Matheson Massachusetts: Where was Locke & Key filmed? The House Filming Location
Posted by Ra Moon
Set in the fictional town of Matheson, Massachusetts, Locke and Key was filmed in Toronto and in the colorful town of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia.
However, the Keyhouse, the ancestral home of the Locke family, filled with intriguing doors and magic keys, doesn't exist in the real world.
However, the Keyhouse, the ancestral home of the Locke family, filled with intriguing doors and magic keys, doesn't exist in the real world.
The spectacular manor house is basically a mix of digital effects and practical sets built for the series.
The show has obtained quite good reviews, praising its style-crossing elements of the haunted-house subgenre with high school kids and a tone closer to the monsters of Stranger Things than to the scary The Haunting of Hill House series.
This is our filming locations guide to all the places in Canada where Locke and Key was filmed - you'll find the new season 2 updates below in the report.
The Locke and Key house: The Keyhouse
The Keyhouse is the key location of Locke and Key. We are sorry to disappoint you, but the producers couldn't find the perfect house to play the Locke's mansion.
The facade has a lot of CGI, although executive producer Carlton Cuse told CBR.com that they built the exterior of the house in Toronto.
The interior was set up on a large sound stage at Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto.
According to The Hamilton Spectator, the set of the Keyhouse was built on a property on Concession 11 East near Freelton in Flamborough, a district in the city of Hamilton, Ontario.
Only two floors of the front facade were assembled here on this estate.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
On the other hand, if you travel to Lunenburg, the town where the series was partially filmed, you will find many beautiful Victorian mansions that inspired the Keyhouse.
It is possible to book a room in the Bluenose Lodge, a restored historic Inn constructed circa 1863.
This structure has some architectural elements and colors similar to the Keyhouse featured in the Netflix series.
Image courtesy of Google Maps
The Matheson town in Massachusetts
The picturesque Lunenburg port town in Nova Scotia doubles as Matheson, MA, the city where Locke and Key is set.
Founded in 1753 by German, Swiss and British settlers, the super-cute and colorful old town of Lunenburg was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
The Nova Scotia website states that up to 70% of the original colonial buildings built between the 18th and 19th centuries are still standing.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Town map
Several exterior scenes in Matheson were filmed in Lunenburg, including the ice cream parlor located in the central Montague Street.
This spot is actually a real, homemade ice cream shop called Sweet Treasures Confectionery.
You can also spend the night in the Salt Shaker Deli and Inn, featured in the first episode, located across the street.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
Where is Locke and Key filmed?
The Locke & Key high school, the Matheson Academy, was filmed in the Humber College Lakeshore Campus, more exactly in the G Building Centre for Entrepreneurship.
As the name of the campus suggests, the college is located on the shores of Lake Ontario, west of Toronto, and is part of the prestigious Humber Institute of Technology also known as Humber College.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The Matheson Academy is the same location featured in the mid-'80s blockbuster hit Police Academy.
Also, have you heard about the ghost stories related to this place? The neo-Gothic buildings of the Lakeshore Campus are considered one of Toronto's most haunted sites.
The grounds of the complex were home to the Mimico Branch Asylum for the critically mentally ill. Apparently, several spectral apparitions have been associated with the old underground tunnels across campus, designed to transport supplies to each of the hospital wards via a mini railway.
The Matheson Academy Hall is the library of the Wycliffe College in Toronto, an evangelical Anglican theological school.
This elegant building is situated on the central University of Toronto St. George campus.
The school, looking a bit like Harry Potter's Hogwarts (or like its original inspiration, Cambridge and Oxford colleges), was founded in 1877.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The big lounge with a DJ playing, where Dodge arrives in the second episode, "Trapper / Keeper", was filmed inside the Rotunda of the Royal Ontario Museum, Queen's Park entrance.
This is the Neo-Romanesque style building in Toronto with a modernist side that looks like a massive crystal rock embedded in the facade.
The hall features one of the museum’s most magnificent architectural treasures, the great mosaic dome.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Location
The McClellan Psychiatric Hospital from episode four, "The Keepers of the Keys", was filmed in the Sisters of St. Joseph's motherhouse on Dundas' Northcliffe Road near Hamilton.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The staircase leading to the subterranean Black Door in the Drowning Caves on the ocean was filmed at Ovens Natural Park in Feltzen South, also located in Nova Scotia.
The area features awesome trails along the cliffs including these stairs taking to the sea caves.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Filming Location
The white church from episode nine, "Echoes", is Lunenburg's Zion Lutheran Church at 65 Fox Street in Lunenburg.
Lunenburg was also doubling as the Hanover Island, Maine, in season 4 of The Sinner series.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The New Season 2 Locations
After the establishing shots filmed in Lunenburg, Kinsey meets Gabe in lobster costume on Bridge Street in Port Stanley, a small village located on the north shore of Lake Erie.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The premiere screening of the zero-budget movie, The Splattering, takes place at The Westdale movie theater, doubling for the fictional Strand Theater.
This independent film and cultural space is located at 1014 King Street in Hamilton.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
However, the interior was filmed at Hamilton's Playhouse Cinema at 177 Sherman Avenue N.
Built in 1914 and re-opened in 2019, this splendid Beaux-Arts architecture cinema is the oldest movie theater surviving in the city.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
Also, some scenes from the second season were filmed in Downtown Cambridge, Ontario, including the scene pictured from episode three, "Small World".
The production only used stock footage for the establishing shots featured in episode four, "Forget Me Not", of Bath, the gorgeous small city located near Bristol in England.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The (short) walk by the river in Bath was also filmed in Cambridge, at Mill Race Park.
However, most of Bath was filmed at the market square in Kingston, the town where Mayor of Kingstown was filmed.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The cliff side of the house sitting precariously on the edge of a precipice is a CGI image, but the front facade is a real building.
Can you help to improve this article about the filming locations of Locke and Key? To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
Locke and Key is a fantastic comic book series, first published in 2008. It was created by writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez and finally turned into a series for Netflix.There have been several failed attempts to bring the dark fantastical world of the graphic novel to vivid life (three different pilots were filmed at various studios and there is a projected movie trilogy on the line).
But it seems that Netflix has got it right this time: Locke & Key has been fairly well-received by the public and critics alike.
The cast is led by Jackson Robert Scott, Emilia Jones (who recently starred in CODA), and Connor Jessup, taking on the leading roles of the three Locke siblings Bode, Kinsey, and Tyler, respectively. Darby Stanchfield plays their mother, Nina Locke.
Laysla De Oliveira stars as the echo demon, Dodge (the Well Lady), Sherri Saum as Ellie Whedon, Griffin Gluck as Gabe, and Petrice Jones as Scot Cavendish.
Laysla De Oliveira stars as the echo demon, Dodge (the Well Lady), Sherri Saum as Ellie Whedon, Griffin Gluck as Gabe, and Petrice Jones as Scot Cavendish.
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Ra Moon
Atlas of Wonders is looking for wonderful Filming Locations all around the world. We are constantly updating and improving our posts with new details and images. Follow us here:
No mention that Humber College Lakeshore Campus (Matheson Academy) in Etobicoke (not Toronto) was originally a legit insane asylum, and is itself HELLA haunted? Google it. It's messed up.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, we added this interesting story to the article!
DeleteThe visual effects in this show are quite remarkable. What's also remarkable is the utter stupidity of the characters. There are sooo many instances where the plot would fall apart if not for an incredibly stupid act by one or more of the characters. Usually one or even two such mishaps could be over looked, but it seems this is a major plot element to keep things going. Just when everyone appears to have a leg up on the antagonist, someone does something absolutely and ridiculously stupid to give away their advantage in order to keep the story going. So much so, that the show at times becomes overly frustrating. I will continue to watch for the good things, but wish the writers would smarten up the script. The actors are very good in being able to do such stupid omissions of thought with a straight face. Its a fun ride if you can use the Head Key to get out or your own head.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Or well lady said, lol!
DeleteYep, certain parts of the script are off-key :D
DeleteAbsolutely agree!
DeleteDon't agree at all.
DeleteCertainly my biggest frustration. Bodie turns the lights out in the dollhouse by turning the key just in time and turning when the door opens. How did he leave the key in the lock? Why would he not pull it out when he removed his hand? Why let it go? It's one of the ridiculously stupid moments in the series. I often have to quit watching and come back a week later. It completely distracts you from all the good in the series. I get so angry that I can't continue watching for a while. I don't know how any literate adult can create these bad scenes and how a ton of people can stand around agreeing that this is a good idea to film. A child could come up with a better plot point to set up future events. If this were the only one... It might be forgivable, but alas, there are many. The keys are the most important thing in all these people's lives, but they seem to lose them and misplace them on a regular basis. Leaving them around like stray cookies.
DeleteI go to Humber college,a I remember from when they filmed it. Where they shot the outside school scenes there is a house that looks almost exactly like key house. That's where I thought they filmed it.. thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteWhere? Is there a street name that I can use to look on Google maps? I am kind of obsessed with this show.
DeleteHello Spencer! are you talking about the Cumberland House? It doesn't look too much like the Keyhouse, but it has some similar architectural features. Map: https://goo.gl/maps/EGLqfKjoYbuieNaW7
DeleteWhy have they not gone back to talk to Great grandpa yet? Hellllllloooo (I’m on episode 6)
ReplyDeleteThe outside of the McClellan Psychiatric Hospital is filmed at the Sisters of St. Joseph on 574 Northcliffe Ave in Hamilton, Ontario.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, thanks a lot!
DeleteDoes anyone know when they filmed in Lunenberg? I was there in May 2019 and went to that ice cream shop and loved the place. I instantly recognized it when I watched the show. Do we know why it closed?!? I was so looking forward to going back in September of this year :(
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know the ice cream shop .. Sweet Treasures Confectionery is still open. They aren’t permanently closed, they just relocated.. still on the same street . And are open for business again!
ReplyDeleteYou got the part of Bath on Forget me not; wrong. It was filmed in the market square in Kingston ON. I saw the set and all the film crew and equipment. They also cast for extras from Kingston.
ReplyDeleteWhy wasn't the house on the cliff mentioned? Is that a real place?
Very minor point: We saw the stairs leading to the sea caves in Episode I:4 when Bode was flying around in spirit form. Thanks for the great article!
ReplyDeleteNahant, MA is featured briefly in the first episode as they are driving to the Keyhouse. The car drives along a long isthmus toward a town, that being Nahant Road, that connects Nahant to the mainland. This is notable in that Lovecraft, MA, which is where the L&K graphic novel takes place, is heavily based on Nahant.
ReplyDeleteI loved both seasons of this show. I want to go to Lunenberg! The scenery is awesome! Love everything about it!
ReplyDeleteI love searching for locations on Google Maps, especially this one. You can see the facade of the house, the fountain, and the steps off to the right of KeyHouse quite easily on the map, although it's not where the google maps marker is. Look a bit further up the road. It's on the grounds of Baycairn Training Centre. x
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lucy, you are right!
ReplyDeleteI see that the location marker has been moved to the correct spot now. Awesome!
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