Boston filming locations, and what was really shot somewhere else
Boston plays itself from the outside. The Cheers bar was a set on Paramount Stage 25 in Hollywood. The Departed's State Police headquarters was built for the state's employment office. Most of Glory's 1860s Boston was Savannah. Here are thirteen real locations you can stand in front of, from Government Center over Beacon Hill to the harbor, each with its sources. Off the Bricks turns them into a walk, with a riddle at every stop.
Walk it free in the app. Shot Here
The Departed's police headquarters was built for the state's employment office.
25 Staniford Street (the Government Service Center block between Cambridge, Staniford and Merrimac Streets)
The Departed (2006)
The Departed's State Police headquarters is the Hurley Building, which the state built for its Division of Employment Security.
Boston.com · Emily Beatty, The Suffolk Journal (Suffolk University student newspaper) · Bruner/Cott & Associates (Henry Moss, Lawrence Cheng) for DCAMM
Thomas Crown came home to a house Bulfinch built for a future mayor.
85 Mount Vernon Street
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Thomas Crown's Beacon Hill house was designed by Charles Bulfinch for Harrison Gray Otis, who later became Boston's third mayor.
Fire historians say a TV private eye lived in this firehouse. MTV's Real World moved in too.
127 Mount Vernon Street, at the corner of River Street
Spenser: For Hire (1985-1988), The Real World: Boston (1997)
The Boston Fire Historical Society says the old Engine 10 firehouse on Mount Vernon Street was Spenser's home on TV, and MTV's Real World used it in 1997.
Cheers' bar was a set on Paramount Stage 25. Only the outside is Boston.
84 Beacon Street, at Brimmer Street, across from the Public Garden
Cheers (1982-1993)
Mass Moments says Cheers was shot mostly on Paramount Stage 25 in Hollywood; Beacon Street supplied the outside.
The ducklings have a bronze twin in Moscow, sent in 1991 as a gift to Soviet children.
Public Garden, just inside the gate at Charles and Beacon Streets
Make Way for Ducklings (1941 book)
In July 1991 a copy of the Public Garden's duckling sculpture went to Moscow's Novodevichy Park as a gift to Soviet children.
The Good Will Hunting bench has no plaque. In August 2014 Boston marked it anyway.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Boston.com noted in 2025 that no sign tells you which bench by the Public Garden lagoon is the one from Good Will Hunting.
Most of Glory's 1860s Boston was Savannah. This memorial is the real part.
Glory (1989)
The American Film Institute says Savannah, Georgia, stood in for most of Glory's 1860s Boston.
Colin Sullivan's penthouse in The Departed is a law library.
The Departed (2006), The Verdict (1982)
Colin Sullivan's penthouse in The Departed is the top-floor library of Suffolk University Law School, facing the Common.
Boston.com · Matt Juul, Boston Magazine · Emily Beatty, The Suffolk Journal (Suffolk University student newspaper)
In 1967 a film crew staged a robbery at a real Boston bank.
55 Congress Street, between State and Water Streets
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Spotlight (2015)
Director Norman Jewison said the Thomas Crown Affair's bank robbery was shot at a downtown branch of the National Shawmut Bank.
Liberty Square was Free City in 2019 and old New York in 2022.
Free Guy (2021), Madame Web (2024)
Boston.com reported Free Guy dressing Liberty Square as Free City in 2019, and Madame Web making it a retro New York Chinatown in 2022.
Kevin Slane, Boston.com · Kevin Slane, Boston.com · Kevin Slane, Boston.com
For nineteen years this marketplace had a copy of a TV set of a Boston bar.
Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, South Market Street side
Cheers (replica bar, 2001-2020), The Verdict (1982)
A Cheers bar built as a replica of the TV set poured at Faneuil Hall Marketplace from 2001 until August 30, 2020.
Erin Kuschner, Boston.com · Geoff Montes, National Trust for Historic Preservation (Saving Places)
In 1993 a movie blew up a ship in this harbor, and East Boston's windows broke.
Long Wharf, off Atlantic Avenue at the foot of State Street
The Departed (2006), Blown Away (1994)
In September 1993 Blown Away staged a ship explosion in Boston Harbor that the Globe said shattered East Boston windows.
Wikipedia, citing Boston Globe Aug 4 1993 p.65 (Tracy Johnson) and Sept 25 1993 p.13 (Dean K. Wong)
The city bought South Station in 1965 to knock it down, then sold what was left for less.
South Station, Atlantic Avenue at Summer Street (Dewey Square)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), The Verdict (1982)
The Boston Redevelopment Authority bought South Station in 1965 and decided to tear it down, Amtrak's station history says.