Two storey Italianate brick storefronts line Ballard Avenue, one block from the shop Expiration Date used as a florist.
What Ballard looks like
runs at a diagonal against the surrounding street grid, platted sixty feet wide in the 1880s and lined with two and three storey brick buildings dating from 1890 onward. Italianate cornices and arched window heads repeat down the block over storefronts under canvas awnings, with street trees along the curb.
At 22nd Avenue, a two storey stone faced building from 1901 holds the corner in a triangular footprint, the only sharp angle on an otherwise rectangular block. Northwest Market Street crosses here too, wider and straighter than the avenue, closed in by a taller stone corner building with storefronts along its ground floor.
The Lake Washington Ship Canal marks the southern edge, with Interbay on the other side. The carry boat traffic through to Puget Sound. lines the shore to the west with docked sailboats and fishing boats, and shoreline street ends nearby open onto working boatyards with hulls hauled out for repair.
Shot in Ballard
For Expiration Date in 2006, the production used a storefront on Ballard Avenue as Charlie's mother's florist shop. Sweet Mickey's Candy Shoppe occupies the same storefront today.
Expiration Date, 2006
The florist shop run by the main character's mother was played by Jax Joon, a shop at 5338 Ballard Avenue Northwest. A candy shop occupies the same storefront today. Street View
What Ballard can double for
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend's downtown went up in the same late 1880s boom as Ballard Avenue, two to four storeys of brick with stone trim over storefronts on Water Street. Paramount used the ground floor of the 1889 N.D. Hill Building downtown as the Town Tavern for An Officer and a Gentleman. Water Street opens directly onto the harbor behind the camera, so a tighter frame on the storefronts keeps out a wider bay than Ballard Avenue ever shows. Try searching brick storefronts Water Street now.
Steveston Village in Richmond, British Columbia
Moncton Street in Steveston Village is lined with storefronts from the 1900s over a harbor that still holds Canada's largest fishing fleet, the same working waterfront pairing as Ballard Avenue and the ship canal. Once Upon a Time used 3480 Moncton Street as Mr. Gold's pawnshop across its run as the fictional Storybrooke. Steveston's boats tie up directly behind the storefronts, so a wide shot pulls in more open water than Ballard Avenue's own street ever does. Try searching Moncton Street storefronts now.
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria rebuilt its downtown in brick after a fire leveled it in 1922, with flat unbroken cornices over the storefronts on Duane Street. The Goonies used the former Clatsop County Jail at 732 Duane Street, now the Oregon Film Museum, for its opening jailbreak. The unbroken cornices in Astoria read newer than Ballard Avenue's stepped Italianate fronts, so it holds a 1920s date rather than Ballard's own 1890s one. Try searching flat brick storefronts Duane Street now.
