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The Potter Schoolhouse
The two-story schoolhouse from Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds” still stands on a rise above the village of Bodega. The first question most visitors ask: can you go inside?
Can you go inside? No.
The Potter Schoolhouse is a private residence at 17110 Bodega Lane and is not open to the public. There are no tours and no interior visits. People live here. The building sits close to the road, so you are welcome to look, photograph, and stand at the fence line, but please do not enter the grounds or disturb the residents.
Morning light falls well on the front facade, and coastal fog rolling in off Bodega Bay makes for the most atmospheric shots. Shoot from the public road, keep to the shoulder, and treat the driveway as private, because it is.
Built in 1873
Samuel Potter, then sheriff of Sonoma County, donated the land in 1872, and the two-story Italianate schoolhouse went up the following year in 1873, framed from redwood cut nearby. It served as the primary school for Bodega and the surrounding ranches for close to ninety years.
By the early 1960s enrollment had dwindled to a handful of children, and the school closed. The building stood empty and, for a time, condemned. It is recognized today as a Sonoma County historic landmark, listed on the county's inventory of historic resources.
The schoolyard in “The Birds”
In 1962 Alfred Hitchcock and Universal filmed “The Birds” (released 1963) in and around Bodega. The Potter Schoolhouse is the building behind the famous schoolyard attack: the crows gathering, one by one, on the jungle gym while the children sing inside, then the run down the hill. That scene was staged here.
The film sets its story in a fictionalized Bodega Bay, but the schoolhouse and church scenes were shot five miles inland in the village of Bodega. St. Teresa of Avila Church, which also appears in the film, stands just next door on the same rise.
How the film saved the building
By the time the production arrived, the abandoned schoolhouse was slated to come down. A developer had planned to dismantle it and sell off the old-growth lumber. When Hitchcock rented the building and repaired its facade for filming, the owner recognized that the place had real historic value and chose to sell it intact rather than tear it down.
The Taylor family bought the schoolhouse in 1966 and spent years restoring it into a home. The current owner puts it plainly: the movie saved it. The enduring fame of “The Birds” is a large part of why the 1873 building is still standing to be photographed from the road.
Visiting the Potter Schoolhouse
- It is a private home. View and photograph it from the public road only. Do not enter the grounds, walk the driveway, or knock.
- Where it is.17110 Bodega Lane, in the village of Bodega, a short walk from the Casino Bar & Grill and the Bodega Country Store.
- Bodega, not Bodega Bay. The schoolhouse is in inland Bodega, about five miles east of the coastal town of Bodega Bay. Many visitors mix the two up, so set your map to Bodega Lane.
- Best light. Morning sun on the front facade, or fog for mood. There are no facilities at the site itself.