As Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony shows, movies still have a strong power to transport us to places like mid-19th Century America in 12 Years a Slave, late 1970s New York and New Jersey in American Hustle, outer space in Gravity, and a near-future Los Angeles in Her. As impressive as those movies are in creating the past, the (literally) out-of-this-world, and the future, there are real places in movies that are still memorable, even if they don’t require painstaking historical research or a computer to produce.

In honor of the end of the film awards season, I have assembled a list, in order from north to south, of my favorite West Coast urban places and small towns in the movies:

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Hover over the picture to see the text.

References

1.  Stadium High School, Tacoma, Washington:

• Image Attribution: Joe Mabel, Wikimedia Commons
• Stadium High School Page
• HistoryLink.org Page

2.  Astoria-Megler Bridge (U.S. Highway 101), Oregon-Washington:

• Image Attribution: Alan Davey, Flickr
• Wikipedia Page

3.  Mendocino, California:

• Image Attribution: David McSpadden, Wikimedia Commons
• OpenRoad.TV Page

4.  Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California:

• Image Attribution: sanfranman59, Wikimedia Commons
• Great Buildings Page
• Marin County Free Library Page
• Casting Architecture Page

5.  The Streets of San Francisco:

• Image Attribution: Vince Smith, Flickr
• How Stuff Works Page
• Bullitt Locations in San Francisco Page

6.  Mission San Juan Bautista, San Juan Bautista, California:

• Image Attribution: Robert A. Estremo, Wikimedia Commons
• Reel SF Page
  

7.  The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles:

• Image Attribution: Out.of.Focus, Flickr
• DTLA Rising with Brigham Yen Page
• Westin Bonaventure History Page

8.  Urban Light, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles:

• Image Attribution: Kent Wang, Wikimedia Commons
• “‘Urban Light’ Lights Up Screen,” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2011

9.  The Canals of Venice, Los Angeles:

• Image Attribution: Roger Howard, Wikimedia Commons
• Historical Society of Southern California Page

10.  Balboa Park, San Diego:

• Image Attribution: Chris Lee, Flickr
• Journal of San Diego History Page