Where Was Widow’s Bay Filmed? The real locations behind the fictional island
Posted by Ra Moon
Set on a small, isolated fictional island off the coast of New England, Widow’s Bay was filmed entirely in Massachusetts.
Matthew Rhys stars as the island’s ambitious mayor, Tom Loftis, trying to turn the town into a tourist destination despite the locals’ belief that the island is cursed.
Here is our spoiler-free guide to all the filming locations of Widow’s Bay. You will find the locations in order of first appearance.
Matthew Rhys stars as the island’s ambitious mayor, Tom Loftis, trying to turn the town into a tourist destination despite the locals’ belief that the island is cursed.
Here is our spoiler-free guide to all the filming locations of Widow’s Bay. You will find the locations in order of first appearance.
Widow’s Bay locations
In one of the first scenes, Loftis’ teenage son, Evan, is smoking with his friends on a car.
This scene takes place at White Wharf in Rockport’s old harbor. Rockport is a small seaside town of about 7,000 residents on the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula, around 40 miles northeast of Boston.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Google Maps
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Google Maps
Berlin's historic Town Hall, dating from 1870, served as Widow's Bay Town Hall.
This historic civic building is a Greek Revival structure that now operates as a community event venue.
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Google Maps
The local harbor was filmed at Lane’s Cove, a picturesque landing harbor protected by a granite storm wall on the eastern Cape Ann side of Gloucester.
This location was also featured in the Oscar-winning movie CODA, although only the Harbor Master’s Office is a real building; the others, including the lobster shack, were film props.
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Google Maps
The Barnabus Tavern interior is Vincent’s, a long-standing rustic bar and music venue in Worcester, known for its live music and famous meatball sandwich.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
The Salty Whale exterior was a former art gallery called Dark Star Philosophia on Bearskin Neck, a narrow peninsula in Rockport.
Originally a fishing village, Bearskin Neck has evolved into a lively area filled with small shops, seafood restaurants, and tourists.
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Google Maps
The Widow’s Bay Inn house
Widow’s Bay Inn exterior is the Lorenzo Maynard's mansion, a Second Empire-style house in Maynard, about 25 miles northwest of Boston.
Built in 1873, it was a symbol of the town’s industrial elite in the late 19th century.
Today, the house survives as divided apartment units.
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Google Maps
Widow’s Bay church is Martha-Mary Chapel, a small white-clapboard chapel built in 1940 by Henry Ford on the grounds of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
The exterior of Widow’s Bay local museum, which appears for the first time in the third episode, "The Inaugural Swim," is a private single-family home in the town of Harvard.
Built in 1800 in a rural residential area in Worcester County, this four-bedroom house sits on a large 5.8-acre lot.
The old structure was saved from demolition and refurbished in 1980.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
The shots with tourists flooding the town’s streets were also filmed on Bearskin Neck in Rockport.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
The beach was filmed at Half Moon Beach in Gloucester, a small, crescent‑shaped beach located inside Stage Fort Park.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
The lighthouse is the Eastern Point Lighthouse, which is located across Gloucester Harbor on the eastern tip of Cape Ann, and is visible from Half Moon Beach with binoculars.
The current cylindrical brick tower, completed in 1890, is an active U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse, although it's closed to the public.
Image courtesy of Apple TV and Henry Zbyszynski - Map
The Driftwood Diner in the scene with Marissa (played by Elizabeth Alderfer of AP Bio) is Johnson’s Restaurant and Dairy Bar, a family-run American eatery in Groton.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
Patricia (played by Kate O'Flynn) lives in a house in Ayer, a small town in north-central Massachusetts, featured in the fourth episode, "Beach Reads."
Built in 1820, this three-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family home has an estimated value of around half a million dollars.
Image courtesy of Apple TV - Map
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Ra Moon
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