Two story brick storefronts face a park with a gazebo and a fountain.
What Marietta Square looks like
Marietta Square is a park ringed on four sides by two storey brick storefronts, the same roofline continuing unbroken all the way around. None of the storefronts carry a modern glass front, and most date from the late 1800s to the 1920s.
sits at the center, with a white gazebo and a tiered fountain. A stage stands on the far side, and a bronze statue of Alexander Stephens Clay stands among the trees near the fountain. A small scale steam locomotive sits on a short track near the park's north end, a red trackside booth beside it.
Cherokee Street runs north from the square, storefronts on both sides and a church steeple down the block. On the square itself, striped awnings and hand painted signs mark the storefronts, with sidewalk tables set out under them along the brick sidewalks.
On the north side, runs past a row of storefronts to the . Built in 1935 as an art deco movie palace, its facade shows an inscription across the top with a marquee below.
The , rebuilt in 1898, stands off the square's northwest corner and now houses the city's welcome center. An 1845 building nearby, the Kennesaw House, now holds the Marietta Museum of History. About half a mile south, the holds rows of markers under marble monuments, one for each Confederate state.
Shot in Marietta Square
Disney shot exterior scenes for Let It Shine near the Glover Park fountain and rented the Strand Theatre for the film's final musical number. A scene in Tyson's Run put North Park Square out of traffic for the day.
Let It Shine, 2012
The Strand Theatre
Played The venue for the film's closing musical number
The theatre's interior was rented as a set, its parking lot used as the production's base camp for a week of filming. Its own facade, a pale stone front with an inscription carved above the entrance, is unchanged since the shoot.
Tyson's Run, 2022
North Park Square
The street on the square's north side was closed to traffic for a scene with several vehicles and actor Major Dodson, who plays Tyson, the film's autistic teenage lead. Storefronts run along both sides of the block, with the Strand Theatre's marquee visible down the street.
What Marietta Square can double for
El Paso in El Paso, Texas
For Dumb and Dumber To, the production renamed the square's own storefronts as El Paso businesses. The pizza shop and the jeweler were among them. The two storey brick fronts and street corners hold up at close range, though the pine covered hills behind the roofline are not what El Paso looks like. Texas signage and hardware would need to go back up, and wide shots should stay low enough to leave the hills out of frame. Try searching Texas storefronts now.
Woodstock in Woodstock, Illinois
Woodstock Square's brick paved streets square off a central park with two gazebos, ringed by two storey storefronts in much the same layout. Its own anchor buildings, the Old McHenry County Courthouse and the Opera House, stand taller and more ornamented than anything around this square. A wide shot including either would give the difference away. Keep street level frames on the storefront rows rather than the courthouse or the opera house, and swap out any Southern style ironwork or awning colors for a plainer Midwestern look. Try searching brick storefronts central park now.
