Bedford Falls (It's a Wonderful Life)

Bedford Falls
Fictional town
Top: Genesee Street looking toward the courthouse. Bottom: Genesee Street looking toward the Station. Shots used in the film Cimarron (1931).
Country	United States of America
State	New York
County	Bedford County
Website	www.therealbedfordfalls.com

320 Sycamore
The house in 1954.
Former names	Old Grandville House The Waldorf Hotel
General information
Type	House
Architectural style	Victorian
Location	Sycamore Avenue, Bedford Falls

Bedford Falls (or Pottersville) is the fictional town in which the American Christmas drama It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Philip Van Doren Stern's 1943 short story "The Greatest Gift" (on which the film is based) are set.

In 1945, Frank Capra visited Seneca Falls in the state of New York to look for inspiration for the town of Bedford Falls. The two towns are very similar as they are both mill towns, they both had a grassy median down the main street (Seneca Falls does not anymore), both communities boast Victorian architecture and a large Italian population, and they both have toll bridges very similar to each other. The locations are both close to Buffalo, Rochester, and Elmira.

In Seneca Falls there was a local businessman named Norman J. Gould, who owned Gould Pumps, and was one of the richest men in town. He drove his car with license number NJG1. Norman Gould also had great control over politics and economics of the area, much as Henry F. Potter did in the movie.

The name Bedford Falls derives from both Seneca Falls and a hamlet in the Westchester County of New York called Bedford Hills.

Genesee Street is the main road through Bedford Falls. At the north end is a courthouse with a street heading east down Bridge Street, which departs the town. The street is 300 yards long, with over 30 stores and buildings, including a public library, a dance academy, a trust and savings bank, an "emporium", a Western Union and American Airlines office, a barber shop, a florist, a beauty shop, a bakery, an antique shop, a "World Luggage and Sports Shop", a hardware store, a candy shop, an art store, a music store, a theatre (Bijou Theatre), a drug store (Gower's Drugs), a toy shop, a meat market, a newspaper office (Bedford Falls Sentinel), a tailor's shop, a bicycle shop, a garage, a bowling alley and pool house, a hotel, a grocery, two cafés (including the Tiptop Café), a bonds store, a gas company, a telephone exchange, a police station and a building and loan (Bailey Brothers') that George (James Stewart) ends up running with his Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) after his father dies.