The Convent

The Convent was built around 1943 and built with an air of the Orient and Middle East. Early pictures show that it had oriental characters in signs on the buildings.It is probably most notably remembered and seen in“The Flying Nun” as a Convent in Porto Rico. For this the entire set was redressed to represent the flair and style of that country and era. 

The Convent basically was a mini set on its own. It had structures surrounding it on all sides. There were two main entrances to the Convent set. One coming from the Colonial/European set and one from the back alley, along Oak Ave.

In August of 1970 a major fire broke out again on the Ranch and this time it destroyed not only part of the Colonial set, but also took with it almost the entire Convent set. It was to be rebuild according to plans, but was not done so. The standing structures were redressed to represent a Mexican Village and were used in episodes of 'Bewitched' and 'The Partridge Family'. Another short lived television show used the set, named 'Search' from 1971. Numerous shows and movies utilized the 'Mexican Village' throughout the years, one of them being, 'Ghostbuster' although the particular scene was cut out of the final movie. 'Code Red' from 1981 also made use of the set several times in different episodes. The set was left standing till September 1996 when it was torn down.

What was left of the Mexican Village set in 1996 shortly before it was torn down.