famous churches – Page 2

May 4, 2009October 6, 2022

Church of the Angels

A few weeks ago, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry, who was a HUGE fan of the show Knots Landing during her high school years, set about to locate the church where the characters Joshua and Cathy got married in the Sixth Season episode of the series entitled “For Better, For Worse”. And it wasn’t long before she found it. That church turned out to be none other than Church of the Angels, a place that is no stranger to the silver screen. So, last weekend I dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk it.

Church of the Angels, which was built in 1889, has the distinction of being Pasadena’s oldest church. The church was built by the widow of one of the first settlers of the Pasadena area, Mrs. Frances E. Campbell Johnston, in memory of her husband, Alexander Robert Campbell Johnston. In 1883, the Campbell-Johnstons, who were natives of Great Britain, purchased 2,000 acres of what is now known as Pasadena and named it San Rafael Ranch. Alexander passed away only five years later in 1888 and his wife decided to build a church in his honor on their land. The church was designed by English architect Arthur Edmund Street and was based on Holmbury St. Mary’s Church in Surrey. The cornerstone of the church was laid in place on April 20, 1889 by Frances herself and construction was completed a short six months later on September 29, 1889. Originally named Mission of the Church of the Angels, the Episcopalian church is now simply called Church of the Angels.

When Frances passed away in November of 1893, her sons had a large sundial placed at the front of the church in her memory.

Church of the Angels is an absolutely idyllic place. It honestly looks like it came right out of the pages of a fairy tale. As we walked up to it I felt like I was in the middle of Disney’s Fantasyland – the sun was shining, the sky was bright blue, and (no joke) birds were chirping everywhere. I half expected Snow White to stick her head out of a window and start singing “Someday My Prince Will Come”. LOL It’s really no wonder why the church has been featured in hundreds of productions over the years. It’s a simply magical place.

Practically everywhere you look there is some small, but exquisite detail that adds to the church’s charm. The tiny wooden doors, the sandstone walls, the arched walkways, the three acres of beautifully maintained landscaping. It’s like no other church I’ve ever seen.

The interior of the church is just as beautiful as the exterior. The first thing you notice upon entering is the amazing stained glass window located behind the altar. The window, which illustrates the resurrection of Jesus, was built in London and, according to the Church of the Angels website, is said to be “one of the finest examples of stained glass in America”. Frances Campbell-Johnston actually commisioned the church to be built facing the West, so that the sun would better radiate through the amazing window.

The church’s walls are made of red pressed brick and the peaked ceiling is made entirely out of redwood, giving the interior the feeling of a medieval castle. The church is actually much smaller than it appears – it can accomodate only 130 patrons – thus creating a very warm, intimate atmosphere.

Along the sides of the church, there are several tiny, little doors built into the brick walls. The doors lead to stairways, offices, and restrooms. As is stated in the Church of the Angels’ informational brochure, the stairways are “steep and narrow. People in 1889 were smaller than we are today.” How cute is that??? 🙂

Church of the Angels has one of the biggest pipe organs I have ever seen!! It was built in 1889 at the Roosevelt Organ Works in New York City and is still in use today.

Amazingly enough, Church of the Angels still looks exactly the same today as it did when Knots Landing was filmed there back in 1985. You can watch Cathy and Josh’s wedding scene here.

Besides Knots Landing, the church was also featured in the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives entitled “The Story of Lucy and Jesse”, as the location of Carlos’ boss, Bradley’s, funeral.

It was also where Ashton Kutcher married Brittany Murphy in Just Married.

And it was the location of the many funerals in the 1988 movie Heathers. Yes, that’s Shannen Doherty in the above screen capture. 🙂

It was also recently featured in the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Christening”, as the location where Jim and Pam Halpert (aka John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer) had their baby baptized.

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Church of the Angels was also featured in the Season 9 episode of The X-Files entitled “Hellbound”, the Season 4 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled “Who Are You”, several episodes of JAG, The West Wing, Lawnmower Man, Mick Jagger’s “God Gave Me Everything I Want” music video, and an episode of TLC’s A Wedding Story.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Church of the Angels. It is literally one of the most beautiful and unique places I have ever seen! My boyfriend even enjoyed stalking it! I have to say it is one of the very few places he didn’t mind being dragged to. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Church of the Angels is located at 1100 Avenue 64 in Pasadena. You can visit their website here.

April 10, 2009April 27, 2009

Spencer and Heidi’s Wedding!

UPDATE: They actually did it (again)! Check out pictures from Saturday’s wedding here.

My favorite reality TV duo, better known as Heidi and Spencer, have caused a media shitstorm yet again by announcing that they will be tying the knot – for real this time – in two short weeks right in my hometown of Pasadena. 🙂 Early in the week, I actually got a tip that Speidi would be at the Westminster Presbyterian Church (which I’ve blogged about in the past) this past Wednesday and, of course, went right out to stalk the place. But unfortunately the normally camera friendly duo stayed inside the church the whole time they were there and I didn’t get to see them. I did get to chat with quite a few paparazzi on the scene, though, one of whom actually gave me his phone number as he said it seemed I had more information than he did. He actually told me to call him next time I had a tip! 🙂 LOL Anyway, I had a feeling that Speidi might be visiting the church for reasons relating to their wedding and now it sounds like my hunch might just be correct. (I took the above photos of Westminster Presbyterian back in June when the movie Valkyrie was being filmed there.)

Earlier this evening E! News reported that my two favorite douchebags will be marrying on Saturday, April 25th, in a “sunset” ceremony at an “undisclosed Pasadena location”. Now I am not sure if Speidi’s wedding will actually take place at Westminster Presbyterian, but I do know that the church is going to figure in the ceremony in some form or another. Quite possibly, a pastor from the church will be officiating the nuptials, but they will take place elsewhere. Either way, I’ll give you one guess as to where I’m going to be on April 25th right around sunset. 🙂

According to E!, the reception is taking place on a rooftop somewhere in Pasadena. Well, the only wedding locale with a rooftop in the Pasadena area that I know of is the Pasadena Museum of California Art. So that’s my best guess as to where the reception is going to take place. Now, don’t quote me on any of this, as I am simply going on quite a few large hunches. Only time will tell whether those hunches prove to be correct, but my fingers are sure crossed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 1757 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena. The Pasadena Museum of California Art is located at 490 East Union Street, also in Pasadena.

March 9, 2009March 8, 2009

Donna and David’s Wedding

A few months ago Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called to tell me that he had located the church where Donna married David on the very last episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. He mentioned something about the church being located in Sunland, a small town on the outskirts of Burbank, and for the first time ever I thought Mike, God of stalking, had actually gotten a filming location wrong. You see, I could say with absolute certainty that Donna and David did not get married in a church anywhere near Sunland. How could I be so sure about the location of their wedding? Because I was there! 🙂

wedding2

Back in the Spring of 2000, just a few weeks after I had first moved to Los Angeles, I was given the once in a lifetime opportunity of being an extra on the very last episode of Beverly Hills, 90210,entitled “Ode to Joy”. I had just registered with Central Casting, Los Angeles’ premiere extras casting agency, and was calling the hotline to see what jobs were available for the week when I heard words which I will never forget: “Be a part of television history – press one to be a guest at Donna and David’s wedding on the very final episode of 90210.” Well, let me tell I just about died! I believe I stood with the phone in my hand screaming for a good two minutes. LOL I swear if you had told me back in high school that one day I would be attending the wedding of Donna Martin and David Silver I probably would have had a heart attack right then and there. LOL You can see me in the above screen captures dancing at Donna and David’s reception. 🙂

Anyway, it turns out that Mike was not actually wrong about Donna and David’s wedding location. I should have known – he’s never wrong! 🙂 For whatever reason, producers chose to film the set-up shots of Donna and David’s wedding church at the First Baptist Church of Sunland. But all of the actual filming took place about twenty miles away from there in a small chapel right off the 101 Freeway in Hollywood. So, last weekend I decided I just had to revisit the site of one of my very first acting jobs and I dragged my boyfriend out to stalk the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

Donna and David’s wedding was not actually held in the First Presbyterian Church’s main building, but in a smaller venue named Wylie Chapel, which is also located on the church premises. The wedding ceremony took one full day to shoot, as did the reception scene, which took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. And, if I remember correctly, we shot the reception scene first. Both days lasted well over 14 hours – and, let me tell you, I loved every single minute of them!!! I have to say that being on the final episode of 90210 was an absolutely magical experience for me. Especially since it was one of my very first encounters with Hollywood. I swear I spent the entire two days with stars in my eyes. 🙂 The cast and crew were incredibly nice – especially Luke Perry and Ian Ziering. I met Ian during one of our lunch breaks and I told him that in high school I had slept on 90210 sheets. Well, he was absolutely shocked that there was such a thing as 90210 sheets and next thing I know he’s screaming “Luke! Luke! You’ve gotta come hear this!” Well, I just about keeled over as Luke Perry, love of my high school life, walked right up to us and Ian told him about my sheets. Luke started laughing and said “Well, then I guess you can say we’ve slept together.” LOL Luke was even cuter in person that I ever imagined he could be and when I told him he was my first Hollywood crush he shook my hand and introduced himself. Sigh! I’m telling you, inside I was absolutely dying! I’m amazed I was actually able to get any words out of my mouth while talking to him. LOL And if you’re wondering – Jennie Garth was the least friendliest of the bunch, which really surprised me.

The First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood is actually used quite often for filming. Besides 90210, it was also featured in the 2007 movie Welcome to Paradise. And while we were stalking the place, filming crews for the television series Chuck pulled up. 🙂

The church was founded in 1903 and once boasted the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world! The main building, which is still used for church services today, was erected in 1923. The church property takes up an entire city block and has a huge courtyard and garden area which is where the extras hung out while 90210 was filming. I can still remember Brian Austin Green playing chess in the courtyard with the extras during his breaks. There is also a theatre on the church gounds. 🙂 First Hollywood Presbyterian also has amazing views of the Hollywood sign, but ironically enough, the church was there long before there ever was a Hollywood sign to view. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Donna and David’s wedding was held in the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood’s Wylie Chapel, which is located at 1763 North Gower Street in Hollywood. Their wedding reception was filmed in the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s former Coconut Club, which is now the Beverly Hills Ballroom.

March 3, 2009March 3, 2009

Tom and Gisele’s Big Day

Last Friday night while watching my new favorite show Talk Soup (why on earth I was not a regular watcher before is beyond me!!!!), a news flash splashed across my screen announcing that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had wed supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen the previous evening. According to reports the hush-hush ceremony took place on the evening of February 26th at Saint Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica and only a few guests were in attendance. Even though I am in no way, shape, or form a fan of Tom or Gisele, since I just happened to be in the area this weekend, I thought I’d stalk the church where their nuptials took place. 🙂

I’ve actually been to St. Monica’s Church quite a few times over the years, as it used to be my boyfriend’s local parish. It is an absolutely beautiful place, inside and out, and I am not at all surprised that Gisele and Tom chose it for their top-secret ceremony. The church was established way back in 1886, but the church that now stands at the corner of 7th Street and California Avenue wasn’t built until 1926. There is also an elementary school and a high school on the site. Since it’s inception over 123 years ago, St. Monica’s has grown to become one of the largest Catholic congregations in the Los Angeles area.

Saint Monica’s Catholic Church is no stranger to celebrity. It was featured in both the 1956 film Full of Life and the 1944 Academy Award winning musical Going My Way. Barry Fitzgerald, the lead character in Going My Way, was actually based on former St. Monica Monsigor Nicholas Conneally. Besides Tom and Gisele, other celebrities who are fans of the church include Martin Sheen, Brooke Shields, architect Frank Gehry, and Lawrence Welk. Lucy Lawless aka Xena, Warrior Princess, was married at St. Monica’s in 1998 and the memorial services for both Chris Farley and Lucille Ball were held there in 1997 and 1989 respectively.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Saint Monica’s Catholic Church is located at 725 Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.

February 6, 2009February 13, 2009

The 90210 Pilot Church

A few days ago I sent Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a screen capture of the church featured in the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I had a hunch he might know where it was located – and, sure enough, he did! He immediately called me and said “That’s the Spiderman church!” as it was also used in the filming of Spiderman 3. 🙂 God, he’s good! St. Brendan Church – or as Mike and I like to call it, the “pilot church” – was built in 1927 by Los Angeles area architect Emmett Martin.

In the pilot episode of 90210, Brenda, not wanting her new twenty-something boyfriend Jason to know that she is only sixteen years old and still living at home with her parents, lies and says that she is attending UCLA and living in a sorority house named Sigma Rho Tau. After their first date, Jason drops Brenda off in front of her fake sorority house, which just happens to be located next door to a church. That church is St. Brendan and that sorority house is not really a sorority house at all, but the church rectory. As you can see in the above screen captures, all the producers had to do was add a sign with the sorority’s name to the outside of the rectory and cover up the stained glass window with a bulletin board – and voila, they had themselves a sorority house!

While researching St. Brendan Church earlier today I remembered something very ironic from my past. I can’t even believe I’m admitting to this – in a public forum no less – but you only live once, so here goes! When I was in high school I receieved the Sacrament of Confirmation. At the time I was fifteen years old and deep in the throws of my 90210 obsession. So much so in fact, that I chose Brendan, after St. Brendan, as my confirmation name. In the Catholic faith, when ones receives the Sacrament of Confirmation, they are to adopt the name of a patron saint who is said to then guide and protect them. Confirmation candidates are supposed to study the history of the saints and find one that represents the type of Christian they want to become. But for me the choice was easy. Once I found out there was a saint named Brendan, that was it for me! Of course, the female version of the name Brendan is Brenda. 🙂 Yes, I was THAT obsessed. LOL Being that my mother wanted to kill me when she found out the saint name I chose, this little episode of my life has been a long running joke in my family. LOL So earlier today when I found out that St. Brendan was the name of the 90210 church, I just about fell out of my chair.

St. Brendan actually has quite a rich filming history. Besides the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, the church was also featured in Armageddon as the location of Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler’s wedding.

You can watch the wedding scene below:

It was the location of Stephanie Seymor and Axl Rose’s wedding in the Guns N’ Roses music video for the song “November Rain”.

On a side note – I must say that I absolutely LOVE Stephanie Seymour’s wedding dress from the video (pictured above). I am gonna have to get me one of those for my wedding! LOL As if!! 🙂 You can watch the “November Rain” music video below:

In the Season Four episode of CSI: Miami entitled “From the Grave”, my fave Horatio Caine confessed his sins at Saint Brendan.

The church was also featured in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds (as the location where the residents of L.A. gather during the final scenes of the movie), Spiderman 3 (the interior is where Topher Grace prayed for God to kill Peter Parker), Fight Club (Edward Norton’s cancer support group was held there), and an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. You can see interior pics of the church on the Saint Brendan website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Beverly Hills, 90210 pilot church, aka St. Brendan, is located at 310 South Van Ness Avenue in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

December 30, 2008February 13, 2009

Mr. Big’s Church

One New York location that I have long been wanting to stalk is the church featured in the Season One episode of Sex and the City entitled “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”. In the episode Carrie, while doing some research on religion for her weekly column, stumbles upon Big and his mother coming out of a church one Sunday morning. As usual, Carrie gets a bit carried away and returns to that same church the following Sunday, in full church regalia, to spy on Big and his mom. At the end of the episode, after Mr. Big introduces Carrie to his mother as “my friend”, the two wind up breaking up – for the first of what is to be many times.

This location was fairly easy to find as in the episode Carrie refers to the church as “Park Avenue Presbyterian”. While not the actual name of the church, when I googled “Park Avenue Presbyterian”, the address of a Presbyterian church located on Park Avenue popped up and, sure enough, it was the one used in the episode. In real life it is named Central Presbyterian Church and it is currently undergoing renovations, so I was not able to get the best photographs of it. But you can see in the above screen captures that the exterior doors look just as they did on SATC.

Filming for the “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” episode took place both inside and outside of the church. And while I did venture inside for a quick peek at the interior, I didn’t take any photographs as I have to admit I would have felt just slightly uncomfortable taking pictures inside of a church for the sole reason that a show by the name of “Sex and the City” was filmed there. I would have just died if a priest had walked up to me and asked me what I was doing! LOL The church is very beautiful inside, though, with stained glass windows, stone archways, and a huge altar, and I am happy to report that it looks very much the same today as it did back in 1998 when the episode was filmed.

While there, I just had to take a picture across the street from the church, at the location where Carrie stands when she first spots Big and his mom. The really sad part about this photograph is that I hadn’t actually seen the “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” episode for a while, yet, for some reason, I still remembered exactly how Carrie was standing in the scene. I am beginning to think I really need to get a life! LOL Turns out, though, that while I had Carrie’s pose down pat, I actually had the wrong location!! LOL As you can see in the above screen capture, Carrie is actually standing in front of the building to the right of the one I posed in front of. LOL Although that building has since been painted white, it still has the same wrought iron window coverings with circular cut-outs.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Central Presbyterian Church is located at 593 Park Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit their website here. In “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”, Mr. Big and his mom exit from the church’s side doors which are located on 64th Street. The brownstone where Carrie stands in the episode is located just across the street at 107 East 64th Street.

August 8, 2008February 13, 2009

If You Two Ever Have Kids and One of Them Accidentally Sets Fire to the Living Room Rug . . .

My family and I were supposed to take the red eye home from Hawaii on Wednesday night, but en route to the airport we decided to turn in our tickets and stay a few more days. LOL It was a totally spur of the moment thing and SO MUCH FUN! I can’t even believe we’re still here. Anyway – I didn’t do any Kona stalking today, so thank goodness I have some locations in my stalking reserves that I can blog about. 🙂

Two weeks ago when I dragged my mom out for some Hollywood stalking, we hit up the Hollywood United Methodist Church. I had just discovered this fab website on Back to the Future filming locations and was floored to find out that the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance scenes were filmed at the church, so I just had to stalk it. Hollywood Methodist is pretty much closed to the public on weekdays, but we knocked on the office doors and the facility manager, Stephen, was nice enough to take us on a little filming tour.

The first place we stalked was the church gym, where the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance was filmed and where Marty’s parents finally get together and Marty rocks out to Johnny B. Goode onstage. Currently the gym is being used for rehearsals of Les Miserables, which is playing at the Hollywood Bowl this upcoming weekend.

The same gym was also used for the talent competition scene in That Thing You Do. It’s the location where the One-ders play their hit song “That Thing You Do” for the very first time. It’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use the United Methodist gym for both of these movies, as when you step inside the gym you definitely feel like you are stepping back in time to the 50s.

The scene from Back to the Future when Marty says goodbye to his parents and the year 1955 and says the famous line “If you two ever have kids, and one of the accidentally sets fire to the living room rug, go easy on him” also takes place at the church, in a stairwell leading off from the gym. When BTTF was filmed, the doors leading to the outside were double doors, whereas now there is just a single door. Otherwise the stairway looks exactly the same as it did during filming and I absolutely LOVED being there. 🙂

Besides Back to the Future and That Thing You Do, the church has also been featured in Jarhead, Domino, Anger Management, Big Mama’s House, Beautiful, A Civil Action, Super Mario Bros., Star 80, Imitation of Life, General Hospital, Murder She Wrote, Golden Girls, Jake and the Fatman, and The A-Team, among many others. The church kitchen and an anteroom were used extensively in the movie Sister Act, but the exterior of Whoopi’s church was not United Methodist. That church is actually in San Francisco. The Season 7 episode of CSI entitled “Double Cross”, where a woman is found dead inside a church in a false crucifixion pose was filmed inside of Hollywood Methodist.

Hollywood United Methodist Church, which was modeled loosely after Westminster Abbey in England, opened its doors on March 16, 1930. The church was made a historic-cultural monument in 1981 by the City of Los Angeles. United Methodist has long been supportive of those afflicted with the AIDS disease. While other churches turned their backs on those living with the disease, Hollywood Methodist became a safe haven to those afflicted. In 1993, on World AIDS Day, congregation members placed two large AIDS ribbons on the church tower, where they still stand today. The exterior of Hollywood Methodist often appears in television and film establishing shots of the Los Angeles area and no doubt you will notice it popping up time and time again on your favorite shows. The church is absolutely beautiful and the facilities manager Stephen could not have been nicer to us. I highly recommend stalking there if you find yourself in the area. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hollywood United Methodist Church is located at 6817 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, about half a block away from the Hollywood & Highland Center.