Church St. at Potter's Field
Welcome To Amity

Coming soon on Ohio66:
“Starring George Maharis” - by Rick Dailey

Ohio66 presents an in-depth look at the circumstances surrounding the departure of George Maharis from route 66 in the middle of the third season.

preview Starring George Maharis


Finding locations of the various scenes in "Welcome To Amity" was relatively easy thanks in large part to the generous help of all the wonderful residents I met in Kinsman but this scene was particularly troubling for several reasons.

When watching the episode it seems obvious that Tod and Buz turn off of Main Street onto Church Street before parking across from Potter's Field at the corner of Church and Kinsman Ridge Road. But when I showed people the screen shot from the DVD virtually everybody identified it as a garage on Garden St. - not in the immediate vicinity of the cemetery. When I first saw the garage I felt the same way despite the fact that the stairs and the garage door were on different sides from those in the screen shot. We rationalized that the filming used 'cut-aways' for some unknown technical reason. In fact, there are several cut-aways in other scenes that are obvious to the residents and to me now that I've been there.

There was also a chimney visible in the background which was at first identified as the library on Church Street and I must say that it does look like the library except for one thing. The chimney is again on the wrong side. But after Church St. was ruled out it was determined that the chimney belonged to the 'tile house' on Main Street. The tile house is just what it sounds like - a house that has tile siding instead of the more common aluminum or wood.

The chimney on the tile house was in the right position (even though it's not visible in my shot because of the trees) but the pitch of the roof was completely wrong. And then I talked with the owner of the garage who definitely ruled out his structure as the one used in the scene. He looked at the screen shot and said "That's a tin roof - this garage never had a tin roof - I tore of the original slate roof and replaced it myself."

So after one final visit with two of the residents who explained to me that the area in question was very prone to flooding and that the home there now (in my current shot) was built after much of the land was filled in and raised up to the level of Church Street I thought that it could have been the location but that I would have to accept my findings as inconclusive..

It wasn't until was headed out of town and stopped at a small restaurant just south of the square when I discovered the truth. The Church Street location was correct after all. The original structure was torn down and replaced with the home that stands there now. The problem with the chimney was solved when someone in the diner looked at the photo and said "that's not the library, that's the old school house."

The old school house had been torn down about a year ago and it originally stood in the right place to make its chimney visible in the shot. When I asked if anyone knew of the existence of any photos of the school, they said no, but pointed me in the direction of this item behind the counter.

After watching the scene several times on DVD there is no doubt in my mind now that the location is correct and there were no cut-aways. It's amazing how something so simple as this could turn into a major piece of detective work.

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