Rosewood - Filming Locations

KEY LOCATIONS:

1. Rosewood's Home.

'Dr. Beaumont Rosewood, Jr.'
(or 'Rosie' for short)
played by Morris Chestnut.

We don't see Rosewood's home often on the show, at least not the exterior.

They've only shown it a few times, and then only in brief glimpses,
such as the scene below, when Villa was caught leaving Rosie's
house by her jealous boyfriend.

But I still found it.

This apartment house is at 291 Bay Shore Ave,
in the Naples area of Long Beach, CA.

It's at the corner of Bay Shore Avenue and E. Vista Street, which is the
very same spot where they filmed the "barrel girls accident" for "Dexter".

[Warning: This is a private home. Do not trespass on their property,
knock on their door, or do anything else to disturb the residents.]

Here is a Google StreetView of the apartment house:

2. Villa's Houseboat.

'Detective Annalise Villa',
played by Jaina Lee Ortiz

Technically, this is actually her mother's houseboat, but Villa spends a
lot of time there, and since they never seem to ever show her own house
(if she has one), this is more or less her de facto home on the show.

When I first saw this place on the show, I thought it was a normal house.
It was only after taking a closer look that I realized it was a houseboat,
(sort of the ultimate version of a mobile home), docked at a marina.

In this case, they docked the houseboat at
Island Yacht Anchorage, at 1500 Anchorage Road,
in that funky Wilmington Marina , which is right on the
border between Wilmington and west Long Beach.

This obscure marina location will be familiar to "Dexter" fans,
since the same place was used as Dexter's marina (where
he docked his Slice of Life) in the second season.

And here's a photo of that same houseboat,
shot by Suzi (Thanks, Suzi!)

[Warning: This is a private home. Do not trespass on their property,
knock on their door, or do anything else to disturb the residents.]

Here is a Google StreetView of the spot in the marina:

4. His Mother's House.

'Donna Rosewood',
played by Lorraine Toussaint

For some reason, we see this big Craftsman house belonging to
Rosewood's mother far more often than we see Rosewood's own place.

You'll find this house at 521 N. Lemon Street, in Anaheim, CA.
at the southwest corner of N. Lemon St. and W, Alberta St.

I was able to track it down because the house number is visible on the front of the house
in the shot above. Once I found out from press reports that they were filming in Anaheim,
it was simply a matter of Googling "521, Craftsman, Anaheim" which turned up, of all
things, a book filled with old photos of Early Anaheim, which included a listing
and an old photo of the house at 521 N. Lemon.

It turns out that the house was built back in 1922
by the son of the Anaheim postmaster.

As you can see from the vintage photo below,
it hasn't changed much In the last century:

Image courtesy of Stephen J. Faessel

This Craftsman house is less than two miles north of Disneyland.

[Warning: This is a private home. Do not trespass on their property,
knock on their door, or do anything else to disturb the residents.]

Here is a Google StreetView of the house:

3. The East Miami Police Department.

In real life, this is the Huntington Beach Civic Center,
at 2000 Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA.
The HB Civic Center does include their police station.

I tracked down this location after seeing unusual sculptures of
red pelicans as the cast walked across the police station plaza:

So I Googled for images of red pelican sculptures, and, eventually,
among the results was this image of those very same pelican statues:

.which the caption identified as being at the Huntington Beach Civic Center.

It was then a simple matter of using StreetView to confirm it.

(At the time, I expected the police station to turn out to be somewhere in LA County,
so I was somewhat shocked when it turned out to be in Orange County.)

Here is a Google StreetView of the civic center:

5. Rosewood's "Magic City Lab".

This is where Rosewood works, performing autopsies as a private pathologist.

Mostly, we see the interior of the lab, but occasionally they show us an
exterior shot of Rosewood driving his yellow GTO into the lab's lot.

It wasn't easy tracking down this one. I spent a very long time looking
for this building in Los Angeles and Orange County, to no avail.

It was only after I came up empty their that I decided they might
have shot this in Miami, and switched my search to Florida.

Just to the left of Rosie's car in the photo above, you'll see a white mailbox,
and above that Mailbox is what looks like a street number.

When I blew that up and sharpened it, I thought I could make out the numbers 2043.

So, I went looking for 2043's in Miami by Googling "2043, Miami Florida",
and the first page of results included a real estate listing with a photo of the building

This red building actually is in Miami, and any time you see it on the show,
you're looking at old footage shot during the pilot episode's trip to Miami.
(It's usually the exact same shot, used over and over.)

You will find the "lab" at 2043 North Miami Ave, in Miami, Florida.

In real-life, the sign over the drive-in entrance reads "diana lowenstein fine art".
And as you can probably guess from that name, it is an art gallery, not a pathology lab

As for the name of the lab itself, "Magic City" is a nickname for the city
of Miami Beach, popularized through a 2012 TV series of the same name.

Here is a Google StreetView of the building:

6. The Off-Limits bar.

We mostly see the interior of this bar, a favorite after-hours hang of Villa's.
But every now and then we glimpse the exterior.

This is a real bar, and its real name is "Off Limits". They used the actual
interior of the bar as well, at least in the beginning.

You'll find it at 819 S. Euclid Street, in Anaheim, CA,
about a mile northwest of Disneyland.

Here is a Google StreetView of the bar:

Coming soon: More Rosewood locations!

But in the meanwhile, since I spent eight years tracking down Dexter
filming locations, I thought you might enjoy this short article
about the things these two shows have in common:

A few similarities between "Rosewood" and "Dexter".

On the surface, the new series “Rosewood” wouldn't seem to have much in common with the show “Dexter”.

After all, the title character in “Dexter” was a vigilante serial killer, while the title character in “Rosewood” is a law-abiding doctor.

However, dig a little deeper and a few similarities began to emerge.

Such as this shot from the first episode:

Yes, they really went there. Dexter's trademark hypo in the neck.

Oh, wait, I almost forgot. There was also this one:

Yes, that's a severed human foot, found on the beach in Miami.

Now where have we seen that before? Let's see...

Oh yes, that's where. A severed human foot on a beach in Miami.

But to be fair, those are exceptions to the rule. Generally, the show doesn't copy "Dexter".

However, it does have a few similarities that might not be obvious, at first, including:

First and foremost, both shows are supposed to be set in Miami, Florida, but are actually filmed here in Southern California, with both shows employing Long Beach as the fake Miami Beach,

Like “Dexter”, they filmed only the very first episode of the show in the real Miami, and then filmed all the remaining episodes in Southern California, occasionally dropping-in fake establishing shots of Miami that they picked up during their pilot shoot.

So although you will occasionally see a shot of Rosewood in his yellow convertible breezing down a Miami causeway, that's just one of their stock inserts that they filmed early on. All the real filming is being done in SoCal.

Dead bodies are abundant in both series, and on both shows the victims are being dissected, while lying on a table, by the title character. But for very different reasons: In “Dexter”, it's because the title character dismembers his victims' bodies before disposing of them in the ocean. In “Rosewood”, it's because the title character is a private pathologist who autopsies the victims' bodies to determine how they died and who killed them.

Both characters' jobs have them working closely with the Miami police in a technical role, yet moonlighting in their off-time as amateur sleuths out to catch bad guys. Dexter was a police blood spatter expert, while Rosewood is an independent coroner doing freelance work for the cops. (Of course, Rosewood doesn't kill the bad guys when he catches him, unlike a certain Mr. Morgan.)

Both characters also have a close relationship with their sisters. Dexter & Deb Morgan work together on the Miami Metro police force, while Beaumont & Pippy Rosewood work together at his pathology lab.

But the most telling similarity may be that both shows share the same locations manager: Kris Bunting, who most likely landed the “Rosewood” job, at least to some extent, based on his proven ability to make L.A. look like Miami on TV.

So not surprisingly, you'll see a fair share of “Dexter” locations popping up on “Rosewood”, from the beaches of Belmont Shore to the neighborhoods around Naples, to that obscure marina in Wilmington.

But one thing Kris has done differently on this show is to expand its locations into a part of Southern California that isn't often used by Hollywood: Orange County.

In the past, even shows that were supposedly set in Orange County, such as “The O.C.”, were actually filmed in the Los Angeles area.

Why? Because of what is known as the “30-Mile Zone”. Think of it as a circle with a 30-mile radius, and the center in Hollywood. If filmmakers go beyond that “30-Mile Zone”, they are penalized by having to pay their crew higher wages and travel expenses. As a result, filmmakers shooting in Southern California rarely leave that 30-mile zone.

So, I was surprised to suddenly start finding “Rosewood” locations popping up in places like Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and even Newport Beach (all in Orange County), starting with the classic Craftsman home that Rosewood's mother owns on the show, as well as the Police Department where much of the show's action takes place.

From my own standpoint, while I enjoy seeing the expanded locations base, it makes it more difficult for me to track down the locations. (It's hard enough trying to identify every property in L.A. County, without having to identify every property in Orange County as well.)

But it's a still a refreshing change, a new challenge, and another thing that sets the show apart from “Dexter”, which (with one or two exceptions) hewed strictly to the 30-mile limit.

You can find out about every single location on
the show "Dexter" by clicking here.

The Rosewood screenshots from the show & all related characters & elements are trademarks of
Fox TV. All other photos & text are Copyright © 1999-2024-Gary Wayne
and may not be used without written permission.

Return to the Seeing-Stars website

Looking for something in particular? Search the Seeing-Stars website!