The man who lives in Spider-Man's real house still reads every letter kids send
Jack Shi, 64, owns 20 Ingram Street in Queens, the address given as Peter Parker’s home in a 1989 Spider-Man comic. Kids still mail letters to Spider-Man there, and with Brand New Day in theaters, he expects more.
There’s a house in Forest Hills, Queens where letters addressed to Spider-Man still arrive, and the man who lives there wouldn’t dream of ignoring them.
Jack Shi, 64, owns the home at 20 Ingram Street, the exact address a 1989 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man gave as Peter Parker‘s home. Decades later, kids from all over still mail letters to the web-slinger at that address, and Shi reads every one.
He didn’t even know the connection when he bought the place three years ago.
How a comic-book address became real
The blurring of fiction and reality here goes back to a detail eagle-eyed fans caught in 1989.
In issues #316 and #317 of The Amazing Spider-Man, a change-of-address form briefly revealed Peter Parker’s home address on Ingram Street. Fans realized it was a real location in Forest Hills, and, in a coincidence too perfect to invent, the family who lived there for decades was actually named Parker, though none of them had superpowers.
The Parkers received hundreds of letters over roughly 30 years before moving out in 2017. Some of that correspondence ended up preserved at Brooklyn’s City Reliquary Museum. Shi is just the latest keeper of a strange, wonderful piece of New York pop-culture history.
Shi decided to play his part
When Shi learned what he’d bought, he didn’t treat it as a nuisance. He treated it as a responsibility.
“The agent told me, this is Spider-Man’s house. I’m very surprised, I had no idea, but I know that this is a responsibility,” Shi said. He reads the letters that arrive from around the world and across the country, Texas, Indiana, Oklahoma, even if he doesn’t write back. One from a kid named Julius asks, “Spider-Man, how do you do the things you do like save the world?”
Shi has taken to embracing the role the house handed him. In his words, if he lives in Spider-Man’s house, he should act like Spider-Man, welcoming the kids who show up and happily posing for photos when they ask. Around Halloween, some young fans in Spider-Man costumes skip the mailbox entirely and knock on his front door.
Why it matters more right now
The timing means Shi should brace for a bigger wave than usual.
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day currently in theaters, interest in the character is spiking, and Shi expects even more kids to seek out the Forest Hills home in the months ahead. “They want to come here every year; they love Spider-Man,” he said.
For Shi, the house is bigger than a famous address. “I must take care of this house because this is an American spirit,” he said. It’s a small, genuinely sweet thing in a pop-culture landscape that mostly runs on hype and outrage: a stranger who bought a house, discovered it belonged to a fictional hero in the hearts of thousands of kids, and quietly decided to honor that instead of putting up a “no trespassing” sign.
To the children mailing letters from a world away, 20 Ingram Street isn’t just a house in Queens. It’s where Spider-Man lives.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.
Hat Tips:
PIX11 (August 2026), verified for Jack Shi’s name and age, the 20 Ingram Street address, the 1989 comic connection, his learning of it when buying the house three years ago, the “this is a responsibility” and “American spirit” quotes, the Julius letter, the Halloween door-knocking, and the Brand New Day expectation
ComicBasics (August 2026), verified for Shi being 64, his reading every letter, and the prior Parker family’s history at the address
ABC7 New York and Untapped New York (2023), verified for the issues #316 and #317 change-of-address reveal, the real Parker family living there 1974-2017, the hundreds of letters, and the City Reliquary Museum exhibit
Smithsonian Magazine (2023), verified for the “Dear Spider-Man” exhibition and the decades of fan letters preserved from the address