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Mary Tyler Moore’s movie shot in Richmond featured a most unusual house

Posted at 12:16 AM, Jan 26, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-26 00:18:29-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- Many of Richmond's sweet spots co-starred with Mary Tyler Moore in her 1985 HBO movie, "Finnegan Begin Again" about love lost and found again.

There's Helen's restaurant! And right down W. Main Street, there's our Bamboo Cafe.

Shockoe Bottom is front and center, along with The Richmond Times-Dispatch and several other locations.

Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore in HBO movie, "Finnegan Begin Again"

But it was a very unusual property - the Hey House on McDonough Street in industrial South Richmond - that had the starring role as the somewhat troubled residence of co-star Robert Preston.

The house was built in 1902 or 1905, depending on who's counting, by David Hey, who made paper cloth and maybe was also a florist.

Soon after filming ended, a descendent died and the house was sort of trapped in its industrial district until a local surgeon, Dr. James McTamaney, and his wife, Gail, bought it for a song.

The Hay house

The Hay house

They dismantled it piece by piece and moved it across South Richmond to a new site near Trinity Episcopal High School.

It is an amazing story of love and beginning again, perfectly fitting with the crucial scenes of the movie filmed there.

Watch this week's RVA Revealed to see the two harmonizing roles played by this house in Mary Tyler Moore's romance filmed here in town.

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