YA filming locations

The text immediately below, describing the filming locations of Young Americans (YA), was copied in January 2011 from a fansite,http://www.subvertigo.com/yalocations.html.  The "Subvertigo.com" website, which once contained several webpages of information about Young Americans, now appears to contain only this single page about YA.  It offers information not available elsewhere.

Further down the page, I have added both information about the location of YA's sets for the interior of Rawely Boys' Academcy (not covered by "subvertigo"), and notes (in redtypeface) to the "subvertigo" material the provide additional information. 

Young Americans Filming Locations in Maryland

(copied January 2011 from http://www.subvertigo.com/yalocations.html)

New Rawley

Havre de Grace

Washington and Congress Streets

Friendly's was a place called "Eclections" which was due to close Sept. 2001

The Gas Station was right across the street

"Crazy Eights Hair Salon", 130 N. Washington St. -- where Will's mom worked

Strawberry Lane is close by...

New Rawley Baseball Field

Stencil Field, at the corner of Revolution and Old Bay roads in Havre de Grace. It's the far corner field - the first two are little league fields.

House where they had party in Our Town? (ask jen, she found it)

Christ E & R Church on the corner of Beason and Decatur in Baltimore.

The house they used for Bella's house in Cinderbella is just next door. (1)

The Docks at New Rawley Lake

Loch Raven Fishing Center (2)

12101 Dulaney Valley Road

Baltimore, MD

410/887-7692

Drive-In from "Kiss and Tell"

Bengies Drive-In Theater

3417 Eastern Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21220

410/687-5627

The Docks from "Gone" 

Baltimore Rowing Club  (3)

3301 Waterview Ave.

Baltimore, MD

Rawley Academy for Boys

Private residence at 120 Woodbrook Lane in Towson, MD  (4)

Rawley Academy for Girls

The Castle at Maryvale  (5)

11300 Falls Road

Brooklandville, MD 21093

410/252-3528

Restaurant from "Gone"

Pazza Luna  (6)

1401 E. Clement St.

Baltimore, MD 21230

410/727-1212

Cemetery in "Will Bella Scout Her Mom?"

Haven't been able to locate...

Cabin in "WBSHM?"

Pavilion #66 in Avalon-Glen Artney Area in Patapsco Valley State Park  (7)

(End of material copied from http://www.subvertigo.com/yalocations.html)

Tide Point.  David Zurawik, in his article, "Pretty as a Picture," in the May 2, 2000, edition of The Baltimore Sun, describes his recent visit to the "production offices and sound stages" of Young Americans, located "a huge warehouse-turned-sound-stage down in Locust Point where Hull Street runs into the harbor." He notes that it's on Baltimore's inner harbor, accessible by water taxi.  That warehouse is Tide Point, at 1010 Hull Street, Baltimore.  Sets built in the interior of the warehouse were used in YA for all shots of the interior of Rawley Boys' and for Finn's classroom (save those in episode 1 that are taken from the unaired pilot episode, shot in Georgia).

The Pazza Luna restaurant, the parsonage of the Christ Evangelical and Reformed Church used for the site of the townie party in episode 2, and the house used for the interior shots of Bella's house in episode 4, also are located in the Locust Point neighborhood of Baltimore; the marina shown in episode 6 is just across the Patapsco River from the Locust Point neighborhood.  That neighborhood is best known as the site of Fort McHenry, preserved by the U.S. National Park Service, located at the tip of Locust Point.  British naval bombardment of that fort, during the War of 1812, inspired Frances Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"I think they made soap here," Steven Antin, interviewed at Tide Point, is cited as saying by César G. Soriano in his July 2000 USA Today article, "WB's Teens Turn Preppie." Antin was right.  The warehouse complex at Tide Point was built by Proctor and Gamble in the 1920s to manufacture laundry detergents, including the "Tide" brand.  Hence the name.  According to Architecture News Plus, Tide Point was renovated, in a two-phase project designed by W. Architecture and Landscape Architecture; the first phase of renovation ended in the fall of 2000, the second in 2004.  A 31 December 2008 City of Baltimore Annual Development Activity and Disclosure Report on the Tide Point renovation states: "all buildings in the development were gut-renovated beginning in 2000," and reports that "gut renovation" was completed in 2002. The development company in charge of the renovation was was Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBER), which acquired Tide Point in 1998 to that end.  Tide Point has since been used as a corporate office park; the entire complex was acquired by Under Armour in 2011 and now serves at that corporation's headquarters, although much space in the complex is leased to other tenants.

Online photos:

Downtown Baltimore viewed from Tide Point's boardwalk

TidePoint viewed from the inner harbor at night, both photos after renovation.

The set for Finn's classroom in the warehouse at Tide Point, summer 2000.

Interior of the warehouse at Tide Point, summer 2000, one of several YA promotional photos shot inside the old warehouse.

Comment:  The massive, ornate, costly sets used in Young Americans for the interior of Rawley Boys' were built in a building slated to undergo "gut renovation" in "phase 2" of the Tide Point renovation project, starting in the fall of 2000.  The unrenovated quality of the warehouse area used as YA production headquarters in the pictures of the YA cast shot in that location confirms that.  To move and those sets and store or rebuild them elsewhere would have been neither easy nor cheap.  This, along with considerations internal to the drama, seems to suggest that only eight episodes of Young Americans were ever seriously envisioned, that the drama as we have it is a complete, finished work - notwithstanding Antin's public claims to have hoped for a "seven year run."

(1) Christ E & R Church on the corner of Beason and Decatur in Baltimore is one block from Tide Point in the Locust Point neighborhood of Baltimore.  As of summer 2106, no houses remotely like that used for Sean's party in episode 2 of YA stood on the same block as that church or anywhere near it. The whole block, except for the church, was filled by a parking lot for employees of Under Armour, then the owner and principal occupant of the Tide Point Office Park. Whether houses formerly on that site have been torn down since 2000 is unknown.

(2) Loch Raven Reservoir, used in YA for Lake Rawley, lies about 30 kilometers north of Tide Point, and 10 km north-north-east of the Tyrconnell estate.  It was made in 1881 by damming the Big Gunpowder Falls River.

Online photos:

The Loch Raven Fishing Center, used in YA as the boathouse for Rawley Academy.

View of Loch Raven from the Fishing Center in early spring, from just to the left of the dock.   The penninsula immediately across the lake is the "town picnic area" to which Will Krudski refers in episode 1 of YA and from which Bella Banks paddles forth by canoe at the start of episode 3.

Loch Raven shore to the right of the Fishing Center in early spring.  This view serves as the background for Finn's swimming practice for the crew team in episode 1 of YA, the symbolic baptism following Finn's catechism about listening to the lake.

(3) Middle Branch Park, on the Patapsco River in Baltimore, is the site of both the Baltimore Rowing Club and the Middle Branch Marina.  The marina shown in episode 6 of YA is the Middle Branch Marina, next door to rather than identical to the Baltimore Rowing Club.  The arched bridge shown in the background during the marina scenes is theHanover Street Bridge, built in 1916.

(4) The Tyrconnell Estate (120 Woodbrook Lane, Towson, Maryland), was used as the set only for the exterior of Rawley Boys', while sets at Tide Point were used for the interior rooms of Rawley Boys'.  Nevertheless, Tyrconnell's 27-acre grounds are used extensively in YA. Near the end of episode 1 of YA, Antin has Will Krudski describe Tyrconnell as "the perfect lawns, the perfect building." In 2000, Tyrconnell was owned by Karen and Paul Winicki, who had bought it in December 19995 for $2.11 million and who lived there with their two daughters, Jessica (about 15 years old in 2000) and Noelle (about 9 in 2000) until March 2014, when they put Tyrconnell up for sale.  Mr. Winicki founded Radcliffe Jewellers in Baltimore; he also dealt in and appraised up-market antiques, as did Steve Antin's parents.  The Winickis often hosted charity functions at Tyrconnell.

Tyrconnell Mansion is listed among the buildings registered by the Maryland Historic Trust, which describes it as follows:

Property Name: Tyrconnell

Date Listed: 3/14/1985

Inventory No.: BA-1750

Location: 120 Woodbrook Lane, Govans, Baltimore County

Description: Tyrconnell is a 2 ½-story stone house set on 27 acres which contain several significant gardens. The house was designed in 1919, a Colonial Revival style, by the Baltimore firm of Mottu and White. The H-shaped building sits in a raised terrace; it faces south with projecting wings on the west (drawing room) and east (dining room and kitchen). It measures 147’ x 57’. The Colonial Revival style is evident in the overall form and details: door surround, Gothic arched dormers, tripartite window under an arched Lunette in the second floor, and the classical detailing and paneling throughout the principal rooms on the interior. In the basement are the foundations of the earlier O’Donnell family house on the site. Several four-panel doors on the second floor appear to be 19th century and to have been re-used from the earlier house. Also on the property are a frame garage (c. 1933) converted from the 1919 garage/stables and frame barn which contribute to the property. The interior decorative detailing is Colonial Revival in styling and massing. Tyrconnell sits on a 27-acre tract landscaped in the 1920s by the landscape architect Arthur Folsom Paul. The landscaping includes the entrance court, the west vista to Lake Roland, a terrace garden and vista north modeled on the Italian Renaissance garden at Villa d’Este, and a service area. Also on the property is a frame gardeners’ house, a grouping of four barns and a shed, a garage, and two stone spring houses, one circular, one rectangular. The spring houses and the garage date from the 19th century and the other buildings from about 1930. The property has a unilinear service road.

Significance: As an estate designed and developed in 1919 as the residence of a prominent businessman, Tyrconnell is significant primarily for association with patterns of suburban development in the Baltimore area in the first third of the 20th century. Consisting of a mansion in a well landscaped setting, Tyrconnell is typical of the upper-class residential estates built near the northwestern boundary, a region defined generally by York Road on the east and Reisterstown Road on the west. The region is commonly referred to as the "golden triangle." These properties are formally planned estates that consist of a mansion usually of Georgian or Colonial Revival style, the accepted style of the region, and positioned on a hill or another point of prominence with well defined entrance, terrace, garden, open lawn spaces, and service areas. The entrance and terrace areas are generally treated as part of the architectural design of the house providing a transition from the house to the setting. Gardens are usually formal and located in enclosed spaces visible from the house with evergreens and architectural features (balustrades, columns, statuary, etc.) as prominent points. Another important characteristic is the expanse of free open space such as the view from the west terrace at Tyrconnell to Lake Roland and the vista north from the west wing over the garden that is focused on a fountain nestled on the side of an evergreen covered hill. The houses and gardens were planned in tandem as one unit. Tyrconnell, with 27 acres, is the largest, and one of the best preserved examples of this type of estate in the Baltimore area. The estate achieves additional significance as the product of a collaboration between masters in architecture and landscape architecture. The house was designed by Mottu and White, a prominent Baltimore firm. The landscaping is the product of Arthur Folsom Paul, a Philadelphia landscape architect of national repute.

Abutting the Tyrconnell Estate to its west is Lake Roland.  Tyrconnell's westward vista, looking downhill toward Lake Roland over a broad open lawn and a gap in the trees that renders the lake visible from the mansion, is shown repeatedly in YA, including the scene in episode 3 in which Finn looks out the window of his classroom to watch Kate and Hamilton Fleming playing with their golden retrievers.  However, not Lake Roland but rather Loch Raven, about ten kilometers to the north-north-east of Tyrconnell, was used as Lake Rawley for all other purposes in YA.

Online photos:

Rear view of Tyrconnell in summer, on the website of the Maryland Historic Trust.  The same view is seen in episode 7 of YA, when Caroline Busse reads to Will Krudski the poem that he wrote about her, but gave to Ryder, in episode 7 of YA.  The foreground, seen from a different angle, is where Will helps Caroline interpret Pablo Naruda's Love Sonnet 93 earlier in episode 7.

Rear lawn of Tyrconnell, from a Library of Congress collection of photos of the estate, taken in the 1930s by Frances Benjamin Johnston.  This is where 'Jake' Pratt asks Hamilton Fleming to help her find her missing motorbike in episode 2 of YA, and where Fleming tells Pratt that she has 'won' Lena in episode 3.  In episode 4, Will Krudski runs up the long path in the background to ask Caroline Busse to accompany him to the summer cotillion.

Front view of Tyrconnell in winter, shot in winter 2009 by a cousin of the residents at that time.

Search on Google Maps for the address of Tyrconnell and choose the satellite-photo option and you can see the same aerial view of "Rawley Academy for Boys" show during the opening narrator's comment at the start of YA's first episode..

Comment: Antin's access to the stunningly beautiful grounds of Tyrconnell for filming Young Americans, like his access to the Tide Point warehouse in which the sets for the interior of Rawley Boys' were built, seems likely not to have been sustainable.  To use the grounds of the home of a wealthy, socially active family with two school-aged daughters as a filming site for one summer is one thing: the Winickis may have summered elsewhere in 2000.  However, that Antin would have been allowed to use it year-round, for a "seven year run" of 23-episode seasons, seems implausible. This, too, along with considerations internal to the drama, seems to suggest that only eight episodes of Young Americans were ever seriously envisioned, that the drama as we have it is a complete, finished work - notwithstanding Antin's public claims to have hoped for a "seven year run."

(5) The building used for the exterior of Rawley Girls' in YA is "The Castle" at Maryvale Preparatory School, a Catholic girls' school in Brooklandville, Maryland, a northern suburb of Baltimore. Maryvale is run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the same order that runsNotre Dame de Namur Academy, a girl's school in Villanova, Pennsylvania, a "main line" suburb of Philadelphia, where Katherine Moennig (the actress who plays 'Jake' Pratt) attended high school.

Online photos:

'The Castle' at Maryvale, front side, in summer.  This is where 'Jake' Pratt meets and parts from her mother in episode 5 of YA.

Exteriorstairway at the rear of 'The Castle.'  'Jake' Pratt runs up and down this stairway in YA episode 5 between lunch with her mother and Hamilton Fleming's motorboat ride to and from the first heat of the regatta.

(6) The restaurant at which 'Jake' Pratt and Hamilton Fleming dine in episode 6 of YA is Pazza Luna ("Crazy Moon"), an Italian restaurant in the Locust Point neighborhood of Baltimore, near Tide Point.  Only the interior is shown in Young Americans.  A harlequin with a mess of pasta is the trademark of that restaurant; the 1921 Leonetto Cappiello poster,Pates Baroni, that serves as the backdrop for the restaurant scenes, seems likely to have been part of the restaurant's decor, not something added by the makers of YA.  Pazza Luna changed ownership twice after 2000 before closing forever in 2012.  In 2013, the building was occupied by a restaurant called "Sweet Caroline's"; that resaurant was still operating in the summer of 2016. The interior architecture remained recognizably the same as in 2000.

Online photos:

The bar at Pazza Luna.  On the ground floor.  Seen in the background before 'Jake' and Hamilton kiss, then go upstairs to dine.

(7) As of December 2016, the cabin at which Bella Banks, Will Krudski, 'Jake' Pratt, Hamilton Fleming, Scout Calhoun and Sean McGrail overnighted in episode 8 (the last episode) of YA is called "shelter 66" in the Glen Artney area of Patapso Valley State Park.  According to the park's webpage for its Avalon/Glen Artney/Organge Grove areas, the shelter can accommodate a maximum of 70 guests.  Advance reservations are required.

Ichabod Grubb

First posted November 2011

Last updated December 2016