Famous Goonies House Now Permanently Closed to the Public

Never say Never Say Die. Astoria's famous Goonies House is closed to the public.

For more than a decade, John and Sandi Preston, owners of the house made famous as Mikey Walsh's place in The Goonies, have welcomed Goonies fans with a sign out front saying "Private Drive: Goonies on Foot Welcomed." On the The Goonies' 30th anniversary June 5, they threw open their doors and let shoeless fans up into the attic even.

But goodbye to all that. As of this Sunday, Aug. 17, they've thrown a blue tarp over their house and told everyone to go away, KGW reports. Fatigued from the estimated 1,500 visitors a day to their house, they've put up a sign in front of their little private drive declaring "Private Property: Absolutely NO ONE!" next to another one in sad handwritten letters:

Attached to the sign are some fake mustaches.

Somewhere, somewhere, Mikey Walsh is crying. They finally sold out the Goondocks for good.

Anyway, here's what our visit was like in June, in the place you now won't see:

"Sandi Preston, from her home in California, prayed for the Goonies house. She loved The Goonies so much she prayed for four years after visiting Astoria the first time, until the house inhabited by One-Eyed-Willie true-believer Mikey Walsh finally came up for sale. “I asked God if he would give me the Goonie house,” Preston told The Washington Post in 2010, “and he did.” It is still a site of pilgrimage for thousands each year. To get there, you follow the Goonies parking arrows away from the house to the mildly disheveled John Jacob Astor Elementary on 38th Street—everything in Goonieville is disheveled, because the beach air does grim work—and then walk three blocks uphill to a sign that says “Private Drive: Goonies on Foot Welcomed.” It is the second such sign: The first was stolen almost immediately after being planted, and so the current version is plunged into heavy concrete. On warm days, the sidewalks up and down 38th Street fill with the faithful, gawking at a wealth of no-trespassing signs, and signs asking visitors that they please, dear Lord, not block the driveway. An older man walks out to fetch his newspaper and eyes a family of six pushing a stroller uphill. “Goonies, Goonies, Goonies, Goonies!” he exclaims, and shuts his front door tight. Atop the private drive, the Preston-Walsh house sports two flags—one American, one Israeli—and a bright yellow Porsche Boxster tagged with a “NOBAMA” sticker. On our visit, Preston’s handlebar-mustached husband, John, was replacing the front steps. “For the upcoming 30th anniversary tours?” we asked. “I’m building steps,” he said gruffly, “because we need steps.” The Goondocks house, including the attic, will be open for public tours on The Goonies 30th anniversary weekend, June 5-7. You will be welcomed on foot, but not with your shoes on."

WWeek 2015