Comments (0) Best home turned hot movie set - 2006

Broken Angel Building

Arthur Wood's house will never be featured on MTV's Cribs; from far away his humble abode (which he purchased for $2,000 in 1971) looks like a dilapidated piece of shit, and it isn't any better up close. The front windows of his beloved Broken Angel Building are either boarded up or cemented over, and there's a hole on the side of this former drug den that spans three floors—exposing the inside of the 71-year-old home to outsiders. But who needs MTV when Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Big Daddy Kane, Jill Scott, and the Fugees (first time together in seven years) crashed your crib for the mother of all hip-hop concerts and the dopest movie of the decade. That's what happened when comedian Dave Chappelle fell in love with this Brooklyn treasure and commissioned it for the set of his 2005 hit film Block Party. Located in the heart of Bed-Stuy (gentrifiers like to claim it for Clinton Hill, but true Brooklynites know the real), the self-taught architect's home has long been a favorite attraction of locals, who have watched over the years as Woods (known as the "crazy old man") transformed the four-floor structure into a 10-story work of art by adding on old pieces of wood, metal, glass, and other scraps to his towering castle. This is a must-see—just look for the blazing red door with white angels flying around the broken one.