Where does Riverdale take place? Details explored

The CW’s Riverdale might be based on the colorful Archie Comics, but its television setting is far from the lighthearted small town of the comics. Instead, the show portrays Riverdale as a shadowy town rife with crime, corruption, and hidden secrets.

Since its premiere in 2017, one of the biggest questions fans have asked is: where exactly is Riverdale supposed to be located? The answer is layered because the show creates a fictional town while also borrowing real-world locations.

Riverdale, as depicted in the series, exists on no real map. It feels like a quintessential American town, close-knit, bordered by farmland, bisected by rivers, and surrounded by dense forests. At times, dialogue and storylines hint at a Midwestern backdrop; at others, they suggest a setting closer to New York. Ultimately, the town is meant to feel like it could exist anywhere in the country.

What makes the place recognizable are the fixtures viewers see repeatedly: the neon glow of Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, the brick façade of Riverdale High, the winding waters of Sweetwater River. None of those, though, exist within U.S. borders. Every one of them was filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.

Then comes the biggest curveball: the opening aerial view of the town, the shot that defines Riverdale before a single line of dialogue is spoken, doesn’t even come from Canada. That sweeping image belongs to Harbor Springs, Michigan, a lakeside town whose main street and white church supplied the show’s perfect establishing picture.

Inside the real locations that shaped Riverdale’s fictional town

To recreate Riverdale on screen, the production stitched together locations spread across Vancouver and its neighboring towns rather than relying on a single place. The yellow house seen as Archie’s home actually stands at 2037 East 3rd Avenue in Vancouver’s Grandview-Woodland, while Betty’s residence is miles away at 111 Queens Avenue in New Westminster, despite the show portraying them as next-door neighbors.

Veronica’s luxury apartment, “The Pembrooke,” is actually The Permanent, a historic downtown Vancouver landmark that opened in 1907 as a bank and later transformed into an upscale event space.

The teens’ favorite hangout, Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, exists in real life as Rocko’s Family Diner in Mission, a roadside spot dating back to 1956. Only the pilot filmed there, though; afterward, a replica was built so that constant shooting wouldn’t disrupt the restaurant. Riverdale High, presented as one cohesive school, is really a blend.

Exteriors belong to Lord Byng Secondary, while the hallways, gym, and auditorium were pulled from Burnaby Mountain, John Oliver, and Point Grey schools. Even the football field shifted—early scenes came from Kerrisdale Park beside Point Grey, but later practices were filmed farther out in Surrey’s Bear Creek Park.

Other memorable spots were chosen carefully to fit the mood of the series. The Whyte Wyrm, the Serpent’s hangout, was filmed at Gabby’s Country Cabaret in Langley before the venue closed in 2020.

The Riverdale Town Hall scenes were shot at Fort Langley Community Hall, a historic site still in use for community events. For darker storylines, the old Riverview Mental Hospital in Coquitlam was used to depict the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and later Southside High. Sweetwater River, central to multiple storylines, came from the scenic Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Provincial Park, with additional footage shot at Alice Lake in Squamish.

Even the Blossom family estates required multiple stand-ins. The first Thornhill Mansion combined a Langley property with UBC’s Cecil Green Park House. In later seasons, Thistlehouse was filmed at another Langley estate, while Blossom Maple Farms used the same Aldergrove property that once served as Clark Kent’s farm in Smallville. Each choice helped ground the fictional town in real, accessible places, while still keeping the show's exact geography deliberately vague.

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