Grimm Episode 15 Portland filming locations

Grimm Episode 15: "Island of Dreams"
Summary: "When the Wesen spice shop is robbed, Nick discovers that the criminals may have been after a rare and dangerous drug."
Aired: Friday, March 30


New Locations: Featuring Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District


Opening scene:
Episode 15 opens at the Portland Art Museum. Have any of you die-hard fans out there identified the painting of the woman yet?

'La Bella' on nbc.com/grimm

Many thanks to a reader for identifying the painting! (See comments below.) The painting 'La Bella (Woman in a Blue Dress)' was part of the Titian exhibit, which ran at the Portland Art Museum for several months this winter. This OregonLive article provides some good background.

Scene of the Crime:
You will recognize this episode's scene of the crime as the same Spice Shop from Episode 10 ("Organ Grinder"). These were filmed at the historic Rich Hotel building at 205 Couch.

Home Sweet Home:

We get a little glimpse inside 3 of the characters' homes this week (mainly interior shots).
1. Adalind's Kitchen - where she hexes up a batch of cookies for Hank.

Cherry Blossoms NOW

Grab a cup of coffee, gear up, and follow the trail up the waterfront to the cherry blossom extravaganza currently blooming.  I know it's raining, but now is the time; the trees are blooming.


Officially, the Japanese American Historical Plaza, 100 ornamental cherry trees were planted here amid  a group of sculptures, all dedicated to the story of the Japanese people in the Pacific Northwest.

The cherry trees are located on the west side of the Willamette, between the Burnside and Steele Bridges.

Tomorrow the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center will be celebrating "Sakura Sunday" at the plaza.

The Osprey are Back

Much has happened on the South Waterfront osprey front!

Hoffman crew helps move the platform pole.

1. The osprey platform has been relocated to its new location.

From Carol Otis:
"With the permission of Williams Dame Development Corporation and the work of Hoffman Construction Company, the osprey platform pole was moved Dec 1, from its 2011 site on Portland City property, to the adjacent land parcel privately owned by Williams Dame Development Corporation."

Moving a 40 foot, 8 ton steel platform and pole is no small task!

2. The osprey now have their own Facebook page: www.facebook.com/OspreySociety

They also have a new live osprey cam, available via this UStream channel: www.ustream.tv/channel/osprey-society

3. And last but not least, the osprey have returned from their annual Mexican vacation! I received a note today: "First ospreys seen around SWF today March 25 @ 9:30 am!" Check out the live osprey cam for to see the latest.

For more information about the South Waterfront osprey:

• Videos of the entire season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXVCfh6l2-I&list=FLr5T-LMDIXoAqAMjTEgARbg&feature=mh_lolz
• Zidell's website about the 5 years of the osprey in the SWF: http://www.zidell.com/Osprey/osprey_01.html
• USGS fact sheet about Oregon osprey, co-authored by Dr. Robert Grove, who lectured about the osprey at SWF in October 2011: http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-153-02.pdf

Grimm's Portland Police Station filming location

The "Portland Police Station" in Grimm is prominentaly featured in many episodes. 

The exterior of the US Custom House was used in filming. The building is located on the North Park blocks, it covers "a full block bounded by NW Broadway, Everett and Davis Streets, and Eighth Avenue".  It was built in 1898–1901 and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. 

US Customs House on 8th Ave

US Customs House on 8th Ave

The property was auctioned off in March 2012 for $4.74M to Eastern Real Estate LLC, and is currently a co-working space.

View US Custom House on googlemaps

I'm compiling a listing of other Grimm Portland filming locations on the US National Historic Register posted here: http://www.mysouthwaterfront.com/2024/03/national-register-of-historic-places.html

The Dale Frank Jr. Barge at Zidell 2011

Photo mysouthwaterfront.com

Harley Marine orders barges at Zidell and U.S. Barge

"The first barge, to be named DALE FRANK JR., is being built at Zidell Marine in Portland, Oregon. It is a double hull petroleum barge measuring 289 ft x 78 ft x 24 ft with a carrying capacity of 52,000 barrels. The fourth in its class, it is a sister barge to the WEBB MOFFETT. and is expected to be completed and delivered to Harley Marine Services in October 2011."

If you want to delve into some ship-building history, here is a full list dating back to 1961, of ships built by Zidell in Portland: 

Zidell Ship-building history from '66 to the present:

"Zidell Marine started life in 1946 when Emery Zidell bought the former Commercial Iron Works yard just south of Portland's Ross Island Bridge and renamed it Zidell Ship Dismantling.   It quickly became the largest shipbreaker in the U.S., scrapping 336 oceangoing ships in the course of the next 30 years.  In 1960, as the scrapping business began to slow, Zidell started building barges on the same site."

The House of Monroe

Grimm.

Everyone LOVES Monroe. I'd say he has most-favored character status. Plays the cello, fixes old watches, knows his trivia, delightful.

I stopped by his house this Saturday morning to say hello and share a cup of tea (though failed to snap a photo). He wasn't home.

Photo courtesy @Hawgquest - thanks!

I have received several inquiries about where Monroe's (fictional) house is located. Also, thanks to Grimm fans and readers, we now have a location, tucked away at 418 SW Hamilton St, near Hamilton City Park.

This is actually pretty close to OHSU, due west from the South Waterfront, although up the hill off Barbur Blvd.

Monroe gets a lot of wonderful press and fan love, both here in Portland and beyond. It sounds like he is just as thrilled to be a part of Grimm, and living in quirky cool Portland, Oregon. Oregonian writer, Kristi Turnquist, recently published a nice long interview with Silas Weir Mitchell.

More of my Grimm-related postings: http://www.mysouthwaterfront.com/p/film-tv.html 
Find out more about Monroe at NBC.com

Grimm Episode 14 Portland filming locations

Grimm Episode 14: "Plumed Serpent"
Summary: "Nick finds himself in the heated world of Portland fire dancing where he meets a woman who might just be too hot to handle."

Hey, it's a Baldwin!
Our very own Daniel Baldwin, Lake Oswego resident, recently embroiled in legal troubles with his wife, brother of 30 Rock-Alec, guest-stars in this episode of Grimm.

I expected some sort of Chinatown, Year of the Dragon references in this episode, but I guess my instincts were off. Our fire-breathing dragons reside in big NW industrial warehouses.

Schoolhouse Electric
The opening scene highlights the exterior of Schoolhouse Electric, located at 3181 NW Nicolai St. Filming took place in early January. Now the home of Steelhouse Electric Factory, it originally housed Pacific Hardware and Steel Company in 1910. There is a great article from Neighborhood Notes a couple of years ago about the renovation of this historic building.

From the Schoolhouse Facebook page:

facebook.com/schoolhouseelectric

"Schoolhouse Electric Co - We think they will only show the first two floors of the building plus our basement where all the creepy things happen in the episode. It's suppose to be an abandoned warehouse so they made the second floor windows look boarded up, brought in barrel, pallets, garbage, leafs, etc for the loading dock and parking lot. They covered all of our Schoolhouse signs in the parking lot with "Truman Corp" signs so we are pretty sure no Schoolhouse branding will we exposed. Amazing how organized and quickly they made the transformation happen."

Throughout this episode and its dragon escapades, we see interior shots of this old Portland warehouse. You can catch more photos from the filming here at NBC.com.


Train Tracks (with snow - which day was this?)
In the opening scenes, some vague activity flashes by on one of those old-fashioned, hand-powered mine carts. Later in the show, Juliette is kidnapped by the Fire-Breathing Dragon Dancer, who sweeps her away on what Monroe calls a "Fairmont Section Car". Thanks Monroe, your knowledge of the arcane is just another reason everyone LOVES you.

Photo by M.O. Stevens

I initially thought this had been filmed on the Lake Oswego trolley line, but it was actually the Zoo Train, officially the Washington Park and Zoo Railway, AKA "the hippest little railway in Portland". I'm curious where they found the vintage Fairmonts.

Oregon Zoo posted a photo of their train tunnel-turned "dragon's lair" on Facebook:

Grimm Episode 13 Portland filming locations

Titus Welliver (from 'Lost') guest stars

Grimm Episode 13: "Three Coins in a Fuchsbau"

This week: "The search for a murder suspect leads to powerful rare coins and answers to Nick's past."

For all of you location trackers, this was a rare episode containing:
-- No bridge shots
-- No forest scenes
-- No fabulous locations
If you have followed the show, and my previous location posts, you know we can usually expect at least one of the above.  In fact, it seems like this episode's locations were primarily re-used from previous episodes (Episodes 10 & 11). Location scout on vacation this week? Bad weather got you down? Or maybe they are trying to bring more focus onto the characters and back stories, without the distraction (oh wonderful distraction) of attractive Oregon scenery? But we love the Oregon scenery!

Opener
Three bad guys camp out in an old neighborhood house; they rob a jewelry store...and then are murdered. The house used in filming is right next door to the old 'Everybody's Garden Center' on SE Clinton.

Bertram Estate Jewelry
A storefront in Old Town is the scene of the crime. Three bad guys break in and an old shopkeeper is killed in his vault, but not before he can swallow 3 mysterious old coins.

Photo during filming in October

This was filmed at the same location which was used as the spice merchant shop in Episode 10 - @ 205 NW Couch in the historic Rich Building.


(You can glimpse the pink and blue neon sign in the background, as well as a shot of Spyce gentlemen's club on the corner.)