Location Information and Production Notes

This film holds up well. I would not have believed it was done almost 20 years ago (although the phone technology gives it away, for instance). Although an actual building was used in part, now we are that much farther past the time when these graceful buildings are common. Checking Google Earth, it seems that particular tenement was torn down. Ironically, although the movie paints us a happy ending, it seems true life is a bit more harsh (see production notes below).

*batteries not included began principal photography in New York in August, 1986, but location scouting began almost a year before. "Since the story called for a lolitary building amidst rubble," explained producer Ronald Schwary, "we had to find a vacant lot with burned-out buildings all around it." Cities far and wide were scouted. "We finally settled on an actual building on 5th Street between Avenues B and C on New York's Lower East Side. However, the city had plans to build low-income housing on either side [now existing] and we eventually ran into scheduling conflicts. Rather than delay their project, we negotiated for a piece of land three blocks away on 8th Street and we decided to build our own building."
Production designer Ted Haworth Designed a three-sided, four-story tenement facade and oversaw it's construction on a location that covered most of a city block. I the name of authenticity, he brought 50 to 60 truckloads of rubble to cover the one vacant lot. It was so remarkably realistic that the Sanitation Department came by and took away prop garbage one morning, people stopped asking to rent and eat in the diner, and the business agent for the Plumber's Local of New York visited, demanding to know why there wasn't a permit down at City Hall. [info from DVD Production Notes]