Wooden boardwalks front a fishing harbour lined with net sheds, a historic cannery and boats selling their catch at the dock.
What Steveston looks like
Steveston sits where the Fraser River meets the Strait of Georgia, and its harbour holds the largest fishing fleet in Canada. More than 600 boats work out of the harbour today. They tie up at on and sell their catch straight off the deck.
runs one block inland as the village's main street, fronted by a wooden boardwalk. The storefronts behind it are one and two storey wood frame buildings with false fronts, most dating from the early 1900s. A two storey building with a gabled roof and yellow and red wood siding stands at , built in 1905 and still in use as a post office.
Weathered wood buildings on pilings line the harbour past the boardwalk, net sheds and boat works standing over the mudflats on their original posts. The , white clapboard with red trim, faces an open paved square where the dock meets Fourth Avenue.
Bayview Street runs along the harbour itself, one and two storey shopfronts facing the water across a row of parked cars. Utility poles line the sidewalk, and fishing boats sit moored at the public floats just past the road's edge.
Shot in Steveston
Once Upon a Time used Moncton Street as the main street of its fictional town, Storybrooke, Maine. The ABC series shot there across all seven seasons, from 2011 to 2018. Real, still operating storefronts along the block played specific parts on screen, including the Cannery Cafe as Granny's Diner and Steveston Coffee Company as Storybrooke Coffee.
Once Upon a Time
Steveston Museum and Post Office
Played the Storybrooke post office
The Steveston Museum and Post Office, a 1905 building on Moncton Street, played the Storybrooke post office throughout the series. It still operates as a working Canada Post outlet alongside the museum inside. Street View
Once Upon a Time
Gulf of Georgia Cannery
Played the Storybrooke cannery
The Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a National Historic Site at the western end of the boardwalk, played the Storybrooke cannery on screen. Its white clapboard buildings and dock front the open square where the series shot exterior scenes.
What Steveston can double for
Camden Harbor in Camden, Maine
Once Upon a Time used Moncton Street's boardwalk storefronts to play a coastal Maine harbor town, the fictional Storybrooke. Camden's own Main Street runs one block up from a working harbor, with a similar scale of two storey wood buildings. Camden's harbor holds sailing schooners rather than a commercial fishing fleet, so a wide shot of the boats needs a different mix of vessels to hold the illusion. Camden's storefronts also sit closer to the water's edge than Moncton Street's boardwalk does. Try searching coastal Maine harbor town now.
Gloucester's Rocky Neck peninsula backs a working fishing harbor with wood frame buildings crowding right up to the water, the same relationship Steveston's net sheds and boat works have with the Fraser River. Commercial boats tie up at both waterfronts within a few feet of the buildings' walls. Rocky Neck's buildings run two and three storeys in places, taller than Steveston's mostly one and two storey shopfronts, so a low angle keeps the roofline out of a wide shot. Gloucester's granite seawalls would also need dressing to match Steveston's wood pilings. Try searching working fishing harbor now.
Creek Street in Ketchikan, Alaska
Creek Street in Ketchikan is a wooden boardwalk on pilings over the water, the same construction Steveston's net sheds and cannery buildings use along the Fraser River. Both are former cannery era waterfronts with weathered wood buildings still standing on their original posts. Ketchikan's boardwalk backs onto steep forested mountains a few hundred metres behind the buildings, which would need to stay out of any wide or aerial shot standing in for Steveston's flat river delta. Creek Street's buildings also run narrower and taller than Moncton Street's storefronts. Try searching wooden boardwalk on pilings now.
