Video Tour of Newville Avenue online

There are now 4 amazing videos, around 30 minutes in total, capturing a fan's tour of the Newville House. They feature Karen's Mercedes (KAC1), Evelyn Wallace and some close up pictures of Karen from 1982, as well as Richard's fanatically detailed collection of Carpenters memorabilia in the now demolished music room.

See links below:

Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3 -
Part 4 -

Enjoy!

That's a little creepy -- video of random people pawing through Karen and Richard's stuff. The fact that there is no source audio makes it especially weird; seeing people talking but having no idea what they're saying is a very odd production choice.

Fascinating look into the home, though...

I wonder if Richard knew they were doing this, I don't think he'd be too pleased to see people pulling his collection out as you say. There were lots of things out in boxes, which makes me wonder if Agnes was still alive or he was in the process of emptying the house to sell it after she passed on.

I saw some of this and turned it off. It just seemed so personal.

Harold and Agnes, and on occasion Ev, enjoyed giving fans tours of the home from time to time. I was fortunate to get a tour on 3 occasions; however, never did we paw through personal stuff or really touch anything. Everyone was kind and respectful as would be expected. I'm wondering if the videos were intended to be some sort of video documentation of the homes contents after Richard sold the house and was moving everything out of it. Given the amount of items in the home and its significance to the Carpenters legacy, I'm sure people were hired to catalogue and move the stuff to Richard's new home or a warehouse (I can't see Richard calling up all his friends who own trucks to help move).

Considering the video of Karen's wedding was leaked, I'm not surprised something like this would find its way out to the masses.

Appreciate your insight, Geographer. Thanks.

Loved the tour! This is what their soon to be emptied home should have started out as, to ultimately become a "Carpenters Graceland" (I felt this was appropriately invasive . Heck, I would have peeked in Richard's closet (where Karen spent her last earthly moments) if no one was looking. Thanks for posting!!!!!

I don't know. I felt weird looking at these before. I wouldn't feel right looking through my own brothers stuff, let alone Rich or Kace's. Now if it was a tour of A&M and someone wanted to show me some unheard snippets or tracks, well....
I just don't think Rich wants me looking at anything he deems private. Just saying...

Being the appliance fanatic I am, I am sure glad to get a glimpse of a few Kitchen app's & most-likely, I think, to have been early-'80's GE...

(And probably a far cry from what the house must'a had originally, before getting such nice stuff, amassed from sales of "(They Long To Be) Close To You", "We've Only Just Begun" etc.)

I'd put aside the privacy factor, being impressed w/ what I saw, though, a more consensual level would mean charging admission & having a lot of the artifacts & furnishings roped-off (while anything like a bedroom or bath--specifically, a "particular" one where "something" took place, would strictly & respectfully have to be off-limits... And my humble conjecture there is from having actually toured Elvis's Graceland & actually having a souvenir book from the tour as well as a pop-up book I bought at a bookstore...)

Stuff like the gold & platinum discs, the home recording studio, Karen's Mercedes & the swimming pool seemed like more "publicly appropriated" artifacts & much more fit for an exhibit or display... A fitting way to unfortunately mourn Ms. Karen's death, but remember and commemorate the lasting impression she left us with, twenty-nine-years ago, on this date...


-- Dave

I'm fascinated by this stuff. Whilst I respect the opinions of others, I couldn't turn this off, I was hooked! To see the layout of the house, the music room etc, this is all we have left now that the place has been demolished. The fact that Evelyn Wallace is there makes me think this was sanctioned by somebody or other.

I've seen these before, the only thing that bothers me is the sound track overlay, because of this one can't really tell what is happening inside the house, the original sound would tell us how much was approved in what took place. However with that said, I see Evelyn and don't know who that other lady is but to me it looks like the lady is ok'ing all this, even turning on lights and opening up window shades to get a better view, this looks to me like they are allowing cameras and video if not they would have stopped it at the door. Then with Geographer comment that fans were allowed tours, it seems logical how this tookk place.

The Cd's and stuff on the table in the center of the music room appear to be mostly Japan and UK items, they could be items given to the Carpenters free to be given away as part of the fan club or to friends. I wonder what the labels or name cards all lined up were on the table towards the end. The Karen and Richard chairs are really cool to see. It must have been toward the end and since Evelyn is there and they are allowing all this I don't see the problem in viewing it. It's sad that all this is gone, one can also see the gardens and water fall in the back still in operation.

I understand the privacy concerns, but I found this fascinating, Voice of the Heart songs seemed fitting and I love Leave Yesteraday Behind, didn't need the Christmas tunes.

Dread to think what the house is like now if there's anything left at all.

If you look at those piles of CDs and also those on the shelves, there are multiple copies of the same CD or LP, racks of the same release sometimes. They all still look sealed too, God knows what all this stuff must be worth. I think the record labels must have sent the family a batch of the first pressings probably as gifts for family and friends, but Richard seems to have hoarded most of them over the years for himself lol