"Dawson's Creek" (opens in new tab) is enjoying a bit of a resurgence since Netflix added all six seasons of unbridled teenage angst to its platform in November. With the Dawson-Joey-Pacey love triangle (opens in new tab), Jen Lindley's tumultuous appearance, Jack's coming-out story in TV history, and, of course, the idyllic setting of Capeside, Md.

Capeside is the setting for almost every pivotal moment in "Dawson's Creek," from first job to first love to first heartbreak and everything in between. There is clearly something special about the waters of Capeside, and it is perfectly understandable that hopeful Dawson's Creek fans would dream of moving there to find their very own Pacey Witter. Fortunately, many of Capeside's most impressive landmarks actually exist in some form. Here's everything you need to know about the Massachusetts coastal town.

It's hard to say, but the reason that some of Capeside's most iconic places aren't actually in Capeside is because Capeside doesn't exist outside of the world of early 2000s teen dramas. In other words, there is no Ice House, no Capeside High, no Joey's Wall. However, Cape Cod does exist in Massachusetts, and if you go there, you can express your inner Gran or recreate Dawson's classic crying face to perfection.

Another perfectly viable option is to go to Dawson Creek, a small town in British Columbia, Canada. Let's not call it "Dawson's Creek". According to some particularly scathing tweets from locals around the show's 20th anniversary (opens in new tab), they were less than thrilled that it was completely overshadowed by the WB show that aired around the turn of the millennium. The reasons for this are hard to imagine.

The show was filmed in the Wilmington, NC area, well down the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod. The name of the town of Wilmington and many of the locations filmed within Wilmington may be different from those that appear in Dawson's Creek, but the nostalgia is familiar enough to constitute a DIY walking tour of the show's most iconic locations There are plenty of them. For example, Dawson's beloved Rialto Theater is the historic Tarian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, and most scenes from Capeside High were actually filmed on the grounds of the University of North Carolina. You can also dine at the Ice House restaurant, which Pacey opened in the series finale. According to the city's tourism website (opens in new tab), these scenes were filmed at Elijah's Restaurant on the Wilmington Riverwalk.

While it may be disappointing to learn of Capeside's fictional status, it should help to know that the stars of "Dawson's Creek" absolutely loved filming in North Carolina, as they did in a 20th anniversary interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine. In a group interview, the cast and crew said they spent essentially all their free time doing the same things their characters do in Capeside (opens in new tab). 'We spent every weekend on a little island called Masonboro, jet skiing, water skiing, and barbecuing. We would get together as a family and have dinner. We usually went to the movies or bowling. Katie [Holmes] was good at karaoke," said Mary-Margaret Humes, who played Dawson's mother on the show. [Julie Plec, the show's writer, said, "This group was like the mayors of Wilmington. They could go into restaurants and shut down bars; it wasn't about going to clubs in L.A. or doing the Hollywood scene. It was about living in a small town, getting to know their community, and having a really good time. "

Interestingly, "Dawson's Creek" was originally planned to be set in North Carolina, where show creator Kevin Williamson grew up. But studio executives suggested moving it to Boston, Williamson told The Hollywood Reporter (open in new tab) in 2018. Williamson compromised by creating Capeside, a coastal city ostensibly in Massachusetts but looking suspiciously like North Carolina. I believe this is what we call a win-win.

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