A Guide to ‘The Godfather’ Filming Locations in NYC

Corleone Mansion, Staten Island

Photo: Warner Brothers/Getty Images

Cover Picture: Anthony Pescatore/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Located at 110 Longfellow Avenue on a cul-de-sac in the Emerson Hill neighborhood of Staten Island, the home that served as the Corleone mansion looks much different now than it did during filming.

To help give moviegoers the impression of how significant of a player the Corleone family was amongst the Five Families and in the organized crime arena in general, film crews erected a temporary stone wall with a metal entrance gate (replete with an armed guard) to give the Tudor home a more ostentatious quality.

Radio City Music Hall, Manhattan

It is also one of the few filming locations that looks identical today versus the 1970s

Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan (1260 Avenue of the Americas) is no stranger to the silver screen, serving as the backdrop for endless films, including Annie, Rosemary’s Baby and Rocky III.

It’s red-and-blue neon signage, which wraps around the Art Deco building’s exterior, stands out amongst the dozens of skyscrapers that surround it.

While the circa 1932 building only plays a minor role in the movie, it is also one of the few filming locations that looks identical today versus the 1970s

St. Regis Hotel, Manhattan

Was one of the city’s earliest skyscrapers and has served as a luxury accommodation since its opening in 1904.

Photo: Ben Hider/Getty Images

The hotel is seen numerous times throughout the film, including an exterior shot that marks Michael and Kay’s arrival for an overnight stay, an interior scene at the on-site barbershop where hitman Willie Cicci gets a quick shave before going on a manhunt to whack the enemy, and a gruesome murder in an elevator that unfolds during one of several killings that transpire in stark contrast to the symbolic christening scene.

Mietz Building and Fruit Stand, Manhattan

In the film, the Corleones start a company called Genco Pura Olive Oil that serves as a front to hide the family’s shady business dealings.

Photo: Anthony Pescatore/NY Daily News via Getty Images

Located at 128 Mott Street, in a section of Little Italy that today is considered part of Chinatown, the brick building punctuated by a brick nameplate that says “Mietz Building” was where the family would hold regular business meetings, including one where Don Vito Corleone rejects Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo’s offer to go into the drug business with him and is shot several times by hitmen from the opposing Tattaglia family.

Hotel St. George, Brooklyn

The filming location for a pivotal meeting at the hotel bar between Luca Brasi, Vito Corleone’s personal enforcer, and Sollozzo that ends with Brasi being strangled to death.

Photo: Reading Tom via Wikipedia

Built in 1885 by Captain William Turnbridge, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, this ten-story hotel in Brooklyn Heights (111 Hicks St.) was once the largest hotel in the city, boasting more than 2,600 guest rooms, 17 ballrooms and a state-of-the-art saltwater swimming pool.

Today the building houses a co-op, while much of the brick structure’s exterior remains unchanged, including its neon sign and entrance awnings.

St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, Manhattan

Where the christening of Michael and Kay’s first child, Anthony, takes place.

Built between 1809 and 1815 and known as Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, the Gothic-Revival cathedral was once the home of the Archdiocese of New York.

Today, visitors to the cathedral can still see the towering stained-glass windows and stone pillars that serve as a backdrop of this memorable movie scene.

Calvary Cemetery, Queens

Perhaps one of the most emotional scenes of the entire film is when a procession of vehicles somberly rolls into Calvary Cemetery to pay their respects during Don Corleone’s funeral.

Photo: Nisian Hughes/Getty Images

The cemetery, which sprawls 365 acres and stretches across Maspeth and Woodside, two neighborhoods in Queens, is the final resting place for many notable people throughout history, including performers, politicians and real-life mobsters like Vito Bonventre and Stefano Ferrigno.

According to Untapped Cities, to get to the mausoleum in the movie, enter the cemetery at 33-52 Greenpoint Avenue and go to section 6. You know you’re there once you’ve reached the Hildreth and Gary vaults.

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