Newark · Tampa · Miami Beach · Durban
Tap a paint chip to swing a panel round to a place.
She started in the alto section of her mother’s church choir and was first heard singing backing for her mother in a Manhattan club. Every big moment after that lifted her voice out of a group and set it on its own. Play it, then go.
106 Sussex Avenue, Newark, New Jersey · 1970s
New Hope stands at 106 Sussex Avenue in Newark’s University Heights. It began in 1903 as a mission in a member’s home.
Easter Sunday at New Hope. Cissy takes the first verse.
A working church. Go to a Sunday service as a guest; it is not a museum, and the family’s privacy matters here.
Dodd Street, East Orange, New Jersey · 1997
The building opened in 1873 as Franklin School, and it is the oldest in the East Orange school district. Whitney went to primary school here, just down the street from where she grew up.
In 1997 it was renamed after her: the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative & Performing Arts.
A working public school. Look from the street; do not go in.
Amsterdam Avenue at about West 68th Street, Manhattan · 1983
Cissy Houston headlines. Three voices behind her. Step one forward.
Clive Davis first saw her at Sweetwater’s, a club on Amsterdam Avenue at about 68th Street.
Her mother, Cissy, was the headliner. Whitney was singing backing vocals for her.
Walk Amsterdam Avenue at West 68th Street. The club is not marked.
The Moment of Truth tour · 1987–1988
19 August 1987, on stage under the round roof.
19 August 1987
On 19 August 1987 she played here, then the Garden State Arts Center, on the Moment of Truth world tour for the album Whitney.
The amphitheatre opened in 1968 on Telegraph Hill, beside the Garden State Parkway at Exit 116. Edward Durell Stone designed it. PNC Bank bought the naming rights in 1996. It holds about 17,500 people.
An open-air amphitheatre run by Live Nation. Go in with a ticket to a summer show.
11 June 1988
On 11 June 1988 she sang at Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute here, broadcast to 67 countries.
She was one of the highlights of the day, with eight songs, and sang a gospel duet with her mother. The 1923 stadium was demolished in 2002–3. The new Wembley opened on the same site in 2007.
The stadium was rebuilt in 2007. See a game or a concert, or take the stadium tour.
December 2023
The old Vauxhall service area on the Garden State Parkway, near Exit 141 on Vauxhall Road, was rebuilt and renamed for her.
In December 2023 the New Jersey Hall of Fame and her estate unveiled the displays inside: a large photograph of her, a biography and her platinum record for I Will Always Love You. A selfie screen lets you pose with her photograph.
A rest stop on the Garden State Parkway. Pull in from the road; it is open like any service area.
Wembley, London
A guided walk into the parts of the stadium usually kept for players and performers, on the site where she sang for Nelson Mandela in 1988.
Book a tourTampa Stadium · 27 January 1991
She sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium on 27 January 1991, ten days after the bombing of the Gulf War began.
Three beats to a bar, the way the anthem is usually sung.
Tampa Stadium opened in 1967 and was demolished in 1999; Raymond James Stadium was built across the street. Tampa Stadium is gone. Raymond James Stadium, across the street, is open for games and concerts.
Norfolk, Virginia · 31 March 1991
On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1991, she sang in a hangar at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk for about 3,500 servicemen and women back from the Gulf War.
HBO broadcast it live and unscrambled its signal for more than 50 million households; it gave the channel its highest ratings to that point. She opened the show with The Star-Spangled Banner, two months after the Super Bowl. Welcome Home Heroes won a Cable ACE Award in 1992.
An active Navy base. The public gets in on open days: Fleet Fest is on Saturday 24 October 2026, 10am–5pm, through Gate 2.
4441 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida · 1992
Kevin Costner, her co-star and the film’s producer, chose Dolly Parton’s song for her, and wanted it to open with no music at all. Press and hold her voice. Let go and it waits. Keep holding and a band comes in under it.
No music yet. Just her.
As Rachel Marron, she sang two of the film’s songs live on camera in its Fontaine Ballroom: I Have Nothing and I Will Always Love You.
The Bodyguard (1992) has many shots in and around the hotel. The film’s big concert scenes were shot at the Tropigala club nearby, now LIV.
Morris Lapidus designed the hotel, which opened in 1954. For the film’s 25th anniversary in November 2017 the hotel held a listening party and screening in the same ballroom.
A working resort hotel. Stay the night; the Fontaine Ballroom itself is for private events.
Hold all the way to lift the room to Los Angeles.
4441 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach
Morris Lapidus’s 1954 hotel on Collins Avenue, where she sang two of The Bodyguard’s songs on camera in the Fontaine Ballroom.
Check ratesSouth Africa · November 1994
She was the first major Western recording artist to play South Africa after apartheid, after Nelson Mandela’s election.
8 November 1994
Lights off.
Home of the Sharks rugby team. Go to a match.
12 November 1994
Lights off.
Home of the Lions rugby team. Go to a match.
19 November 1994
Lights off.
The athletics stadium on the old site is beside Cape Town Stadium in Green Point Park.
Three stadiums in the dark. Switch one on.
Durban
Live marketplace results for guided tours of Durban. Ask for the Kings Park precinct if you want to see the stadium.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursCape Town
Live marketplace results for Cape Town tours; many pass Green Point and the stadium on the way to Signal Hill.
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Compare tours12 places you can visit. Sweetwater’s is named by its street corner and is not on the map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working church. Go to a Sunday service as a guest; it is not a museum, and the family’s privacy matters here.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public school. Look from the street; do not go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A rest stop on the Garden State Parkway. Pull in from the road; it is open like any service area.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open-air amphitheatre run by Live Nation. Go in with a ticket to a summer show.
106 Sussex Avenue, Newark, New Jersey
New Hope stands at 106 Sussex Avenue in Newark’s University Heights. It began in 1903 as a mission in a member’s home.
A working church. Go to a Sunday service as a guest; it is not a museum, and the family’s privacy matters here.
Dodd Street, East Orange, New Jersey
The building opened in 1873 as Franklin School, and it is the oldest in the East Orange school district.
A working public school. Look from the street; do not go in.
Garden State Parkway near Exit 141, Union, New Jersey
The old Vauxhall service area on the Garden State Parkway, near Exit 141 on Vauxhall Road, was rebuilt and renamed for her.
A rest stop on the Garden State Parkway. Pull in from the road; it is open like any service area.
Garden State Parkway Exit 116, Holmdel, New Jersey
On 19 August 1987 she played here, then the Garden State Arts Center, on the Moment of Truth world tour for the album Whitney.
An open-air amphitheatre run by Live Nation. Go in with a ticket to a summer show.
Stay
The Miami Beach hotel where she sang on camera for The Bodyguard.
4441 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach
Morris Lapidus’s 1954 hotel on Collins Avenue, where she sang two of The Bodyguard’s songs on camera in the Fontaine Ballroom.
Check ratesGo there
The Wembley Stadium tour, and guided tours in London, Durban and Cape Town.
Wembley, London
A guided walk into the parts of the stadium usually kept for players and performers, on the site where she sang for Nelson Mandela in 1988.
Book a tourLondon
Live marketplace results for Wembley Stadium tours. Check what each one includes.
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Compare toursDurban
Live marketplace results for guided tours of Durban. Ask for the Kings Park precinct if you want to see the stadium.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursCape Town
Live marketplace results for Cape Town tours; many pass Green Point and the stadium on the way to Signal Hill.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
Naval Station Norfolk opens to the public on Saturday 24 October 2026.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
One original poster from our store, her mother’s book and four records tied to these places.
An original 1997 concert poster from Hawaii. 11.7 × 17 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterCissy Houston
Her mother’s book: New Hope, Newark and the family.
Find the bookWhitney Houston · LP, Arista AL 8-8212, 1985
The debut album Clive Davis built after Sweetwater’s, with Greatest Love of All on it.
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Find a copyWhitney Houston · LP, Arista AL-8405, 1987
The album she toured on the Moment of Truth tour, through Holmdel and Wembley.
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Find a copyWhitney Houston · CD, Arista/Legacy, 2017
The 25th-anniversary set, launched with a party in the Fontaine Ballroom.
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Find a copyWhitney Houston · CD, Legacy, 2024
The Kings Park show of 8 November 1994, released 30 years on.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 16 of 16 Moments
106 Sussex Avenue, Newark, New Jersey
Whitney sings in New Hope’s choir, where her mother is minister of music.
Mother and daughter trade the verses of He Would Not Come Down.
Dodd Street, East Orange, New Jersey
She goes to primary school down the street from home.
Franklin School is renamed after her.
Garden State Parkway near Exit 141, Union, New Jersey
The Whitney Houston Service Area’s displays are unveiled.
Garden State Parkway Exit 116, Holmdel, New Jersey
The Moment of Truth tour plays the Garden State Arts Center.
Amsterdam Avenue at about West 68th Street, Manhattan
Singing backing for her mother, she steps out for two solos and Clive Davis is in the room.
Norfolk, Virginia
A concert in a Navy hangar for troops home from the Gulf.
West Tampa Bay Boulevard, Tampa, Florida
The national anthem at Super Bowl XXV, in four-four time.
The anthem is re-released after 11 September and goes Top 10.
4441 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
She sings live on camera for The Bodyguard.
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles
Seven American Music Awards and the Award of Merit.
Wembley, London
Eight songs at Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute.
Stamford Hill, Durban, South Africa
The first of three concerts for a new South Africa.
Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa
The second concert, at Ellis Park.
Green Point, Cape Town, South Africa
The last concert, at Green Point.
