Wilmington, NC: Visiting Capeside and Tree Hill

Hello everyone,

I have been anxious to share my pictures from our visit to Wilmington from the past two days! I got to see so many cool landmarks from my favorite TV show ever, One Tree Hill, as well as a new favorite show of mine Dawson's Creek! I decided to make a comparison side by side of most of the landmarks, one with my picture and one from a clip of the TV show. I will also include a small map of downtown Wilmington that will give you a good idea of how close these places are to each other as well as the addresses for these locations. Let the fun begin :)

Dawson's Creek

First and foremost I will begin with the pier from the opening credits, seen in this video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef9qfidX1Kg

My hair was blowing EVERYWHERE and it was super windy but this is the pier! It was so cool to see that big icon from the show. 

703 S Lumina Ave, Wrightsville Beach, NC

Second iconic scene from Dawson's Creek would be Capeside High School. 

This is the outside of the school, which is actually Alderman Hall at the University of North Carolina- Wilmington. 

This is a shot taken facing away from the front of the school. I thought it was cool that the cannon is still there and the trees are the exact same. 

601 South College Road • Wilmington, NC 28403

Next up is the Federal Building used in both Dawson's Creek and One Tree HIll. On Dawson's Creek you see Dawson sitting on the steps of the building during the opening credits on some seasons but it is close up so you can't really tell. In the episode The Dance on season two of Dawson's creek, Andie and Jack wait for Pacey to pick them up for the dance and you briefly see the fountain and the steps. On One Tree Hill in season seven  the episode What's In the Ground Belongs to You, Quinn takes Jamie on a treasure hunt and one stop is the fountain!

60 North Water Street Wilmington, NC

Fourth is the wall Pacey gives Joey, which unfortunately is now covered up by a saloon. Sounds lame enough to me. I am secretly hoping the saloon bombs so they can knock down their stuff and show the wall again where they should!

28 South Front Street, Wilmington, NC

That's all for Dawson's Creek comparisons, but here are some important places that I couldn't find a good enough still shot of from the actual show. There are obviously so many more places but this is what I had time to see!

This is Leery's Fresh Fish from Dawson's Creek. Established in the third season of the show, but now it is a hispanic restaurant called Mix To. It still looks the same inside though!

5 South Water St, Wilmington, NC

The information board is across Water St. from Leery's Fresh Fish and the old Icehouse restaurant is just a dirt lot now :( but it is down Water Street if you are heading South. 

Also there was Hell's Kitchen from the last two seasons of Dawson's Creek. I hear if you go inside Joey's boat is on the wall in the back but we didn't have time to stop in.

One Tree Hill

Of course there are so many things to see from OTH but I tried to stick to the basics ;). Here are some of my favorite spots! 

First up was Karen's Cafe and Tree Hill Cafe. Located across Grace Street from each other, these two rival cafe's were important landmarks for the show. Tree Hill Cafe is still a coffee shop but Karen's Cafe isn't anything anymore. Someone should buy it and recreate Karen's Cafe or Clothes Over Bros which was what Karen's Cafe became in later seasons. 

Grace and Front Street Intersection, Wilmington, NC

The next place would be one of the most iconic places in the entire show, Lucas and Karen's house. This house still looks the exact same except there is a swing on the porch. 

1829 Wrightsville Ave, Wilmington, NC

Peyton's house was next. It was maybe a two minute drive from Lucas' and what was cool about this house that I learned on our trip was that people actually filmed many of the scenes inside the actual house. There was an awesome article about it in GQ called "Peyton's Place" here is the link: 

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201110/one-tree-house-filming-john-jeremiah-sullivan

1901 Chestnut Street, Wilmington NC

Right next door to Peyton's on the left is Haley's house when she lived with her parents in the first season. It looks the same except for the yard work but I recognized it as soon as I saw the red door!

1811 Chestnut Street, Wilmington NC

Next up, Quinn's photography gallery Focus. This was not as recognizable as most of the other places but it was cool to see for sure!

33 S Front Street, Wilmington, NC


Last but not least for comparisons would be Brooke's house. This place looks exactly the same, and as I had heard from other OTH bloggers, the door is still red! So cool.

2314 Tattersalls Drive, Wilmington, NC

Next would be the riverfront park which had a lot of important Naley moments. First is the bridge which is seen in a lot of different shots on the show and goes over the cape fear river. The second is the famous "Don't Say I Never Gave You Anything" table where Nathan gives Haley a cracker jack box that has the infamous bracelet in it.

Front St and Water St Intersection

Another awesome place I would have never found without help from our tour guide would be the restaurant where Nathan got thrown through the window before the NBA draft. 

23 N Front Street, Wilmington NC

Last but not least is not a Tree Hill or Capeside location but it is from A Walk to Remember. The alleyway where Jamie tells Landon that she is sick. 

I couldn't really find a good still shot from the movie. But that is the scene you can see it in!

Those were the places I decided to visit. If you have time, you should definitely take the Hollywood Location Walk. Our guide tailored the walk to our favorite TV shows and movies and we learned a lot about the town and reasons why certain locations are no longer there and such. I hope everyone enjoys these pictures as much as I did. It is cool that so many locations are still there to visit and there are so many more I wanted to see but we didn't have time for! I will do a collective post for the rest of our stops but I figured this one deserved sometime special since it was the place I was looking forward to most! 

Thanks for reading,

Olivia :)