Time to Go to School, Son: Rocky V Filming Location at Kirkbride Elementary
In Rocky V, when Rocky walks his son Robert to school after they’re back in South Philly, they head to the real Eliza Butler Kirkbride School, right in the Passyunk Square neighborhood of Philadelphia.
This K–8 school has been around since the 1920s, part of the School District of Philadelphia. Architect Irwin T. Catharine designed it in the Late Gothic Revival style. It’s a big brick-and-limestone building that’s stood since 1926, and in 1988, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places—right before it became a filming location in Rocky V.
A Real School for a Fictional Past
The school’s located at 1501 S. 7th Street. Rocky says he went there himself, probably in the 1950s. So when he brings his son Robert there—played by Sylvester Stallone’s actual son, Sage—he’s walking him into a place with history. Not just for the neighborhood, but for the character too.
Robert doesn’t exactly get a warm welcome. This is where his jacket gets stolen, and when he decides to learn how to fight to get it back.
Dickinson & South Marshall Street
Walk west down Dickinson Street and you’ll trace the same path Rocky and Paulie took with the kid on that first morning. On the corner is the Calvary AME Church—barely changed since the movie was filmed in 1990.
That chain-link fence outside the schoolyard? The one Robert climbs through? It stayed busted in the exact same spot for years, finally getting fixed sometime after 2011.
Greenwich Street & South Marshall Street
Robert’s fight scene happens just behind the school, near the back of South Marshall. That’s where he squares off with the kid who took his jacket. After winning, he runs off with his girlfriend Jewel—heading south down Marshall, even though that’s not the direction toward home. Continuity don’t matter.
If you’re scouting this spot today, be aware – these are tight areas – be street smart and don’t get hit by no cars.
