The Urban Outfitters from “National Treasure”

Today’s stalking venture is not only six years in the making, but a cross-country endeavor!  Way back in January 2013, as the Grim Cheaper and I were preparing to move from Pasadena to Palm Springs, I caught National Treasure on TV and immediately recognized the exterior of the Urban Outfitters in the flick as that of 139 West Colorado Boulevard, just a few blocks from where we lived at the time.  Seeking a reprieve from packing, I ran down there to see if the interior of the store had been used, as well.  Because it was an impromptu stalk, I did not bring screen captures or a clip of the scene to aid in the identification process, but what I saw when I arrived seemed to match what appeared in the film.  Being that I was in the middle of a move, the search went straight to the back of my mind as soon as I got home and did not get picked up again until I visited Philadelphia in September 2016.  During our stay in the City of Brotherly Love, I furiously researched locales from the 2004 adventure flick, largely shot in the area, and was shocked to come across a mention on Curbed LA that the Urban Outfitters from the movie was actually at 1627 Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square.  Doubting my original find from three years prior, I dragged the GC right on over there, but it was obvious upon entering that it was not the spot where Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage), Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) and Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) shopped for casual clothes mid-flick.  The Philly store, which you can see photos of here and here, has a very different feel to it than what was shown onscreen.  Somehow, upon returning home, I completely forgot about the locale yet again, though.  It was not until last month, when a fellow stalker named Wylen published a comment on my site letting me know that the Pasadena Urban Outfitters had appeared in an episode of My So-Called Life, that I was reminded of it.  So I headed right back out there, screen captures in hand this time, and am thrilled to finally be able to confirm that the Colorado Boulevard store is, indeed, the one from National Treasure.

The Pasadena outpost of Urban Outfitters is housed inside a stately two-story brick structure in the heart of Old Town that is largely referred to as the “Wood & Jones building” in honor of its former longtime tenant, Wood & Jones printing company, established in 1907.  Founders Bert Wood and Fred Jones pinpointed Pasadena as the ideal place to headquarter their business after learning that the city had the highest per capita income in the country at the time.  The duo first set up shop in a space on Union Street before moving to Colorado Boulevard in 1909.

Early images of the printery, featured in a 2010 interview Huell Howser did with Wood’s granddaughter, Hanna, for KCET, are pictured below.  And you can check out a photo of the outside of the building taken in 1936 here.  It is amazing how little of the exterior has been altered over the years.

When Jones passed away in the 1940s, the Wood family took over full operation of the business and continued to run it through 1994, at which time it was sold to longtime employee J.J. Gish.  Per the book Historic Pasadena, the Woods held on to the Old Town building, though, and continue to own it to this day – its lineage honored by the company signage that remains present on its façade.

Wood & Jones vacated the building later that same year (it is still in operation just a few miles away at 2040 East Walnut Street, though it is now known as “Typecraft”) and Urban Outfitters moved in shortly thereafter.

It has been going strong ever since.

Though the exterior of the store is shown briefly in National Treasure . . .

. . . it is on the second level that all of the action happens.

The stairs leading to the second level, which are visible at the beginning and end of the scene, actually served as my smoking gun, so to say, when it came to identifying the location.  Their general layout, railing, and the elevator door situated on the landing match that of the Pasadena store perfectly.

For the shoot, a cashier counter was set up in the southwest corner of the second floor, in the area pictured in my photograph below.

Unfortunately, I did not get great pictures of that exact spot as I thought filming had taken place a little east of where it actually did, but you can see it more clearly in the Yelp image from user Ghalya M. below.

A display wall now cuts through the area where filming occurred, separating women’s clothing from lingerie and greatly limiting the view of the large steel girder that could be seen behind the prop cashier counter in the scene.  (That girder is denoted with pink arrows in the images below.)

The wall beams visible in the far background behind the group are also now covered over with display paneling, but are still partially evident.

It is not very hard to see how the Pasadena Urban Outfitters came to be used in the film.  With all of the exposed brick and ductwork, it definitely has a Philadelphia feel, much more so, ironically, than its Rittenhouse Square counterpart, which boasts a subdued, sleek, modern aesthetic.

Per the Clothes On Film website, the Urban Outfitters segment was not an original plot element.  Author Lord Christopher Laverty explains, “Despite serving a worthwhile purpose in character development, the scene in which Abigail and Gates bond at an Urban Outfitters was actually a late addition to the script.  As the costumes had already been selected, [costume designer] Judianna Makovsky had to think of a store where the two protagonists could feasibly buy these clothes.  Urban Outfitters was within shooting distance [editor’s note – Jon Voight’s house from the film is nearby in South Pasadena] and so seemed like the logical choice.”  Interestingly, Abigail’s jacket was actually an Abercrombie & Fitch score, her sweater was designer, and her boots were from Barneys New York Co-Op, while Ben’s jacket was a Levi’s find.

I am 99.9% certain that the dressing room where Ben and Abigail changed out of their formal wear was a set, for two reasons.  A, the space just looks like a set (due to privacy reasons, rarely are double-swinging doors utilized in dressing rooms and even more rarely are they as low as the ones featured in National Treasure) and B, the dressing room at the Pasadena Urban Outfitters does not look anything like what is pictured below.

Which is a shame as I so would have loved to re-create the moment below.

As fellow stalker Wylen informed me, back in 1994, when the building still housed Wood & Jones, it served as the print shop owned by Patty Chase’s (Bess Armstrong) father, Chuck (Paul Dooley), in the Season 1 episode of My So-Called Life titled “Father Figures.”  Wylen’s dad actually worked on the premises at the time, which is how he knew of the filming.  In his comment, he stated, “I think in the episode they even named Patty'”‘”‘s dad'”‘”‘s company Wood & Jones, possibly because they may have had an establishing shot of the actual building, but that didn'”‘”‘t end up in the episode.”  Wylen is correct – the shop is referred to as “Wood & Jones” in “Father Figures.”  He is also likely right about the establishing shot.  What I did not realize until sitting down to write this post, though, is that, per IMDB, Chuck’s last name is actually “Wood ” –  obviously to match the shop’s moniker.  How fascinating that the real life signage of a building (one that never ended up being shown) not only informed the name of a company on the series, but also that of a character!  Wylen went on to say, “I remember Wood & Jones closed up shop the same year and my family helped move things out and a bunch of stuff that was in the background we ended up taking.  When I saw the episode my mom and I kept saying, ‘Hey, we have that!’”  So incredibly cool to not only have an artifact from My So-Called Life, but a piece of Pasadena history.

As I mentioned earlier, in 2010 Huell Howser filmed a brief segment for KCET in front of Urban Outfitters.  You can watch it here.

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Wylen for informing me of this location’s My So-Called Life connection! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Urban Outfitters from National Treasure is located at 139 West Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.  You can visit the store’s official website here.

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