Steveston Village

Steveston Village serves as one of ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland filming locations. The town of Steveston Village doubles as the backdrop for the town of Storybrooke.

History
The village is named for Manoah Steves, who arrived with his family around 1877-1878 from Moncton, New Brunswick via Chatham, Ontario. Born Manoah Steeves, a second cousin of William Henry Steeves, he dropped the second 'e' en route. Manoah and his family were the first white family to settle in the area. Steves' son William Herbert actually developed the townsite, which became Steveston in 1889. Salmon canning began on the river in 1871, with the first major cannery being the Phoenix, developed in 1882 by Marshall English and Samuel Martin by the 1890s there were 45 canneries, about half at Steveston. Salmon-canning was so much part of the life of Steveston that it was also known as Salmonopolis.

Each summer large numbers of Japanese, Chinese, First Nations, and European fishermen and cannery workers descended on the village, joining a growing year-round settlement. The fishery also supported a significant boatbuilding and shipbuilding industry. Sailing ships from around the world visited the harbor to take on cargoes of canned salmon.

The peak of civic aspirations was pre-World War I, when Steveston was promoted as Salmonopolis, a supposed rival of Vancouver, but canning activity slowly declined and finally ceased in the 1990s. Gulf of Georgia Cannery, built in 1894 and at one time the largest plant in British Columbia, was reopened as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1994, and remains open today, recently given an award for Canada's best historic site.

The post office, which is also now a museum and tourist information center, was once the location of a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, until it moved in the late 1970s to its current location across the street.

Post-war Steveston developed along with Richmond into a residential suburb for Vancouver as farmland was converted to housing. Since the 1970s the community, which remains an active fishing port, has developed its heritage character and its waterfront to attract business and tourism.

Garry Point Park is the major park in Steveston, located at the southwest tip of the community (and Lulu Island). It was named in 1827 to honor Nicholas Garry, former Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, who used that part of the land to locate the navigable entrance to the Fraser River. Garry Point was the major host for the Vancouver-area festivities of the 2002 Tall Ships Challenge.

Steveston has often been the site of filming for both films and television shows. It was used in the 2010 film adaptation of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud as a stand-in for Marblehead, Massachusetts, and the television movie A Cooler Climate as the fictional Steveston, Maine. It has been used as a location The X-Files, in the episodes "Gender Bender" as Steveston, Massachusetts, and later in "Miracle Man." It was also featured in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Nightwalkers" as Steveston, Oregon.

Trivia

 * The creators of the show wanted a town that was "stuck in time".
 * Changing Steveston into Storybrooke takes about ten hours.
 * The back of Mr. Gold's pawnshop is a filming set while the front room is an actual store on Main Street.
 * The Storybrooke Cannery featured in "Second Star to the Right" is a real life location in Steveston, known as the Gulf of Georgia Cannery.
 * Sara's Ice Cream, which has been featured in Storybrooke as a business, is a real shop that sells Once Upon a Time inspired ice cream flavors such as Once Upon a Thyme, Cinderella’s Carriage, Entirely Emma, Mr. Gold and Grumpy's Road. As of July 2014, Sara's Ice Cream has closed down.
 * Additionally, another Steveston business, Candy Dish, sells Once Upon a Time inspired sweets such as Snow White Fudge, Prince Charming Chocolate Sword and Evil Queen Apple.
 * Also located in Steveston, Juvelisto jewelry shop sells replicas of the Evil Queen's ring, which are crafted by Canadian-based designer Leanne Guthrie Johnston.