Lucille Ball’s hometown is the small western New York town of Jamestown. She was so fond of her birthplace, she also made it the hometown of Lucy Ricardo, her character on I Love Lucy.
Lucille Ball’s Birthplace
This house in Jamestown, located at 69 Stewart Avenue, is the birthplace of Lucille Ball. The house appears to still be in very good condition.
Lucille Ball’s Childhood Home
Early in her childhood, the Ball family moved to another house, located at 59 8th Street. This is the house that spent her childhood in. To honour the location, the city renamed 8th Street to Lucy Lane.
Lucille Ball’s Grave
After originally being interred in Hollywood, the Ball family had Lucy’s remains relocated to the family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown. The cemetery has little hearts painted on the road to lead you to her final resting place. To see more photos of the grave, check this page.
The Statues
In order to honour Lucille Ball, the town commissioned a statue to be placed in Lucille Ball Memorial Park. The statue was unveiled in 2009 with little attention. In 2016, photos of the grotesque statue went viral, and gained the nickname “Scary Lucy”. Soon after, the town looked at options for fixing the statue, but ultimately decided to commission a new statue instead. Later that year, the new statue was revealed in the park. Fortunately, the Scary Lucy statue also remains, as it has become a tourist attraction in itself.
The I Love Lucy Murals
There are several murals of I Love Lucy scenes scattered through the downtown area.
The Lucy-Desi Museum
No visit to Lucille Ball’s hometown is complete without a visit to the Lucy-Desi Museum, located in downtown Jamestown. I have an entire page dedicated to this museum, which you can check out here.
Here are a couple pictures before you check out the page: