On Saturday, February 22, fellow Twin Peaks location hunter Vinnie Guidera and I hosted a free panel at the Black Dog Arts Cafe during the Real Twin Peaks 2025 event. During this hour-long discussion, we shared tidbits, insights and fun facts about filming locations in Washington state and their Southern California counterparts.
REAL TWIN PEAKS 2025 PANEL AT THE BLACK DOG ARTS CAFE IN SNOQUALMIE, WA
The discussion panel titled “Did You Know? More Fun Facts About Filming Locations!” was held from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. on Feb. 22 at the Black Dog Arts Cafe. This panel was a follow up to a film locations panel held during the Real Twin Peaks 2024 event. This year, Vinnie had the idea of comparing several key Twin Peaks locations between Washington state and Southern California.
BLACK DOG ARTS CAFE IN SNOQUALMIE, WA
Located at 8062 Railroad Ave. SE in Snoqualmie, Black Dog Arts Cafe has hosted discussions during both the Real Twin Peaks 2023 event and in 2024, where long-time fans John Thorne, Josh Eisenstadt and Steven Miller discussed Twin Peaks film locations in California.
Founded by Cristie Coffing in 1990, new owners Maxine Loveless, Raelynn Salvage, Seth Engle took over the cafe in 2020 with a mission is to serve healthy handcrafted food in an environment that promotes and supports the arts, waging culture and peace in the community. The crafted a mostly Peruvian-influenced, vegan menu with in-house baked goods that are 100% vegan. It’s a wonderful spot to enjoy damn, fine coffee, engaging conversation and delicious food.
Before digging in too deep, I want to acknowledge the Snoqualmie Tribe who has existed on land in Snoqualmie Valley long before settlers arrived in the mid-1800s. The land throughout this region is sacred to the Snoqualmie people, so please remember that when exploring the beautiful Valley.
I also invite you to stop by the newly opened visitors center at Snoqualmie Falls to learn more about how the tribe continues to protect and respect this land.
I also thank Christy Lake and the staff of the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum. The museum and their social media accounts contain a wealth of information about Snoqualmie Valley. The museum is open six days a week from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m., excluding Wednesday. If you like this kind of history, I hope you will visit them or consider contributing to the museum so they can continue preserving stories from a place we all love.
With that said, let’s start in Washington state at the Great Northern Hotel, also known as Salish Lodge & Spa.
SALISH LODGE & SPA AS THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL
The Great Northern Hotel is one of first locations seen in the Twin Peaks Pilot. In reality, the hotel is known today at Salish Lodge & Spa.
Built in 1916, the hotel and restaurant was originally known as Snoqualmie Falls Lodge. Long before Interstate 90 was constructed, it was a popular halfway spot between Seattle and Snoqualmie Pass. The Lodge was well known for hearty breakfasts and their “Honey from Heaven” service where servers poured honey on biscuits from high above dining room tables (a tradition continued today).
By 1988, the Lodge had been remodeled as a 91-luxury room hotel and renamed as The Salish Lodge. In 1996, it was renamed again to Salish Lodge and Spa after a world-class spa was added to the property. Today, the Snoqualmie Tribe owns the hotel which was recognized in 2024 as Travel + Leisure’s #1 Best Resort in the West in their 500 list of Best Hotels in the World.
In the Pilot, we see Audrey Horne exiting the front of the lodge and get into a Mercedes. In the distance, we can see a snow-capped Mount Si.
The view no longer exists today as trees block the mountain view and the Salish extended the porte-cochère about a year ago.
You may also notice the stone bollards in the background of the shot were removed. Publicity photos show Sherilyn Fenn sitting on the stone bollards but they were updated in late 2019 to a more modern design.
In the series, only the outside of Salish Lodge is used as The Great Northern Hotel, such as this establishing shot from episode 2.005. It was taken during sunset though the episode makes it seem like it’s morning at the hotel.
There is, however, one unique interior that is connected to the show … sort of.
For the first season finale on Wednesday, May 23, 1990, local Washington state radio station KLSY-FM held a viewing party for 100 Twin Peaks fans in the basement ballroom of Salish Lodge. Garnet Cross (left), who baked the world-famous cherry pie for the Mar-T Cafe, and previous cafe owner Pat Cokewell both attended the event. Episode 1.007 was shown on three television screens while attendees enjoyed pie, doughnuts and coffee.
THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL AND BLUE PINE LODGE – KIANA LODGE IN POULSBO, WA
The Kiana Lodge, located at 14976 Sandy Hook Rd NE, in Poulsbo WA served as both the Blue Pine Lodge and the Great Northern’s interior in the Twin Peaks pilot episode. The structure was built in 1929 and first opened in 1937 as Edgewater Beach and Country Club – a vacation destination for nearby Seattleites looking to get away from the city. The property boasts 1,000-feet of waterfront and 6-acres of gardens and is now a popular wedding venue.
The iconic Northwest Coast murals inside the Kiana were painted by local artist Duane Pasco. While Pasco was of English and Irish descent, he was raised in Alaska and Seattle where he learned to make indigenous-style art, eventually teaching and helping to revive the ‘Ksan style. Twin Peaks production designer Richard Hoover and team faithfully recreated this art and expanded on it, as the Great Northern set grew when production moved to a Southern California studio.
In 2004, the Kiana was purchased by Suquamish Tribe. Some remodeling has taken place over the years, but it remains easily recognizable. The Kiana welcomes Twin Peaks visitors, but please call or email ahead as they may be booked for private events.
Some interiors included the fireplace where Ben Horne spits while discussing contracts with Leland Palmer.
The dining room where the Norwegians held their business meeting.
The pole where Audrey Horne hides behind while watching the Norwegians depart the hotel en masse.
The dining room where Sylvia Horne and her daughter Audrey are seated as a nurse gives an update about Johnny.
THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL LOADING DOCK – LANTERMAN DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER IN POMONA, CA
More than 25 years later, we get a different view of The Great Northern Hotel, a loading dock where hotel security guards James Hurley and Freddie Sykes take a break to discuss birthdays and green gloves.
Opening on May 2, 1927 in Pomona, California, the Lanterman Developmental Center (LDC) provided services and support to people with developmental disabilities 24-hours a day, seven days a week. It began as Pacific Colony where people with developmental disabilities were once considered to be “inmates” and needed to be locked away forever from society because of their “insanity.” In 1953, the facility was renamed to Pacific State Hospital. Residents were then considered patients who were sick and needed treatment to be made well.
The facility is named after California State Assemblyman Frank D. Lanterman helped pass the Lanterman Act in 1977 that gave people with developmental disabilities the “right to services and supports that enable them to live a more independent and normal life.”
This is the same loading dock at the facility. Interiors from this location were also used in other parts of Twin Peaks: The Return. For the longest time, I thought the boiler room James Hurley explores was also at this location. Vinnie discovered it backstage at a historic downtown Los Angeles theatre.
THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL BOILER ROOM – THE WILTERN IN LOS ANGELES, CA
Thanks to fellow Bookhouse Boy Bob Hoag, Vinnie found himself crossing a seemingly inaccessible filming location off the list: the boiler room of The Great Northern Hotel, located in the Wiltern Theatre at 3790 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Wiltern has an incredible history dating back to 1929 when real estate developer Henry de Roulet and the Pellissier family commissioned the construction of a theater with 12 adjoining stories of office and retail space. Construction was completed by the William Simpson Construction Company in 1931 and the facility opened on October 7th as the Warner Bros. Western Theater.
But business wasn’t exactly booming in the early 1930s. Movie attendance had fallen drastically during the Great Depression and Warner terminated their lease after just a year and a half. The theater closed briefly, then reopened as an independent cinema named after its location at the intersection of Wilshire and Western, shortened to “Wil-Tern.”
On April 7th & 8th, 2023, punk band The Ataris played a pair of huge shows in Southern California celebrating the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album “So Long, Astoria” at both the Wiltern and Anaheim’s House of Blues. Bob, who is an incredible musician and producer, would serve as The Ataris’ drum tech throughout the weekend and his band Pollen would open the show the second night.
Vinnie, whose own band has performed with The Ataris, officially had an invite and an excuse to be backstage. He made the trek down to L.A.
After watching The Ataris soundcheck, Vinnie poked around backstage looking for familiar landmarks. With the help of a gentleman named Mike, the theater’s bemused head of security, they hit the jackpot.
These are the controls to the theater’s air conditioning system. The handwritten notes seen onscreen are actual safety reminders for the Wiltern staff and were not added for filming. It’s tough to see onscreen, but the blue and white label on the right side has the service number for ACCO’s office in Glendale, CA.
As Cooper leads the group to the door in Part 17, more pipes are visible in the background. It was a rare treat to explore this location.
THE PALMER HOUSES IN EVERETT AND MONROE, WA
One of the more popular questions I receive is about the Palmer House. Much like the “two Chalfonts” at the Fat Trout Trailer Park, two houses were used – an exterior of one in Monroe, Washington and the interior and exterior of another in Everett, Washington.
After an injury ended his baseball career, Iowa-transplant Fred Schoch became an insurance agent for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1912. He found great success in the insurance industry, ranking as 55th (of 6,000) most successful salesmen in Washington in 1922. He built the Dutch Colonial home around 1925. Only three short years after moving into the home, Fred died at the age of 51. He’s buried at a local cemetery.
Marilyn Petterson, who moved into the home with her husband in 1965, lived in the house during filming. One morning in 1989, an agent for a film company knocked on her front door.
‘When I answered the door, she said: ‘Well, I’m from the movie company and working on a movie for ABC TV. They would like to use your home in the movie,” Pettersen recalled. ‘She was a little tiny young gal, and I thought, ‘yeah, and I’m the queen of England.’
Pettersen granted permission for not only the Pilot but also David Lynch’s 1992 feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Marilyn made the heart-shaped wreath seen on the front door.
“The one thing David wanted them to leave was the heart-shaped wreath on the front door,” she explained in an Daily Herald article from August 1992. “Somehow he thought it showed the real meaning behind the film … that these nice things we see on the outside aren’t always what’s inside.”
The other Palmer house exterior is found in Monroe, Washington. Constructed in 1923 by Whit and Maud Clark, this 2-story home with a basement and carriage house sits at the end of a gravel driveway. The exterior is used as establishing shots during the first two seasons of the show.
Dr. Dean and LeRoyce Harniss moved to Monroe in 1965 to open the town’s first chiropractic clinic in the Monroe Shopping Center. By 1969, they were living in the home and would continue living there until 2006.
In 2006, long-time Twin Peaks fan Travis Black visited the home as Mrs. Harniss was preparing a garage sale. She shared a story about filming.
“It was fall 1989 when the location scout approached the family and offered to pay them somewhere around $100 to film their home for an upcoming TV series. Needless to say, they were thrilled at the prospect of their house being used on a television show. The immediately agreed to let them use their home for the Palmer residence. Apparently, they intended to use this house’s interior as well as its exterior, for the show and over the course of the shoot, they even filmed a few scenes inside the house, but ultimately, they decided the interior wasn’t quite what they had envisioned for the Palmer family.”
The Harniss’ even made coffee mugs which they sold as a unique souvenir from their brush with Twin Peaks fame.
THE PALMER HOUSE DRIVEWAY IN MALIBOU LAKE MOUNTAIN CLUB
There are two Palmer house locations that were filmed in Southern California. The first is James Hurley chasing after Donna Hayward after she discovers a tender moment between Donna and him. That location is still missing. The other is where Leland Palmer is seen pulling out of the driveway to go golfing.
The driveway is actually a path in a now fenced-off park that’s part of Malibou Lake Mountain Club, a private community near Agoura Hills, California. Several scenes were shot around this area including the Timber Falls Motel, the interior of Horne’s Department Store and Leland getting pulled over by Sheriff Truman and Agent Cooper.
The street, Lake Vista Drive, may seem familiar as Leland’s joyride to the golf course starts in this driveway and approaches several other Twin Peaks locations. The archway in the distance as Leland is pulled over leads to Malibou Lake Mountain Club which provided locations for the Timber Falls Motel, Jacques Renault’s apartment, and the interior of Horne’s department store (though these last two are not visible from the street). Just past the archway on the right is the former site of the Easter Park Gazebo where Windom leaves dearly departed Rusty in his giant chess piece. More on this later.
The is Lakeview Drive which is where Leland Palmer goes for a joy ride before being pulled over.
The site of the Timber Falls Motel near the faux Palmer house.
THE HAYWARD HOUSE IN EVERETT, WA
Harry W. Stuchell relocated from Centralia to Everett, Washington in 1903 after business associates assumed ownership of the Gould mill which eventually became the Eclipse Mill Company in Everett. Stuchell constructed the Hayward House located along Grand Avenue around 1910 where he lived until 1925. Originally, the house was painted white, not green as seen in Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
John and Bertha May “Sue” Posel moved into the Stuchell home in 1973. They lived in the house with their 10-year old son Dave when scenes from the pilot episode were shot both inside and out the home on March 10-11, 1989. The family was paid “a couple hundred dollars” for the use of their home and the Twin Peaks crew offered a complimentary stay at the former West Coast Everett Pacific Coast hotel.
The Hayward house today along Grand Avenue. Most of the Posel’s antique furniture was used in filming with only a handful of items added to “set the mood.”
I was surprised to learn that the bedroom was Donna’s, not her sister Harriet’s room according to the “Northwest Passage” script.
INT. DONNA’S BEDROOM NIGHT
As Donna enters, HARRIET, Donna’s thirteen year old whiz-kid sister, lies on the bed, chewing on a pencil, writing a poem. A radio is on softly in background.
The script does contain Harriett’s question, “Which do you like better, ‘the blossom of the evening’ or the ‘full flower of the evening’? (I always preferred the “blossom of the evening”).
The Posels sold the home on January 9, 2004 to Steven and Karlene Bolton and it has switched owners a few times since then. The house has also been repainted teal-blue color.
THE HAYWARD HOUSE IN MONROVIA, CA
The 6 bedroom 2 bath Hayward house in Monrovia, California was constructed in 1907 by Thomas Bynum, part owner of Monrovia’s local paper The Messenger, with contractor Stewart & Walls.
Bynum was a descendent of an “argonaut” family who came to California in 1843. He married Miss Mary Olive McGee of Lakeport in 1883 and the couple relocated to Los Angeles. Bynum was employed by W.P. Fuller & Co. for 35 years until his retirement in 1906. The family moved to Monrovia, California and Bynum got into the real estate business. He constructed the Hayward House at a cost of $7,000 on a street known as Banana Avenue. It was later renamed Hillcrest Avenue.
Only the exterior was used as an establishing shot for the Hayward house in the first two seasons. Interiors were filmed on a set at City Studios in Van Nuys, California.
Interestingly, the street sign we see onscreen reads Lakeview Dr. but this is not the real name of the street. It’s also not the street name that appears on Donna’s postcard from James! According to the postcard, the Haywards live on Oak St. Both the interior and exterior of this house were restored in 1987, two years prior to Twin Peaks’ filming.
BIG ED’S GAS FARM IN PRESTON, WA
The original Big Ed’s Gas Farm location can be found at 8606 Preston-Fall City Rd SE in Preston, WA.
This storefront was built in 1940 by Lawrence “Butch” Freedeen and his wife Agnes who were given $800 and a month to relocate their business when the construction of Hwy 10 forced them to move. They would end up operating Butchy’s Service Station & Grocery Store out of this storefront for nearly 40 years.
Twin Peaks fans will be pleased to know that the Fredeens also built and lived in the home across the street, just like Ed and Nadine Hurley.
Since the 1980s, the former Butchy’s storefront has been home to a stone tile store, a windsock store, and a hydroponics shop. Now it is occupied by Balloon Designers.
BIG ED’S GAS FARM AT NEWCOMB’S RANCH IN CA
This stretch of highway might not look like much, but it is the second location used to represent Big Ed’s Gas Farm.
For episode 1.005, a single outdoor scene was filmed in the parking lot of the Newcomb’s Ranch roadhouse on Angeles Crest Highway in La Cañada Flintridge, California. The property was originally established as a 160 acre horse ranch by Levi and Caroline Newcomb in 1875.
The roadhouse itself was built in 1939 and over the years has served as a hotel, gas station, restaurant, general store, and brothel. Now the lot is a popular car and motorcycle meet-up spot due to its location on a winding road in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Though we don’t see much of the building, this remote location was likely chosen because there was also a cabin on the property, allowing the production crew to kill two birds with one stone by filming the search or Jacques Renault’s cabin directly across the street.
BIG ED’S GAS FARM IN NORTH BEND, WA
According to property records, the building that housed Big Ed’s Gas Farm was constructed in either 1941 or 1945. The Fleming family-owned Transmissions Plus, Inc. moved into the building around 1997. Michael Allen opened Michael’s Auto Center in the latter half of November 2017.
Today, the building is occupied by The Line, a dedicated and passionate team who wants bring mountain and gravel biking to everyone in the Pacific Northwest. The interior of this location also served as the mechanic’s garage from Twin Peaks – Part 8.
EASTER PARK AND THE GAZEBO IN CALIFORNIA
The primary location used to represent Twin Peaks’ Easter Park Gazebo was just inside the gate of the private community surrounding Malibou Lake. As mentioned before, this spot is a stone’s throw from the Timber Falls Motel along the same road where Leland gets pulled over.
We see the gazebo in both daytime and nighttime scenes, including Maddy’s deception of Dr. Jacoby and Windom’s spying on Dale and Annie. Keen-eyed viewers will also notice that the gazebo sprouts grass when Windom’s giant chess piece is present. This is likely to avoid damage to the platform as the large piece was moved in and out.
Unfortunately, the gazebo was destroyed in the Woolsey Fire of 2018, which burned nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The fire also claimed the structures that served as Harold Smith’s home and the Tremond home.
THE GAZEBO IN WASHINGTON FROM A DELETED SCENE
There is a different gazebo seen in Snoqualmie, Washington during a scene filmed on Feb. 21, 1989. Located next to the Northwest Railway Museum and Smokey’s Joes, the gazebo was only seen in a deleted scene between Sheriff Truman and Agent Dale Cooper.
There were additional establishing shots and transition shots planned for the gazebo but they were never included in the broadcasted version of the pilot.
If you want more details about Twin Peaks locations, check out this page which contains hundreds of them.
Thank you to Vinnie for his assistance with this article. I also thank the Black Dog Arts Cafe for hosting this panel discussion. And thank you to Historic Downtown Snoqualmie, North Bend Downtown Foundation and the North Bend Theatre for putting together the Real Twin Peaks 2025 event.
