A wooden pier lined with shingled shops runs out over a working harbor, sailboats and the Santa Ynez Mountains in the same frame.
What Stearns Wharf looks like
A straight wooden pier runs about 2,300 feet out from the beach on close ranks of timber pilings, with plank decking underfoot the whole way. A lane of parked cars splits the deck down the middle near the shore end, narrowing to an open walkway as the pier continues out over the water.
Single storey shops and restaurants line both sides in barn red wood siding with white trim and small peaked gray shingle roofs, international flags strung along one building's railing. A taller two storey restaurant building near the shore end dates from 1941, rising above the shingled row around it. Most of the pier's buildings are a 1980s rebuild, their siding and shingles newer than the dark wood pilings underneath.
A long shingled building toward the far end houses the , a marine science branch of the natural history museum with touch tanks and aquaria behind its windows. Near the tip, and the face each other across the open plank, their signs and outdoor tables the last buildings before the deck ends over open water.
A rocky breakwater and small boat marina fill just west of the pier, sailboats moored in the gap between the jetty and open water. runs along the shoreline to the west and 's palm row lines Cabrillo Boulevard to the east, with the Santa Ynez Mountains rising steeply behind the town.
Shot in Stearns Wharf
Stearns Wharf has stood in for Gotham City and appeared as itself across decades of film and television. Batman tried to get rid of a live bomb near its seaward end in the 1966 film, and Disney's My Favorite Martian used the pier as itself at its shore end in 1999. The Santa Barbara set series Psych also opens on aerial shots of the wharf as its hometown establishing view.
Batman, 1966
The seaward end of the wharf
Played the Gotham City pier, Gotham City, 1966
Batman, the 1966 film spun off from the television series, used Stearns Wharf as the Gotham City pier. Batman tries to dispose of a live bomb there, running along the open deck toward the water with nowhere safe left to throw it. The pier still has the same run of pilings and plank decking the chase used. Street View
My Favorite Martian, 1999
Disney's My Favorite Martian filmed on Stearns Wharf with the pier appearing as itself rather than doubling for anywhere else. The production does not name which part of the wharf is on screen, so the shore end near the entrance stands for it here. Street View
What Stearns Wharf can double for
Malibu Pier in Malibu, California
Malibu Pier has its own row of wood shingled shops out over the water on wooden pilings, the closest match anywhere in California for Stearns Wharf's shingled shopfronts and barn red siding. The Santa Monica Mountains rise close behind it the same way the Santa Ynez Mountains rise behind Stearns Wharf. Malibu Pier is shorter and its buildings are newer after a 1995 storm rebuild, so wide shots that include the full run of shops read closer than tight ones on individual doorways. Try searching shingled shops on a pier now.
Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, California
Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey lines a working wharf with wood framed seafood restaurants and gift shops over the water, the same build of a shop lined deck on pilings that Stearns Wharf has. Sea lions haul out along its pilings the way they sometimes do around Stearns Wharf's own pilings. Monterey's wharf is narrower and more crowded with outdoor seafood stalls and flag bunting, so a calmer stretch or an early morning call keeps the comparison from reading busier than Stearns Wharf. Try searching shop lined wharf over water now.
Capitola Wharf in Capitola, California
Capitola Wharf is a plainer municipal pier with a single restaurant at its end rather than a run of shops, so it looks like a quieter version of the same wooden deck on pilings over a beach town harbor. Beach cottages painted in bright colors are visible from the wharf and give Capitola its own look that Stearns Wharf does not share. Keep the cottages out of frame and shoot along the deck itself, where the bare pilings and plank decking match closely enough for a quiet pier scene. Try searching quiet wooden pier deck now.
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