5 Secrets About the Dan Humphrey House

The Humphrey loft is 455 Water Street, in DUMBO, Brooklyn — the one major Gossip Girl location that isn't on the Upper East Side. Here are five things about it most fans never look up, plus what you can actually see if you visit.

1. The address is real, the loft is not

The building exterior is genuine and easy to find on Water Street. The apartment interior, with its exposed brick and artwork, was a set — so there is nothing to visit inside, only a facade to photograph. Our Humphrey loft location page shows the building and the Manhattan Bridge view beside it.

2. The neighbourhood does the storytelling

DUMBO in the show reads as artistic, industrial and deliberately unglamorous next to Blair's Fifth Avenue apartment. Every time Dan crosses the river, the geography is making an argument about class before anyone speaks.

3. It is a two-minute walk from the city's best skyline view

Washington Street's Manhattan Bridge view and the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront are both close by, which is why fans usually build a half-day around this stop rather than a quick photograph.

4. The loft anchors Dan's whole arc

Most of Dan's decisions — the writing, the outsider resentment, the eventual Gossip Girl reveal — are staged in or around that apartment. Rewatching the series with the real building in mind changes how the Brooklyn scenes land.

5. It is the reason Brooklyn appears at all

Without the Humphreys the show would never leave Manhattan. The loft gives the series its second borough and its only regular view of New York from the outside looking in — read more on Dan Humphrey's NYC locations.

How to visit

Water Street is a public street; be considerate, since these are private residences. Fans short on time usually keep the Brooklyn stop for a separate afternoon and visit the other Gossip Girl filming locations with a guide on the Upper East Side and in Central Park, where the addresses are clustered and a guide saves hours.