Streaming services have sure been game-changers when it comes to the way content is consumed! With most platforms dropping an entire season of episodes simultaneously, even current shows are now able to be binge-watched! One major holdout? Apple TV+, which has gone the traditional network route by releasing one new episode of its various original programming per week. The lag is a bit of a bummer for the leagues of fans of its stellar series like “For All Mankind,” “Truth Be Told,” “The Morning Show” and “Home Before Dark.” The second season of the latter, a drama centered around nine-year-old investigative journalist Hilde Lisko (Brooklyn Prince, who is a revelation in the role!), just debuted on June 11 and will continue airing through August 13.
Inspired by the life of a real juvenile reporter, the first season saw Hilde and her family relocating from Brooklyn to the fictional town of Erie Harbor, Washington, after the Liske family patriarch, Matt (Jim Sturgess), loses his job at a Big Apple paper. Upon arriving in the small hamlet, Hilde begins looking into the decades-old cold case of a missing local boy who just happened to be her father’s childhood best friend. Season two sees the young journalist attempting to get to the bottom of an environmental mystery in which wildlife is dying off in droves.
Though “Home Before Dark” is set in the Evergreen State, filming takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia and its environs, largely in the township of Steveston. According to Variety, when it came time to choose a backdrop for the charming series, the showrunners hoped to find “a small town with a lake” that evoked “both a feeling of remoteness and visual intrigue.” When such a location proved elusive, production designer Nelson Coates stepped in and pointed the group toward Steveston, a historic fishing village situated a little over ten miles outside of Vancouver in the city of Richmond. As he explained, “It had fisheries and everyone got excited when I explained that this was the perfect setting where kids could be out on their bikes and you’d feel safe, but it still had this sense of mystery.”
A few area spots utilized include the Steveston Harbour Authority at 12740 Trites Rd., which masks as the Holmes County Sheriff’s Department. The since shuttered Cacao 70 Dip Shop at 3866 Bayview St. portrays the utterly charming ice cream shop run by Meena Roy (Sandy Sidhu). The Buck & Ear Bar & Grill at 12111 3rd Ave. is where Matt confronts Lt. Frank Briggs, Jr. (Michael Weston) in episode three, “Sting like a Bee.” And Erie Harbor School is really Lord Byng Secondary School at 3939 W. 16th Ave. in Vancouver, an oft-filmed site known for its appearances in “Pretty Little Liars,” “Riverdale,” “Fear” and “The Boy Who Could Fly.”
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Image Credit: City of Richmond “Home Before Dark’s” most recognizable location, though, is Matt’s childhood home, which he and his family move into in episode one, titled “Magic Hour.” In real life, the picturesque two-story Victorian is a historic museum known as London Heritage Farm located just about a mile south of Steveston Harbor at 65111 Dyke Rd.
The sprawling homestead was originally developed in 1881 by brothers Charles and William London, teenage transplants from Ontario who purchased a 200-acre plot of land overlooking the Frasier River for $2,000 and transformed it into a bustling agricultural farm.
The provenance of the farmhouse that stands at its center is a bit murky. Per the official London Heritage Farm website, the residence was built by Charles and his wife, Henrietta Dalzeil, in two parts, with the northern portion constructed in 1888 and the southern wing, which now serves as the front of the structure, completed in 1898. But a video featured on the City of Richmond website asserts that while Charles initially erected a small residence on the acreage in 1888, the “large white farmhouse we know and love today” was not constructed until 1906. Whatever the case may be, London Heritage Farm is one of Richmond’s oldest and most historic places.
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Image Credit: City of Richmond Charles lived at the farmhouse until ultimately relocating to Marpole in South Vancouver in 1919, at which point his daughter, Lucy, and her husband, Herbert Howse, purchased it. The couple made the property their family home until 1948. It then went through a succession of different owners and for a time was even abandoned, taken over by squatters and badly damaged. The City of Richmond finally stepped in and acquired the site, which had been subdivided down to 4.06 acres, in 1979. Working with the London Heritage Farm Society, the locale was rehabilitated and opened to the public in 1983.
Per the City of Richmond website, the London residence, which currently operates as a museum/tea room/gift shop, “has been fully restored and furnished to illustrate rural life in Richmond between 1890 and 1920.” The surrounding acreage functions as a public park and includes a historic barn with an exhibit on large farming machinery, numerous gardens, a picnic area, a pond and a hand tool museum.
Unfortunately, the farmhouse has been closed to the public for over a year due to Covid-19 restrictions, but it is finally set to reopen on weekends from 12 to 4 p.m. starting July 3! The park remains open daily from dawn until dusk. Prior to 2020, London Heritage Farm was the site of numerous special events throughout the year including a London Family Farm Day in August and a Thanksgiving Tea in October. It was also a popular school field trip destination and filming location. Here’s hoping all normal operations will resume soon.
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Image Credit: Apple TV+ -
Image Credit: City of Richmond Of pegging London Heritage Farm to portray the Lisko family residence on “Home Before Dark,” production designer Coates told Variety that he sought out a place that felt “like it had secrets too.” The production team worked a bit of magic on the property for the shoot, adding a large garage adjacent to the home, as well as shutters and some additional foliage. All in all, though, it is very recognizable from its small-screen cameo.
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Image Credit: Apple TV+ Only the exterior of London Heritage Farm is utilized on the series. The interior of the Lisko pad is nothing more than a set constructed inside of an empty warehouse. Per Variety, “The inspiration for the design came from looking at Victorian homes with a hallway down the middle and rooms off to the side. The interiors were also designed for blocking to allow fluid movement throughout the house.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Domestic Television “Home Before Dark” is hardly the only production to make use of the farm. In fact, the site has been popular with location managers for decades! Back in 1991, it popped up as the Lacey House Bed and Breakfast, where MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) convalesces – in the “yellow daisy room” – after getting his foot caught in an animal trap in the season six episode of “MacGyver” titled “Faith, Hope & Charity.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures Studios The farmhouse plays the supposed Eureka, California dwelling of Margie (Kathy Baker) and Freddy Ross (Lance Henriksen) in the 1992 thriller “Jennifer 8.”
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Image Credit: Warner Bros. Television Studios In the season one episode of “Supernatural” titled “Route 666,” which aired in 2006, London Heritage Farm appears as the family home of Cassie Robinson (Megalyn Echikunwoke).
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Image Credit: The Hallmark Channel The site masquerades as East Hills Nursing Home, where Brian Connor (Rob Estes) meets Sarah Hargrave (Sarah Manninen), in the 2011 Hallmark movie “Edge of the Garden.”
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Image Credit: Disney-ABC Domestic Television And in 2017, it portrayed the residence of the Charmings in the season six finale of “Once Upon a Time” titled “The Final Battle: Part 2.”