The Willmore from “Rosewood”

The Grim Cheaper and I became obsessed with a myriad of new shows this year, namely Blindspot, Quantico (though I think that one may have already jumped the shark), The Family, Limitless, The Grinder (those last three have, sadly, all been cancelled), and Rosewood.  Oh, how we love Rosewood.   The police procedural perfectly mixes comedy with drama, the writing is witty and smart, and Morris Chestnut, who plays the endlessly positive and charming titular character Dr. Beaumont “Rosie” Rosewood, Jr. is perfection, as is Jaina Lee Ortiz, who portrays his fiery cynical counterpart, Det. Annalise Villa.  My favorite aspect of the show, though, is that, while set in Miami, it is lensed largely in Los Angeles.  (Beaumont’s Magic City Lab is one of the few non-L.A. locales featured on the series – it can be found at 2043 North Miami Avenue in Miami).  One location that I recently became obsessed with identifying was the gorgeous Italian Renaissance-style building used in the episode titled “Aortic Atresia and Art Installations.”  And I have the GC to thank for tracking it down.

In “Aortic Atresia and Art Installations” (try saying that one three times fast!), Rosie and Villa are led to the Willmore Hotel, said to be located at 315 Collins Avenue in Miami, via a clue left for them by a cryptic serial killer they have been chasing.  Not only was the name “Willmore” shown prominently in the killer’s clue . . .

. . . but it was also visible above the front doors when Villa and Rosie arrived on the scene.  For whatever reason, though, I was quick to assume that the name and signage were fakes.  Thank goodness for the GC because when I paused the episode to ask him where he thought the building might be located, he said, “Looks like Long Beach.  I’m guessing the name is real, too.”  Though I doubted the latter, I figured his Long Beach hunch was correct, so I did a quick Google search on my phone for “Willmore” and “Long Beach” and was shocked to see that he was right!  Not only is the Willmore a real place, but it is indeed located in the LBC!  Nicely done, GC!  I am not ashamed to admit that he completely outwitted me on this one!

Both the interior and the exterior of the Willmore were featured on Rosewood and, though shown only briefly, I was captivated by the place’s beauty.  The interior, which you can see some photographs of here, reminds me quite a bit of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A.

The Willmore was originally built in 1927 by the Stillwell Hotel Corporation.  At the time, it was operated as an upscale apartment hotel and was known as the “Stillwell.”

The 11-story structure was designed by Fisher, Lake and Traver, the same architecture firm who gave us the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Shortly after its inception, the property’s name was changed to the Willmore in honor of William Erwin Willmore, one of Long Beach’s first developers.

Today, the building, which was deemed a City of Long Beach Historic Landmark in 1986, is made up of individually-owned condominiums, like this loft-style unit which came on the market in February 2015.  Love the half-exposed brick!

Rosewood is not the only production to have made use of the site.  First Congregational Church, Long Beach, the main location featured in License to Wed, is situated across the street from the Willmore and, as such, the building was seen several times in the background of the 2007 romcom.

The Willmore’s parking lot, located on the western side of the property, was also used as the church parking lot in a scene.

The building was also where Henry (Paul Rudd) lived in Over Her Dead Body.  Ironically, way back in 2010, a fellow stalker named Virginie sent me the addresses of a couple of filming locations from the 2008 comedy, one of which was the Willmore.  I had never seen the movie and, aside from adding the sites to my To-Stalk List, did not do any further research on them, which is why I did not recognize the Willmore when it popped up on Rosewood.  It was not until I started gathering my Long Beach addresses together shortly before heading down there for a stalking expedition last week that I realized the connection.  Thank you, Virginie!

The interior of Henry’s apartment was not a real Willmore unit, but a set.

A portion of the Willmore’s bottom level houses a popular Italian restaurant named La Traviota.

It was there that Henry and Ashley (Lake Bell) dined – and discussed cats – in Over Her Dead Body.

Thanks to the book Emergency!: Behind the Scene (which was written by fellow stalker Richard Yokley), I learned that the Season 2 episode of Emergency! titled “Peace Pipe” was lensed at the Willmore.  Richard was even nice enough to provide the screen capture below.  Thank you, Richard!

And, according to Location Filming in Long Beach, Ally McBeal and Profiler also did some filming at the Willmore, but I am unsure of which episodes in particular were shot there.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Willmore, from the”Aortic Atresia and Art Installations” episode of Rosewood, is located at 315 West 3rd Street in Long Beach.

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