A run of one and two story brick shopfronts on Figueroa Street and York Boulevard, backed by Craftsman houses on the hills above the Arroyo Seco.
What Highland Park looks like
Highland Park sits in the hills above the Arroyo Seco, on the northeast edge of Los Angeles. and carry a run of one and two storey brick shopfronts, striped fabric awnings over the doors and roll down security gates pulled across some of them. The Metro A Line runs along the strip on an open air platform, overhead wire strung above the tracks. Above both streets, curving hillside roads carry wood and shingle Craftsman bungalows behind low fences, with tall palms breaking the roofline.
The Highland Theatre's marquee still reads Highland over Figueroa Street, the ticket booth gated shut and the building dark since it closed for good. Up on York Boulevard, the former police station is two storeys of tan brick with arched windows and POLICE STATION NO. 11 cut into the cornice, now home to the Los Angeles Police Museum. A fiberglass statue stands over the Future Studio Gallery a few doors down from the theater, and keeps its stockroom stacked floor to ceiling with bottled soda.
El Mio Drive climbs a hilltop above York Boulevard, past a turreted Queen Anne Victorian with a wraparound porch. Below, Arroyo Glen Street holds a hand built stone chapel with a domed bell tower and arched cloister openings, cactus growing in its front yard.
Shot in Highland Park
Reservoir Dogs used several corners of Highland Park in 1992. The robbery's warehouse hideout was a former mortuary at Avenue 59 and Figueroa Street, with Mr. Orange's apartment upstairs in the same building. The mortuary has since been demolished, and the site is a parking lot today. Four of the neighborhood's landmark buildings account for most of what has been verifiably filmed here since.
Spider Baby, 1964
Spider Baby was shot here in 1964, at a hilltop Queen Anne Victorian on El Mio Drive with a corner turret and a wraparound porch. The house was built in 1887 and has stayed in private hands since, largely unchanged from the outside.
Silent Scream, 1980
Silent Scream opened with about ten minutes of exterior shots of the same house, sixteen years after Spider Baby used it. Both films frame the turret and the wraparound porch from the road below the hill.
Dexter, season 6, 2011
Played Professor Gellar and Travis Marshall's hideout
The Showtime series Dexter used the Abbey San Encino's exterior as Professor Gellar and Travis Marshall's hideout, including the door where Travis dumps bags of mannequins. The production built the interior on a soundstage rather than shooting inside the real chapel.
Insidious: Chapter 2, 2013
Insidious: Chapter 2 used the same house in 2013, filmed both inside and out as one of the film's main locations. That was the third time in about fifty years a horror film had used the same Victorian.
Gangster Squad, 2013
Played the fictional Burbank police station jail, Burbank, California, 1949
Gangster Squad used the former Highland Park Police Station in 2013 as the jail behind a fictional Burbank precinct, filming inside the two storey brick building on York Boulevard. Built in the 1920s with arched windows and POLICE STATION NO. 11 cut into the cornice, it now houses the Los Angeles Police Museum.
The Last Word, 2017
The Highland Theatre
Played the fictional town of Bristol
The Last Word shot a first date scene across the street from the Highland Theatre's marquee in 2017, using the block to double for a fictional town called Bristol. The theater has since closed for good, its marquee still reading Highland over the sidewalk.
Wonder Man, episode "Matinee", 2026
The Disney+ series Wonder Man used the theater for its "Matinee" episode after it had already closed, with two characters watching a film together in auditorium number three. The shoot used the marquee and the lobby rather than a running screen, since the building had shut its doors more than a year earlier.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, 2026
Played a New Beverly Cinema, 1977
Production on The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth began at the theater in July 2025, more than a year after it closed. The shoot used the exterior and lobby to stand in for a New Beverly Cinema circa 1977, and closed the block of Figueroa Street between Avenues 55 and 57 while storefronts were redressed. The Highland Park Masonic Temple is visible in the background of some shots.
Old Towne Orange mixes the same brick and stucco storefronts around Plaza Park with Craftsman and Bungalow houses on the surrounding blocks. Nothing about the district points to one identifiable city, and That Thing You Do shot its soda fountain and record store scenes there. The Plaza's traffic circle and its Spanish Colonial Revival buildings are distinctive in a wide shot, so tighter frames on a single storefront block hold the match better than a shot of the circle itself. Try searching brick storefronts craftsman bungalows now.
Mission Street in South Pasadena, California
Mission Street runs past Renaissance Revival brick storefronts, the Graham Block among them, a few blocks from Craftsman and Victorian houses of the same era. The corridor has stood in for small town Middle America in Halloween and other films. Mission Street runs wider and flatter than Figueroa Street, with more street trees along the curb, so a tight frame on one storefront holds the match better than a full block. Try searching small town street storefronts now.
Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia, California
Old Town Monrovia's Myrtle Avenue is a similar run of vintage brick commercial buildings along a former Route 66 alignment, close in scale to Figueroa Street's storefront blocks. The Aztec Hotel's Mayan Revival front is a well known landmark that gives the street away in a wide shot, so keep it out of frame or well behind camera. Try searching vintage brick commercial street now.
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