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'A Christmas Story' home for sale in Cleveland | TribLIVE.com
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'A Christmas Story' home for sale in Cleveland

Joyce Hanz
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AP
This Dec. 15, 2008, file photo shows the house, left, where the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story” was filmed in Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland.
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Rebecca Poole | Tribune-Review
Visitors are allowed to touch everything at the house from “A Christmas Story” in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.
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Rebecca Poole | Tribune-Review
The tour includes a peek at Ralphie’s bedroom.
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Rebecca Poole | Tribune-Review
The leg lamp provides the “soft glow of electric sex,” as Ralphie described it, in the window of the Cleveland house used in “A Christmas Story.”
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Rebecca Poole | Tribune-Review
The kitchen looks as though little brother Randy could have a seat and (maybe) eat some mashed potatoes at the Cleveland house where “A Christmas Story” was filmed.

One of the most recognizable homes in holiday cinematic history is for sale.

The iconic house from “A Christmas Story,” watched by millions every yuletide, was listed Monday.

Vandergrift resident Lisa Dormire took a day trip last December to tour the home with a group of senior citizens from Redstone Presbyterian Care.

“I’m really surprised to hear it’s for sale. I would assume it’s very stable financially and generates lots of revenue. The day we were there, the buses were stacked up and everyone had a timed admission for their group,” Dormire said.

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Courtesy of Lisa Dormire
Employees from Redstone Presbyterian Senior Care in Westmoreland County took a group of residents to visit the house from “A Christmas Story” in December. The workers include (from left) Dominic D’Amico, Kimberly Darragh, Amber Ammann and Lisa Dormire.

The house is at 3159 W. 11th St. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.

The property is listed by agent Chad Whitmer of Hoff & Leigh and marketed by REAG.

In an email, a Hoff & Leigh representative said: “We are not going to market with a listing price, which is not unusual for this type of offering. We are presenting the opportunity to interested buyers and letting them decide the value.”

Whitmer’s voicemail informs callers that because of the high volume of calls about the listing, he will return calls in one to two business days.

He said interest in the home is unprecedented.

“We don’t recall a property at Hoff & Leigh that we have ever listed that has created this level of excitement,” Whitmer said. “We expect the opportunity to command an eight-figure price.”

The home will remain open for tours and is not closing, according to a post made Tuesday to its official Facebook page.

To view the listing, visit hoffleigh.com/listing/3159-w-11th-street/.

The listing boasts more than 75,000 admissions annually at the year-round attraction.

It’s open daily, with scores of tourists visiting the gift shop across the street.

Many of the 1983 movie’s iconic moments, such as Ralphie Parker donning a bright pink bunny costume and the leg lamp scene, were filmed in the home.

The property includes 1.3 acres and five buildings, including the Bumpus house and two empty lots for further expansion.

A total of seven parcels — including a 4,000-square-foot gift shop, the house and a museum — are part of the sale.

The home was built in 1895.

Brian Jones won an eBay bidding war and paid $150,000 for the home in 2004.

He spent more than half a million dollars restoring the property to its original movie splendor.

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Courtesy of Lisa Dormire
Amber Ammann of Greensburg and Lisa Dormire of Vandergrift visited the “A Christmas Story” house in December.

Amber Ammann of Greensburg accompanied Dormire on the tour.

Ammann said she would buy the house in a “heartbeat.”

“It would be such a fun and potentially profitable business if I lived in Cleveland,” Ammann said.

Dormire guessed the asking price to be in the millions.

“The new gift shop building they built would have to be an expensive project. I’m guessing at least $3 million,” Dormire said.

Joyce Hanz is a native of Charleston, S.C. and is a features reporter covering the Pittsburgh region. She majored in media arts and graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com

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