The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey from “90210”

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Way back in July of last year, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves on the West Side of Los Angeles with a few hours to kill, so we decided to head down to Marina del Rey as I had never before done any stalking there.  I ended up absolutely falling in love with the seaside community, especially its downtown shopping area where I know I could have done some serious damage to my credit cards had the GC not been with me.  Anyway, one of the area locations that had long been listed in my trusty stalking notebook was The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey hotel, which had made an appearance in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. So I dragged the GC right on over there as soon as we got into town.  Flash forward to this past February when I was checking out fellow stalker Geoff’s 90210Locations website and, let me tell you, I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that the hotel had been featured prominently in a recent episode of the series.  Now, as you all know, I watch 90210 religiously and am always keeping my eye out for locations, but, for whatever reason, I had somehow not recognized the place at all!  Am I losing my touch here?  Winking smile

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The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey is situated on a 5.6-acre plot of land directly overlooking the picturesque marina from which the town gets its name.  With its dark paneled walls, marble floors, and huge floral arrangements, the beautiful hotel reminded me quite a bit of The Langham Huntington in Pasadena, which, not so coincidentally, was formerly owned by the Ritz-Carlton Corporation.  Needless to say, I fell in love with the place on the spot and so wanted to book a room and spend the night there, but the GC was having absolutely none of that.  Shocking, I know.  Winking smile

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The Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, which is Los Angeles’ only waterside AAA Five Diamond hotel, features 304 guest rooms, each with its own “Juliet” balcony, tennis courts, marina and city views, over 30,000 square feet of event space, a fitness center, and a Michelin-recommend restaurant.  According to the hotel’s website, it also boasts “L.A.’s only waterfront pool and whirlpool” (pictured above).  Besides being a filming location, the place is also a big-time celebrity hot spot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Adrian Grenier,  John Travolta, Johnny Depp, Bridget Marquardt, Brooke Shields, Chris Henchy, Zac Efron, The Bachelorette’s DeAnna Pappas and then fiancé Jesse Csincsak, Brad Garrett, Mary Hart, Halle Berry, Hulk Hogan, Dave Annable, Odette Annable, Jason Lewis, Jason Mraz, Scott Caan, Paul Bettany, and Steve Carell.  Snoop Dogg and childhood sweetheart Shante Taylor got married there in 1997.  And pop star Britney Spears is a regular guest.  In fact, these famous (and oh-so-classy) photos of BritBrit and then fiance Kevin Federline were taken on one of the hotel’s balconies.

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In the Season 4 episode of 90210 titled “No Good Deed”, the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, popped up twice.  The hot tub area was first used as the spot where Naomi Clark (AnnaLynne McCord), wearing a very skimpy, blue cut-out bathing suit (and I’m telling you, if I had that body, I’d be wearing that bathing suit every single day of my life!), convinced movie star Mitchell Nash (Will Kemp) to let her throw a party for him.

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That spa area is pictured above.

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Later in the episode, the hotel’s pool area was the site of the Hillingsbrook Foundation’s “Clean Up Castillo Bay” charity event which Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) hosted.

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The spot where Liam Court (my love Matt Lanter) rescued the drowning girl is located just outside of the pool area, in the Marina del Rey harbor.

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The scene where the event’s silent auction was held was also most likely filmed at the Ritz, although I did not see any areas which resembled the screen captures above while I was there, nor can I find any similar-looking rooms on the hotel’s website.

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In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey’s pool stood in for the pool of the fictional “The Stafford Hotel”.  Interestingly enough, two other spots were also used to masquerade as The Stafford in the flick – the exterior was the Treasure Island Administration Building in San Francisco and the interior scenes were filmed at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.

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The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey was also used extensively in the Season 5 episode of Dexter titled “Take It”, as the hotel where Jordan Chase (Angelina Jolie’s ex-husband Jonny Lee Miller) hosted his “Take It” convention.  Quite a few areas of the hotel were used in the episode, including the exterior;

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The Ritz-Carlton Ballroom, which you can see a photograph of here;

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one of hotel’s outdoor terraces;

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The Ritz-Carlton Suite, which you can see a photograph of here;

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and two neighboring 7th floor suites.

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Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for informing me of the hotel’s 90210 connection!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, from the “No Good Deed” episode of 90210, the “Take It” episode of Dexter, and The Parent Trap remake, is located at 4375 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

The Hollywood Towne House Motel – Lumen’s Motel from “Dexter”

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This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I were doing some stalking in Hollywood when we happened upon the Hollywood Towne House Motel – aka the supposed Miami-area hotel where Lumen Ann Pierce (aka Julia Stiles) lived during this past season of fave series Dexter – which in my never-to-be humble opinion was the very best season the show has yet produced.  Is it just me or does the series keep getting better and better with each passing year?  Julia Stiles was absolutely PHENOMENAL in her role this past season.  I honestly think it was the best acting she has done thus far in her career.  Loved her, loved her, loved her!  Anyway, while I usually rely on Seeing Stars’ extensively detailed Dexter filming locations page to find locales from the series, I recognized Lumen’s motel immediately upon driving by it, thanks to the place’s unique (and very bright) color scheme.  What was even more amazing, though, was the fact that the Grim Cheaper also recognized the place immediately upon driving by, as well!  He’s learning, folks!  Smile

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Even had we not recognized the place, this one most likely would have been an easy find as the real life name of the motel was used on the show.  So incredibly cool!

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The Hollywood Towne House Motel first showed up in the Season 5 episode of Dexter titled “Beauty and the Beast”, in the scene in which Dexter Morgan (aka Michael C. Hall) tracks down the motel Lumen was living in before she was kidnapped.  The motel looks exactly the same in person as it did on the series and it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as the place definitely has a Miami vibe to it.

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The motel’s real life main office also appeared in the episode.

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And it, too, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, except that in real life there is a pane of security glass which surrounds the front counter.  I so desperately wanted to get a picture of myself standing in the spot where Dexter was standing in the episode, but unfortunately the office was closed when we showed up to stalk the place.

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The motel was also used in the next episode of Dexter, which was titled “First Blood”, in the scene in which Dexter breaks into Lumen’s motel room and discovers that she is planning to seek revenge against her kidnappers.

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In that episode Lumen was living in room number 110.

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And while I originally had thought that the real interior of Room 110 was used in the filming of “First Blood”, after looking at the photographs of the motel’s actual rooms on TripAdvisor, I no longer believe that to be the case.  I am guessing that the interior of Lumen’s room was a set that was built on a soundstage.  (The TripAdvisor reviews of the motel are not too kind, by the way.  One is titled “Should be condemned!  It’s a Dump and Unsafe!!!!”  LOL LOL LOL  And one group of particularly enterprising guests even went so far as to make a YouTube video review/tour of the motel which is pretty incredible to watch!  If you are at all grossed out by dirty hotel rooms, however, I suggest you do NOT watch it.)

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Ironically enough, “Beauty and the Beast” was not the first time that Dexter was filmed on location at the Hollywood Towne House Motel.  The very same spot was used in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Turning Biminese”, in the scene in which Sergeant Angel Batista (aka David Zayas) seeks out Detective Barbara Gianna (aka Kristin Dattilo), who is working undercover as a prostitute, to ask her out on a date.  Real romantic setting to ask someone out on a date, I know.  Smile

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While we were stalking the place, I was floored to discover that Sunset Gower Studios, the lot where Dexter is filmed, is located directly across the street from the Hollywood Towne House Motel, which explains how producers came to use it on the series.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Hollywood Town House Motel, aka Lumen’s motel from Dexter, is located at 6055 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.  Lumen stayed in room number 110 on the show.

Gas Works Park from “10 Things I Hate About You”

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Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May – and yes, there are still quite a few of them that I have yet to blog about – was Seattle’s famously unique Gas Works Park, the spot where Patrick Verona (aka Heath Ledger) took Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles) to play a game of paintball in the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You.  I found this location, as well as countless other 10 Things I Hate About You locations, from fellow stalker Owen, who has managed to compile a mind-bogglingly massive list of Seattle-area filming locales over the past few years.  And I can honestly say that Gas Works Park is easily the most interesting and unique of all of the locations that I stalked while vacationing in Washington State.  Actually, come to think of it, the park is quite possibly the most unique and interesting of all the locations I have ever visited in my entire stalking career!  The place is truly incredible. 

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Gas Works Park, as the name implies, was originally a gasification plant established by the Seattle Gas Company in 1906 to manufacture gas from coal.   The plant was one of Seattle’s main sources of power until 1956 when the city began using natural, instead of “town” – or synthetically produced – gas, at which point the plant was shuttered.  In 1962, the City of Seattle purchased the property for a cool $1,340,000 with the intention of turning the space into a public park.  Enter award-winning landscape architect Richard Haag who was brought in to transform the area into a place of recreation and beauty, which he indeed did, later winning the American Society of Landscape Architects Presidents Award Design of Excellence for the project.  In an unprecedented move, because the property was the only gasification plant still in existence in the U.S., Haag decided to preserve the seemingly-ugly and utilitarian equipment and incorporate them into his park design.  And while a park that features old gas generator towers and rusted boiler rooms might not sound appealing, what Haag left us with is a truly stunning mix of industry and nature. 

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So stunning, in fact, that it has become a popular Seattle wedding venue, as unlikely as that might seem.  As you can see in the above photograph, one was even being set up while we were stalking the place.

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Part of what makes the 20.5-acre park, which is both a Seattle City Landmark and a Washington State Landmark, so spectacular is its amazing views of Lake Union, Downtown Seattle, and the Space Needle.

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And, as fellow stalker Kerry pointed out, the park also boasts a perfect water-side view of the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat.  So incredibly cool!

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Thanks to the park’s unique architecture, it should come as no surprise that filmmakers have returned there time and time again to shoot various productions.  In 10 Things I Hate About You, Patrick takes Kat to Gas Works Park to play paintball after she sneaks him out of detention and it is there that the couple shares their first kiss.  In real life, the park does not actually feature a paintball area, though.

You can watch the 10 Things I Hate About You paintball scene by clicking above.

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In the 1992 movie Singles, Gas Works Park is the location where Linda Powell (aka The Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick) says yes to Steve Dunne’s (aka Campbell Scott’s) marriage proposal.

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In the 1989 movie Three Fugitives, the park is the spot where Ned Perry’s (aka Martin Short’s) daughter, Meg (aka Sarah Rowland Doroff), speaks for the first time.

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Gas Works Park was also featured twice on the reality television series The Amazing Race.  It first appeared as the finish line for the final competition in Season 3 and was later used as the starting point in the very first competition in Season 10 (pictured above).

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for telling me about this location and to fellow stalker Kerry and her husband Jim for taking me there.  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

10 Things Paintball Location

Stalk It: Gas Works Park, from 10 Things I Hate About You, is located at 2101 North Northlake Way in Seattle, Washington.  The area where the paintball scene was filmed is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view.  The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.  You can visit the official Gas Works Park website here.

Stadium High School from “10 Things I Hate About You”

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Yet another location that I stalked while vacationing in the Pacific Northwest this past May was Tacoma’s Stadium High School – the spot that stood in for Padua High in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.  The Grim Cheaper and I, along with our good friends Kerry and Jim, visited this locale on our last day in Washington, whereupon we met up with fellow stalker David and his daughter, Olivia (pictured above), who live in the area.  I was especially excited about stalking this location as it is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place and is so incredibly unique in its architecture.  When I first watched 10 Things over a decade ago, I was actually convinced that Padua High was a set that had been built solely for the filming.  I was absolutely shocked to discover that the castle-like structure is, indeed, an actual high school in real life.  I cannot even imagine being lucky enough to spend four years attending classes in a place like that!  Sigh!

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Stadium High School, which is located in the Stadium District of Tacoma, was first built in 1891 and was originally conceived as a luxury hotel which was set to be named either the Olympic or the Tourist.  The hotel was commissioned by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and the Tacoma Land Company and was designed by the Philadelphia-area architectural firm of Hewitt and Hewitt.  Thanks to the Panic of 1893 and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company’s subsequent bankruptcy, though, construction on the French Renaissance-style hotel was abruptly stopped later that same year.  The building, which at the time consisted of little more than a roof and exterior walls, was then turned into a lumber storage facility for the struggling railroad company.  On October 11, 1898, disaster struck when a mysterious fire broke out at the unfinished structure, gutting the property completely.  Shortly following the fire, the city made plans to demolish the decrepit building, until the Tacoma School District stepped in and purchased it on February 19, 1904.  Architect Frederick Heath immediately set about transforming the vacant structure into a useable high school and on September 10, 1906, the then-named Tacoma High School opened its doors to its first students. 

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Three years later, Heath set about construction on a 2.5-acre, 32,000-seat stadium on a bluff situated adjacent to the school that overlooks the ocean.  The new stadium was completed in 1910 and was given the name Stadium Bowl.  The school’s name was eventually changed to Stadium High School in honor of the newly-built structure.  The Bowl has been the site of numerous special events and speaking engagements over the years.  Louis Armstrong once performed there and everyone from Baby Ruth to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson have given speeches on the premises. 

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Stadium High School, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, is absolutely breathtaking in person.  With its limestone and brick edifice, wrought iron detailing, and majestic views of Commencement Bay, I am extremely surprised that more productions have not found their way to the campus.

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The 10 Things I Hate About You crew spent six weeks shooting on location in Tacoma, dividing their time between the Stratford house, which I blogged about last month, and Stadium High School.  Interestingly enough, according to an August 1998 News Tribune article (which I unfortunately cannot link to as the Tribune does not allow free access to its archives), the movie was originally set to be filmed right here in Los Angeles, but when the flick’s location scouts saw photographs of Stadium High School, they decided its look was perfect for their modern-day Shakespeare adaptation and the entire shoot was moved north.  I find it so incredibly cool that an entire production was moved over 1,000 miles all because of one single location!

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Stadium High School was used extensively throughout 10 Things I Hate About You.  The areas of the school that were featured in the flick include the front entrance . . .

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. . . and, according to one of the teachers that I spoke with while there, a few real life interiors – including the counselor’s office, the library, several classrooms, and a hallway.

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Sadly though, the school’s interior was given an extensive facelift in 2006 and no longer looks the same as it did in the movie.

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Stadium Bowl is the area of the school that was most memorably featured in 10 Things, though, and I am happy to report that it looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in June of 1998, when the movie was filmed.  The Bowl first appeared in the scene in which Michael (aka David Krumholtz) accidentally rides his dirt bike off of a cliff.

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It was later used in the scene in which Patrick Verona (aka Heath Ledger) – along with the Padua High School band – serenades Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles) with the Frankie Valli song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, which has to be one of my VERY favorite scenes in ALL of moviedom.  Unfortunately, there is a large, locked fence which now surrounds the stadium, so I was not able to venture onto the bleachers to re-enact Patrick’s serenade.  Such a bummer as that was one of the things I had most wanted to do while in Washington! 

You can watch the serenade scene by clicking above.

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And in a bit of trivia that fellow stalker David clued me into – the band Letters to Cleo was actually on the real life roof of Stadium High playing “I Want You To Want Me” during the filming of the movie’s final scene.  And here I thought that whole segment had been shot in front of a green screen!  So incredibly cool!

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According to IMDB, the school was also featured in the 1990 romantic comedy I Love You To Death.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: Stadium High School from 10 Things I Hate About You is located at 111 North E Street in Tacoma, Washington.  In the movie, Heath Ledger danced in the southern portion of Stadium Bowl’s bleachers, in the area depicted by the pink circle in the above aerial view.  Please remember that this location is a school and that it should not be stalked during operating hours when children are present.  And please remember to always get permission from the front office before setting foot on any school campus.

The Fremont Troll from “10 Things I Hate About You”

Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May was a famous Seattle-area sculpture known as the Fremont Troll, which appeared in a brief scene in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.  The Troll, which weighs two tons and was built out of wire, ferroconcrete, and rebar steel, lurks under Seattle’s Aurora Bridge and measures eighteen feet tall.  It was originally constructed in 1990 over a period of seven weeks by four local artists named Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead.  At the time, the area under the bridge had become a haven for drug dealers and other miscreants, so in 1989, with the hopes of cleaning up the space, the Fremont Art Council sponsored a national contest for artists to create a piece of work which would be displayed there permanently.  The menacing-looking Troll, which is also known as the Troll Under the Bridge and was inspired by the well-known children’s fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff, was the winning design and has since become a Seattle-area icon, so much so that it even has its very own Facebook page!

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I found out about this location from fellow stalker Owen, who somehow managed to track down every single locale which appeared in 10 Things I Hate About You.  To be honest, I wasn’t actually all that keen on stalking it, though.  It looked a bit odd online and since it had only been featured for a few brief seconds in the movie, I didn’t think it was a very blog-worthy location.  As it turns out, though, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  The mixed media sculpture, while not necessarily beautiful, is incredibly unique and I am so, so glad that my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry ended up taking me there.  If you happen to be in the area, I can’t recommend stalking it enough!  My favorite aspects of the Troll are the fact that its left eye consists of an old hubcap and its left hand is clasping an actual Volkswagen Beetle.  Not kidding!  Apparently, the car once boasted a California license plate and also housed a time capsule filled with Elvis Presley memorabilia, but both had to later be removed due to vandalization of the sculpture.

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In 10 Things I Hate About You, the Troll is the site of the scene in which Cameron James (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Bianca Stratford (aka Larisa Oleynik) discuss how to get her sister, Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles), to attend an upcoming party.

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And while the Troll also appears in a brief scene with Jennifer Aniston in the movie Love Happens, due to scheduling conflicts the actress never actually set foot in Seattle during the filming.  Instead, the rest of the cast and crew traveled there, while a body double stood in for Jennifer and kept her back to the camera during the scene.  Her stand-in is pictured in the grey hat in the screen capture above.  Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: The Fremont Troll, from 10 Things I Hate About You and Love Happens, is located on the corner of Troll Avenue North and North 36th Street, directly underneath the north end of Aurora Bridge in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

The “10 Things I Hate About You” House

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As I was going through my stalking archives today, I realized that there are countless Seattle-area locations that I stalked during my recent trip up to the Pacific Northwest that I still have yet to blog about.  I figure it’s better to be late than never, though, right?  One of the locations was the house where the Stratford family – sisters Kat (aka Julia Stiles) and Bianca (aka Larisa Oleynik) and their father, Walter (aka Larry Miller) – lived in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You.  I found this location, as usual, thanks to fellow stalker Owen who somehow managed to track down a whole slew of locales from the 1999 romantic comedy, which was billed as a modern adaptation of the William Shakespeare classic Taming of the Shrew.  Ironically enough, I didn’t remember liking the movie all that much when I first saw it in theatres a little over a decade ago, but after Owen emailed me the list of the flick’s many filming locales, I decided to give it a re-watch and ended up really enjoying it.  And my favorite part about it was, of course, the Stratford’s beautiful Victorian-style home. 

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The 10 Things I Hate About You house is actually even more gorgeous in person than it appeared in the movie, if that is at all possible.  Part of what makes the residence so magnificent is its setting.  The home is situated high up on a large, corner lot of a grassy, little knoll overlooking the clear blue waters of Puget Sound. 

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We were lucky enough to visit the residence during the one very brief moment of sunshine we experienced while in Seattle and the blue skies coupled with the blue of the water made for a striking view.  In fact, the setting was so incredibly picturesque it didn’t seem real.  I definitely felt as if I was standing right in the middle of a movie set.  So, it is not at all hard to see why filmmakers chose the property to be featured in the flick.  Ironically enough, though, 10 Things wasn’t the first time Hollywood location scouts came a’knockin’ on the home’s front door.  According to an article which appeared in the May 31, 1998 edition of Seattle-Tacoma’s local News Tribune newspaper (which I can’t link to because there is a fee to access it), William and Joan McGovern, the owners of the 10 Things house, were approached by location scouts in 1991 about their residence being used as the main home in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.  The McGoverns ultimately turned down the proposal after finding out that filmmakers wanted to cut holes in several interior walls, paint over some of their interior woodwork, and move out all of their furniture and other personal effects.  But when 10 Things producers scouted the house seven years later, in May of 1998, they told the McGoverns that they wanted to use the premises exactly as-is.  The couple agreed and filming began a few weeks later on June 9, 1998.   The shoot lasted a mere eight days before moving on to nearby Stadium High School, which I also stalked and will be blogging about in the coming weeks.  

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The 10 Things house, which was originally built in 1906 and boasts 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 4,330 square feet of living space, was used quite extensively in 10 Things I Hate About You.  The exterior appeared numerous times;

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as did the property’s real life interior along with the homeowners’ actual furniture.

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The back balcony . . .

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. . . and the front porch area were also used in the flick.

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The house is absolutely beautiful in person and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.  Even if you weren’t a fan of the movie, the residence is worth a drive-by.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The 10 Things I Hate About You house is located at 2715 North Junett Street, at the corner of 28th Street, in Tacoma, Washington.