the sisters recited a spell their maternal grandmother, Penny, taught Phoebe when she was little to return the Nexus to the earth. As forces of good are in control of the Manor and therefore the control the Nexus, the Nexus is described as providing an extra boost of power to the sisters. At the end of Season 7, Piper

Piper Halliwell

Piper Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Piper is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Holly Marie Combs throughout the...

, Phoebe

Phoebe Halliwell

Phoebe Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Phoebe is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Lori Rom in the unaired pilot,...

 and Paige

Paige Matthews

Paige Matthews is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Paige is introduced at the start of season four as the fourth Halliwell sister and youngest Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Rose McGowan...

 had no choice but to destroy the Nexus to prevent evil from receiving the same power boost. The Charmed Ones used a spell called "How to Banish a Suxen"—or, the word 'Nexus' spelled backwards—provided by the Elders in the Halliwell Book of Shadows

Book of Shadows (Charmed)

The Book of Shadows, or simply "the Book", is a fictional book of witchcraft from the TV series Charmed. In the beginning, the book was created by Melinda Warren and was passed down the family to the Charmed Ones. This book contains spells, incantations, potions and information of the evil beings...

to ensure it would not fall under evil's control.

Phoebe and Wyatt are the only known Halliwell witches born in the manor

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

. As described in "Is There a Woogy in the House?", this means that they can both be easily swayed to become powerful forces of good or evil; Phoebe becomes the Source's Queen and Chris describes Future Wyatt as being the Source of all Evil himself.

In reality, the house is not located in San Francisco where the series is set. The real house can be found in a private property in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 and its interior is largely different from the ones used in the show. The real interior was used in the pilot episode that featured Lori Rom but when Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Jayne Milano is an American actress and former singer, known for her childhood role as Samantha Micelli in the sitcom Who's the Boss? and an eight-year stint as Phoebe Halliwell on the series Charmed. She was also a series regular on the original Melrose Place portraying the role of...

 took the part and parts of the episode that featured Lori Rom and Chris Boyd needed to be shot again a new set had been built. The real house has been used many times for exterior shots only. It is located at 1329 Carroll Ave

Carroll Avenue

Carroll Avenue is a street situated in Los Angeles, near Echo Park. It is in Angelino Heights, one of the older neighborhoods of Los Angeles. It consists of Victorian-era houses within a picturesque neighborhood, which has served as the backdrop for countless motion pictures from the earliest days...

 in the Echo Park

Echo Park, Los Angeles, California

Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and southeast of Hollywood.-History:At the end of the 19th century, when the hills were still covered with native vegetation, a horse-drawn streetcar line served the dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue...

 section of Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, near Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium, also sometimes called Chavez Ravine, is a stadium in Los Angeles. Located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers team since 1962...

.

Changes in layout

The layout of the manor has changed several times, dependent on the needs of each episode. For example:

• Whenever the Manor is shown from the outside, the front porch is about 3–5 feet long, but whenever they show it from the inside, it is at least 10 feet (3 m) long. It is noticeable in many episodes, especially The Importance of Being Phoebe, Cat House and Just Harried (where Prue and her 'boyfriend' drive out the front door on a motorcycle and around the corner), and It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World (Part 2).
• The view from the inside out the front door seems to change. Sometimes it is a clear blue night, other times it is just bright lights. Sometimes greenery, flowers and bushes cover the area, while at other times a blue house across the street is shown.
• The windows in the attic are full length in the first season, but are completely different in subsequent seasons.
• The kitchen counters, as well as the stove/oven change throughout the seasons.
• When looking into the past, the "island" in the middle of the kitchen disappears.
• In some episodes of S5 ceiling panels are missing in some scenes when the camera is at a low angle revealling the open studio space above the set. It is particularly noticeable in some dining room scenes and they are more than likely removed to accommodate lighting/equipment.
• When looking from the outside (such as when Prue shuts the front door with her powers), a wall and stairs seems to appear directly behind her. When shown from the inside, there is no wall and there is a considerably larger amount of space between the front door and the stairs. (NOTE: It could be seen in the first episodes only because those scenes were filmed in the front of the real house. What you can see behind Prue closing the door is the hall of the real manor in Carroll Avenue. In the real house, the staircase is almost behind the front door and there's no large corridor leading through the hall to the stairs like in the set but just a simple wall with a painting on it. The real manor is far smaller than the set. You can especially see it on the first scene of Thank You For Not Morphing.)
• In the episode "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father", a darklighter shoots Leo in the attic; however, there is no window in the attic as it is depicted on the show. The house they use for the exterior does not match up with the sets they constructed for the show. There's no attic atop the Carroll Avenue house with a large window as depicted, only a widow's walk
  Widow's walk
  A widow's walk also known as a "widow's watch" is a railed rooftop platform often with a small enclosed cupola frequently found on 19th century North American houses. A popular romantic myth holds that the platform was used to observe vessels at sea...
  
  .
• The actual number of bedrooms on the second floor is unclear.
• The location of Wyatt's nursery in is initially situated in the closet adjacent to an exterior window, but is moved to the closet beside Piper and Leo's bed.
• The number of bedrooms on the second floor seemed to be three until "Witchstock", when Phoebe and Paige temporarily moved out of the Manor. Piper converted their rooms into a bedroom for Wyatt and a fitness room. When Phoebe and Paige moved back to the Manor, one room continued to be used as Wyatt's bedroom, but which room either Phoebe or Paige returned to is unclear. Paige and Phoebe discuss their cramped living quarters in "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World (Part 1)". In Prewitched, Piper and Phoebe mention they shared a bedroom prior to Grams' death, which would make sense if the Manor is indeed a three bedroom home. The flaw here is that when Patty was alive even if Piper & Phoebe had shared a room there would still have had to be at least four bedrooms since Penny lived with her daughter, 1: Patty & Victor, 2: Penny, 3: Prue & 4: Piper & Phoebe( that last part isn't true because in the season 1 episode Is There a Woogy in The House?, Prue tells Piper about all three of them sharing a room as kids because Pheobe was scared of the Woogyman).
• In "Scry Hard", Piper tells Leo that Grams used to have a sewing room in the second-floor of the house. This may explain why the manor has three bedrooms but, also, an additional, smaller room which could have been converted into Wyatt's bedroom.
• The view of San Francisco out of various windows has changed over the seasons.
• A downstairs bathroom is located beneath the stairs. However, this is later changed into a closet without explanation.

The largest bedroom initially belonged to Prue

Prue Halliwell

Prudence "Prue" Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. Prue is depicted as one of the featured leads as she fulfills her role as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time...

, but when Piper and Leo

Leo Wyatt

Leonardo "Leo" Wyatt is a fictional character from The WB television series Charmed, portrayed by Brian Krause. A possible breakout character included in the writing initially as a love interest beginning in the seventh episode of the first season that initially set Phoebe and Piper quarreling and...

 were married, Prue switched rooms with the newlyweds. Paige now occupies Prue's room after the latter's death. Phoebe also has a bedroom (see above for caveats). The very spacious attic

Attic

An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...

 houses the Book of Shadows and many items of old furniture. The door was always kept locked before Grams' death in 1997, as she told the sisters the attic was sealed off. Additional potion ingredients are kept in the kitchen. The basement is mostly used to store furniture, although it used to house Prue's darkroom

Darkroom

A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century...

 for developing photographs. The Woogyman also used to dwell under the earth underneath the manor's basement. The other rooms in the manor are the elongated dining room, the family room, the conservatory or the sunroom, the living room, the foyer, and outside, and a rear flower garden. The garage was shown for the first (and final) time, right before Leo was taken away by the Angel of Destiny But was also shown in Season Five when Piper made the Manor vanish.

A trademark, the front door closing magically, which Prue started at the pilot and Season One finale, and it's been magically closed every Season finale ever since (Seasons 1 & 2 – Prue; Season 3 – Shax

Shax (Charmed)

The demon Shax appeared twice in the long running fantasy WB drama series Charmed as the demonic, personal assassin of the Source of All Evil...

; Season 4 – the Angel of Destiny; Season 5 – Chris Halliwell

Chris Halliwell

Christopher Perry "Chris" Halliwell is a fictional character on The WB television series Charmed. He is played by actor Drew Fuller. He is the son of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt.- Character's background :...

; Season 7 – It closes apparently without anyone's help, (although fans speculate it to be Prue doing so from the afterlife); Season 8 – Piper's granddaughter) with the exception of Season 6, when they closed the doors of the delivery room at San Francisco Memorial Hospital where baby Chris was born.

Notable events

Notable events occurring to the Halliwell Manor:

• It is revealed that Phoebe
  Phoebe Halliwell
  Phoebe Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Phoebe is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Lori Rom in the unaired pilot,...
  
   was born in the Manor, thus setting up multiple times where she is taken over by evil.
• The eldest sister Prue Halliwell
  Prue Halliwell
  Prudence "Prue" Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. Prue is depicted as one of the featured leads as she fulfills her role as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time...
  
   is murdered by Shax, The Source's personal assassin.
• The manor is vanished by Piper, while under a hex.
• Piper and Leo get married in the third season episode Just Harried.
• The manor becomes covered and infected by a Slime Demon.
• Wyatt is born in the manor in season 5, making him also susceptible to turning evil and setting up the Season 6 story arc.
• Older Chris dies here in Leo's arms.
• Another notable event that happens to the Halliwell Manor is when leftover demonic energy from demon vanquishes manifests as an entity and begins to haunt the Halliwell family at the beginning of the episode "House Call".
• The manor's basement explodes after The Charmed Ones destroy Zankou after he attempts to take control of the Nexus, rocking the house on its foundations.
• Paige and Henry get married in the Manor in the season 8 episode "Engaged and Confused"
• The manor is destroyed due to enormous powers used during the battle of The Charmed Ones vs. The Ultimate Power.
• The manor is restored when Piper along with her mother and grandmother go through time to prevent Phoebe and Paige from being killed (and the manor destroyed) during the ultimate battle with Christy and Billie.

Trivia

In the video game L.A Noire, the house that is used for exterior shots of Halliwell Manor can be seen. You can walk up to the house, but you can't go inside. Additionally, Brian Krause is a voice actor for a character in the game, who also has his likeness.