Billionaire Leon Praters Mansion is actually a composite of three
different New York locations. (Four, if you count his grand helicopter
estate, which doesnt show up until the 7th episode.)
This exterior of the house,
The gated driveway and parking area, and
The interior of the mansion
were all filmed at different locations around New York.
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Q.
What is it supposed to be on the show?
A. The outside of billionaire Leon Prater's Manhattan mansion.
Q.
Where is it supposed to be on the show?
A. The interviewer says that it occupies an entire city block in Lower Manhattan.

Q. When did we see it on the show?
A. We see this location in Episode 4 of Season 1 of Resurrection.
After Charley picks up Dexter (disguised as the Dark Passenger killer) in Central Park,
they drive to Leon Prater's Manhattan mansion. We only get a very brief
glimpse of the exterior of the mansion as they pass by, lasting only a
few seconds.
And the shot is also after dark, which is somewhat odd,
considering that it was daylight when they left Central Park. This may
be meant to indicate that it is a long drive between the park and
Prater's mansion. In reality, it is not.
The mansion exterior shows up again in Episode 9, when
Angel Batista goes there to talk to Crater and find out why he was seen
alongside Dexter Morgan. for That's both a much longer time
( Heads up: We will see more of this house in the final episode of this
season, when Prater stages his annual Police Gala at the mansion. )
Q. What is it actually in real life?
A. A turn-of-the-century mansion.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
A. This mansion does not occupy an entire city block nor is it in Lower Manhattan.
The song is actually on New York the Upper East Side, directly across Fifth Avenue from Central Park.
This is the James B. Duke House, a mansion at 1 East 78th Street, on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue,
James Duke, who built the house in 1910, made
his fortune in tobacco. He founded the American Tobacco Company, based
around the new technology of a cigarette-rolling machine. The company
absorbed virtually all of its competitors, until, by 1890, it controlled
90% of all cigarette production. That monopoly eventually led to
an antitrust suit that broke up the company. But at the time of his
death in 1925, Duke was worth over $100 million, the equivalent of over $2 billion in today's money.
The home ( a virtual replica of Chβteau Labottiθre in France ) currently houses New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, which offers advanced degrees in the history of art.
Bear in mind that we only see the exterior of the mansion, not the interior.But if you're curious about what the home looks like inside, there's a good photo essay here.
The mansion is going to be featured in the
10th episode finale, as the site of the annual Police Gala thrown by
Leon Prater. We may get a glimpse of the interior in those party scenes,
but they might instead shoot those Gala scenes inside the Guggenheim mansion. .
Here is a matching StreetView of the mansion:
Here is an aerial
photo of the location. And here is a map
link.
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Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. The exterior of this mansion is only shown very briefly in the 4th episode, as Charley's car approaches it.
So I had to freeze-frame it, capture a screenshot, and then feed that screencap to Google Lens.
But this time, that was all it took. Google Lens immediately identified
it as the Duke House, and a Wikipedia entry about the Duke House fully
described the mansion, including the address.
So all I had to do was check a StreetView of the mansion to make certain that it was the same place seen in this
scene. And, of course, it was.
By
Episode - By Category - By
Geographical Location
Clickable Map
of All Dexter Locations - Go To Main Menu

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of and © Showtime & Paramount
All other photos & text are Copyright ©-2025-Gary
Wayne
and may not be used without written permission.

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