Hollywood Location Walk (Wilmington)

Wilmington has so many movie studios that the town has earned the nickname "Wilmywood". It is third on the list of locations in the US after New York and LA. As mentioned before "Dawson´s Creek" was my favorite show for a long time during my early 20s, so I decided to do the "Hollywood Location Walk" in hope of seeing a couple of the shows locations. 

My guide, totally inspired by Steven Spielberg by the way, asked us what we wanted to see.  Most of the other tourists didn´t have a specific show or movie in mind, and there were no "One Tree Hill" fans for the very first time, so the two Scottish girls and I were happy to have many Dawson´s Creek locations included in the walk. 

One of the highlights was this sign. The store purchased it after the show finished. 

This is apparently a very special location for "One Tree Hill" fans. A date scene was filmed here! 

My guide was so surprised to not have any big "One Three Hill" fans in his audience, but he still pointed out a few of the shows main locations. 

I guess this post is most fun if you are/have been a fan of any of these shows..

This was the location for "Leery´s Fresh Fish". On the show it looked like the creek was right outside the front door, but that was just the way it was filmed of course.

The inside of the restaurant is still like it was on the show. The staff was pretty used to seeing big crowds of DC fans in here every day. 

This used to be filled with water and it was the location of Pacey and Andy`s first date. 

This is where Dawson and Pacey spy on Eve in season 3. She buys a hotdog in what turns out to be a tourist information booth today. According to my guide it was the only time you could buy a hotdog there! 

This rundown location/house used to be the "Ice House", the restaurant where Joey worked. 

A scene form the movie "A walk to remember" was filmed down this alley. 

My favorite male character in DC is "Pacey" or Joshua Jackson. He had signed the wall inside the market. A lot of other artists and actors had signed it too, it was Wilmington´s Wall of Fame. 

The actress Sophia Bush from One Tree Hill lived in an apartment over this store while she was filming in Wilmington. 

If you take away the grey roof and the new brick fence, this was actually the wall where Pacey wrote the famous words for Joey "Ask me to stay". 

This building was the store and center of the movie "Empire Records". They had a big sign on the top of the roof for the movie. 

Apparently James van der Beek and Joshua Jackson had a flat together in one of those white buildings during the first seasons of DC. My guide had met James later on and they talked about his time here, and his response was "If those walls could talk"! Imagine two young and fresh "Wilmywood" actors stirring up this little college town..

The Village Market kept the name but it is now a tourist shop. The scene where Dawson is looking at condoms was filmed in here. When he is trying to decide which brand to buy this older woman comes up to him and gives him advice. The woman was not an actress and the line was not rehearsed but her response was so funny that they kept it in the show..well after paying her for a job well done. Ha ha. According to my guide that was Dawson´s funniest scene in the whole series.

This is the exterior of the Rialto Movies Theatre. 

Hell´s Kitchen still kept its original name. This is where Joey worked in series 5 and/or 6 and where the "Hells Belles" performed a few times. 

The inside was still the same as in the show but 5-6 big tv screens made it look very different. The boat on the wall was the one Joey used when she visited Dawson across the creek. Hell´s kitchen was the last stop on the location walk, and it was pretty exciting and a little unreal to spend time in here where Katie Holmes, James van der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams, Busy Philips and Oliver Hudson had all been before me..

 

A big thank you to my wonderful guide (no it is not Steven Spielberg!) who made the location walk a 40 % Dawson´s Creek location walk. I still have my bling to remind me of that memorable day.