The town of Seaside, Florida, is nowadays well known as the amazingly perfect American dream town that was the live set for the 1998 movie, The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey. What's cool is that Seaside really is amazingly perfect, as many thousands of visitors can attest, and you can still see several places in the town that you'll recognize from the film.
It's become a sport for some people, to visit Seaside and look for the iconic buildings and locations that featured in the movie, in the fictional town of Seahaven. Remember the gazebo in the center of the roundabout that Truman drives around in circles, in a moment of spontaneous goofiness? Kids (and a few grownups) still ride their bicycles around Tupelo Gazebo, as it's called, emulating that moment of giddy fun.
The Coleman Beach Pavilion is one of the most iconic sights in Seaside, even without the movie to set it in celluloid. The Pavilion, along with everything else from the time of filming, is pretty much unchanged - tree lines and general vegetation have continued to grow of course. And some of the movie's vegetation was planted by the film crew to get the look they wanted, and has since reverted.
Modica Market is a place where several scenes were shot, and it looks essentially the same today, with more goods lining the shelves but still the same ladder to reach them and still a (very slightly) older Charlie Modica working the store. Famous Truman memorabilia hangs on a wall, and If you visit Seaside, you'll likely go to the Market anyway, regardless of the film, for lunch or provisions for your vacation cottage.
Ruskin Park was changed a little for the movie, but it's hard to disguise an entire park, and you'll easily recognize it. In fact, you can always enjoy its lovely charm even if you've never heard of the Truman Show. It's always a great place to be artistic, or to sip champagne to celebrate a wedding.
What about the Post Office? It still looks the same, and it's America's most photographed post office, but it's not where it was - it moved! So now you have two games: Spot the Truman and a scavenger hunt called Find the Post Office. TIP: it didn't move far, you'll spot it. The Post Office was long planned to be relocated by the town's master plan, although dropping it 4 feet during the move was not planned (it survived the fall, and no buildings were harmed in the movie or in real life since).
Speaking of buildings, the famous Number 36, where Truman leaves his front door in the morning - and wishes neighbors that ridiculously long greeting that only Jim Carrey could get away with - is still there and still painted the same lovely pastel colors. The house used to have a sign identifying it as the Truman House, but recently it's become more discreet. You can find it on Natchez Street, although it never was Number 36.
And now that Seaside is on the map, the entire Emerald Coast is one of the hottest targets for investors seeking rental properties to purchase, as we reported recently in our roundup of why Florida is the Happening State. Well, you may not be able to buy your own cottage, but you can always rent one for a vacation - you know who to call - and maybe come and make your own personal video of Finding Truman, as so many others have done.
