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Q.
What is it supposed to be on the show?
A. The deserted main street of a small town.
Q.
Where is it supposed to be on the show?
A. Saint Alice, Louisiana
Q.
When did we see it on the show?
A.
In Episode 2, Andy, Sam, Sookie and Alcide drive to the nearby town of Saint Alice (pronounced "Uh-leese"), searching for their friends & neighbors, who have been kidnapped by roving Hep-vampires.
When
they get to Saint Alice, they find the town completely deserted, with desperate
graffiti scrawled on the buildings that line its Main Street.
Alcide stops and stares at a boarded-up hardware store - with "Looted, Everything Gone!" spray painted on its windows.
Andy looks at a church, across the front of which has been written the last words of the Hail Mary: "Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."
Sam
climbs atop a pile of tires to look down at the message "FEMA Help Us!"
written in large letters in the middle of the street. And there's
an SOS sign sprayed on the roof of another building.
Later, they discover a huge pit filled with the dead bodies of Alice residents slaughtered by the vampires.
Q.
What is it actually, in real life?
A.
An actual street, but nowhere near Louisiana.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
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The
location: Saint Alice, Louisiana
 
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A.
This scene was actually filmed in Pomona, California (which is the home of the annual Los Angeles County Fair). The city lies at the far east edge of Los Angeles County, about 30 miles east of downtown L.A.
They shot the deserted downtown scene on the 500 block of W. 2nd Street (between Parcels Street & Park Avenue), in Pomona.
Originally part of Pomona's shopping/downtown area, the block appears to have
fallen on hard times, but has been spruced up a bit lately, as a home
for art galleries & antique stores. But many of the storefronts remain empty.
- The looted hardware store is at 590-3 2nd Street.
- The boarded-up store with graffiti that reads "I am sleeping inside w/100 lbs of silver and 2 UV guns." is at
528 2nd Street.
- The FEMA sign was scrawled on 2nd Street in front of M&M Electric, at 545 2nd Street.
- The SOS sign was written on the roof of 501 2nd Street.
-
They cheated a bit when they came to the church they see with the Hail Mary graffiti. They made it look
as if the church was also on 2nd Street. In fact, it's is actually about a mile northeast of the downtown street:
the Unity Church of Truth, at 524 E. Pasadena St, in Pomona.
- And finally, that huge pit full of bodies was located in an empty lot on the north side of the 400 block
of 2nd Street, the block east of the 500 block where they filmed the other scenes. The lot takes up most
of the north side of that block. It is behind (east of) a building located at the northeast corner of 2nd & Park.
The brick wall that we see behind Sookie is the east-facing wall of 455 W. 2nd Street, and in the shot of
Sookie finding the pit, the camera is looking back west (up 2nd), towards Park. (The empty lot is bounded
by 1st & 2nd Streets, Gordon & Park.)
( I'm not sure if they actually dug a pit there, of if they just used CGI to create one. )
Here is a Google StreetView of the main street:
<"center> And here is a Google StreetView of the graffiti-covered church:
Here is an aerial photo showing all of the locations marked.
Here are some great photos from True Blood fan Jay B.:
Q.
How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. I
tracked
down this street from the first Season 7 trailer, before the show even
aired.
The trailer included a glimpse of this scene in "Saint
Alice". I looked closely, and noticed that there was an old, red
sign reading "M&M Electric" on one building. So I
Googled that and found it at 545 W. 2nd Street, Pomona; Google
StreetView showed me the rest of the street, allowing me to identify
the remaining locations.
The pit took the most time to find, a
block over, and hidden away behind the stores.
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