Roslyn, Washington aka Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure)

A special stop for those of us who remember the Northern Exposure TV show, which ran from 1990 to 1995 (yes, it was really that long ago...) The series was based in Cicely, Alaska but shot in the small Washington town of Roslyn. Each show started with a shot of this mural, which was modified to read "Roslyn's Cafe".

Ahh, the Brick -- you kind of expect to see Holling behind the bar and Shelly waiting on tables. We found out that the inside of the Brick was never used on the TV show. The story goes that CBS was only paying $100/day compensation to use the inside of buildings. At that time the real Brick was making about a $1000/day serving meals and libations. They weren't about to trade $1,000 for $100 so a sound stage was built in Redmond, Washington to recreate the interior of the Brick. Many of the old buildings had "squeaky floors" and were unusable for production, so many other sound stages were also built for various interior sequences. We were told that only shots that looked out through the windows and showed the town were filmed from inside the real buildings.
Yes, below is the original "Dr. Joel Fleischman" sign from the TV series. The owner of the store made an agreement with CBS that when the filming of the series was over, she would retain ownership of the window with the sign. The windows have since been replaced with new double-pane glass but the piece of the original window with the name has been preserved and is proudly displayed in its original location.
Roslyn is still a draw for Northern Exposure fans and Dr. Fleischman's office is now a gift shop (surprised?). If you look closely you can see Marilyn's desk beneath piles of t-shirts in the picture below.
If it has to do with Northern Exposure, they probably have it here. The gentleman behind the desk was a huge Northern Exposure fan and decided to move here about 9 years ago. He seems to have every episode memorized (there is a TV showing episodes of the series in the back of the store). He was a wealth of information about the town and provided us with a lot of background and a map showing where various houses were (Maggie's, Marilyn's, Ruth Ann's, Maurice's, etc.) and which locations were used in the filming (Ruth Ann's store, churches, lots, etc)
Except for the new furnishings, the walls were all left as they were in the show, sagging wall paper, faded paint and all.

Joel's office still looks the same from the outside.As does the main street, which looks much as it did in the 90's. The population today is less than 700. (In the TV show the population was stated as 850.)
This is Maggie's first house - the one that burnt down in the TV show. (They built a replica of this house in the vacant lot next door and burnt the replica down.)
Minnifield Communications, the home of "Chris in the Morning".
Still nicely preserved inside...
A large autographed print of the cast adorns the wall of the restaurant where we had lunch.

There is still an active Northern Exposure Fan Club and they have annual Fan Festivals in July of each year. For more information visit www.moosefest.org.